Nissan will begin the search for an American star to join its new LM P1 Le Mans 24 Hour and FIA World Endurance Championship team, giving a former gamer the opportunity to graduate to the highest levels of the sport.
During the past six years, GT Academy has had more than five million entrants via PlayStation, more than one billion virtual miles have been driven in Nissans on Gran Turismo, and the programme’s television packages have been seen by more than 120 million people across the globe.
Former US GT Academy winners Bryan Heitkotter (2011), Steve Doherty (2012) and Nick McMillen (2013) plus a number of other past American finalists will be given the chance to impress the new Nissan LM P1 team’s bosses.
The goal for Nissan’s LM P1 team was revealed at Circuit of The Americas at the US round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and follows yesterday’s celebration of NISMO’s 30th anniversary.
Nissan’s new LM P1 team will have a base in the US, taking advantage of track facilities in the warmer southern states climate to test its new machine which will do battle against Audi, Porsche and Toyota from next year.
The team is currently setting up its new US home, refurbishing the former Indianapolis headquarters of Champ Car team, Forsythe Racing.
“All the US winners of GT Academy have gone on to taste victory in major professional events around the world,” said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO.
“But we have also been blessed with some other amazing talents in every year of the competition – an embarrassment of riches really. Some of the guys who didn’t win have gone on to launch motorsport careers after using GT Academy as a kickstart.
“We have our eye on some additional drivers that we would like to put through their paces again and see if we have somebody who could have what it takes to drive for Nissan in LM P1 at Le Mans.”
Nissan today also announced that it will be the sole engine supplier for the new LM P3 class that will contest the European Le Mans Series from next year.
“Once we identify the most suitable GT Academy alumni, we will put him through an extensive program with the aim of putting them in an LM P3 car. LM P2 would be the next step at Le Mans – we’ll use every driver development tool we have to take them to the next level but they will also have to step up,” Cox said.
“It is going to take more than just talent to get them into an LM P1 car but the opportunity will be there if they are prepared to work for it.
“Getting experience in prototype machinery will be a critical component of the development process. We already have a number of past GT Academy winners from Europe who we are looking at for the LM P1 program – many of whom have already raced in LM P2.”
The Nissan LM P1 team is very different. On the technical side the squad has many nationalities – Americans, Brits, Frenchmen, Brazilians and of course a large component of Japanese talent and experience.
The team will have a European base as well as operating from NISMO’s headquarters in Japan and a new home here in the US in Indianapolis. Nissan’s team chiefs are keen to see an American driver on the grid here at Circuit of The Americas in the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO in 2016.
Heitkotter and Doherty will compete this weekend at Circuit of The Americas in the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge as teammates at Skullcandy Team Nissan aboard a Nissan Altima 3.5.
The 2013 American winner McMillen will race for Nissan GT Academy Team RJN at the Nurburgring round of the Blancpain Endurance Championship this weekend as well.
Photo by John Dagys.
See more articles on Bryan Heitkotter, Nick McMillen, Nissan, and Steve Doherty.
I have to question if any of these drivers have done enough to qualify for the Gold or Platinum rating from the ACO that they would need to race in LMP1.
Hmm, interesting point. I think at least two GT Academy winners are/have been classed as gold already. What’s the requirement to get the gold rating? IIRC having a super-license grants you platinum automatically.
I’m quite excited about the GT Academy passage. Why I’m actually putting a comment here is to say how disappointed I am in version 1.12. For 10 guys it was maybe an exited updated, but for 1.2 million guys it was not!! I still have no tyre, and fuel depletion, I have no B-Spec, no course maker, and still not 16 cars in arcade mode, we’re I’m able to make up my own endurance with the choice of my own class selection. We are getting nearby December and in a years time I had no pleasure at all, because we keep getting these useless things which you can’t use. Can I still be exited and wait for an update that will contain these features I’m asking for, or must I give up hope and wait for GT7 Mr. Kaz?? I’m not happy at all. We see all kinds of realistic motor sport news and racing on tv, but to ask for that in gt6 is simply to much asked, and it seems impossible when you have no tyre and fuel depletion. I put this on here for the people to read, not everyone is happy, well in this case I’m not happy. Don’t know what to expect from the next download. Jaco
I hope they get the job, I feel like the two of them haven’t gotten the recognition of some of the other Academy winners yet…
Sean Johnston springs to mind when they say GT Academy North America “alumni”. Be cool if they open this opportunity up to other regions as well since it’s a nice incentive for all Silverstone finalists to keep on chasing the dream!
Talk about burying the lead. There’s going to be a top LMP1 team based in the USA! This is awesome news. Along with the Haas F1 team this means hundreds of new Motorsport related jobs.
Now, NISMO, start a GT6 tuning challenge and use it to recruit insanely devoted gamers for your technical departments. B Spec tuning challenges for the next GT Academy! Not only could it be a recruiting tool, it would be great PR: NISMO partners with GranTurismo getting students worldwide interested in STEM.
Great from a marketing perspective, but perhaps not so great from a racing perspective. There are a lot of proven drivers out there more than capable of a P1 seat (Jean-Eric Vergne, Sam Bird springs to mind) but they’d rather go with some unknown American?
Nissan have to take care of their investment. If they can get a skilled driver from the GT Academy alumni then that seals the deal.
Re: racing perspective – This is all you need to read if you had doubts about that topic: http://www.gtplanet.net/nissan-looks-to-u-s-gt-academy-alumni-for-lmp1-drivers-in-2015/#comment-189034
I don’t know how I feel about this. On one hand, it’s will be great to finally get an American in an LMP1 car. On the other hand, why are you pulling from GT Academy? I wouldn’t pull any of these guys up to Le Mans, none of them have near enough experience. If you submitted any of these guys resumes to a factory LMP1 team it would be immediately thrown away. I mean Nick McMillen has only ever ran 4 races in his entire career. Bryan Heitkotter and Steve Doherty have only raced in the Pirelli World Challenge and Contonental Tire Series, and Bryan has never even won a race. And you’re going to pull one of these guys to race Le Mans? That’s a joke.
IIRC Heitkotter and Doherty have tested/raced an LMPC car in the US. Will it have to take a GT Academy driver winning a pinnacle motor-race or championship to stop all the doubters from doubting? Ordonez has already won the WEC LMP2 championship in 2011; Mardenborough is winning in GP3 this year and the GT Academy car in Le Mans was leading its class until the Oak LMP2 hit engine trouble in the last couple of hours. Beyond that their current crop of drivers have undergone a hefty driver development program at the UK which includes testing Radical SR3s which is very comparable to an entry level Le Mans prototype. Yes picking up GT Academy drivers who have had very little relative experience compared to drivers with deep pockets can be described as a joke :/
Maybe you missed when I went from 11th to 3rd in FIA GT last year? I was following Loeb and his second team car for the first 30 minutes until driver change.
I’m not even saying these aren’t 3 good drivers, they are, I’m not debating that. But for LMP1? No, at least not now. The breeding grounds for top level LMP1 factory hasn’t even been the Blancpain, even for teams like Porsche and Audi who have the option. DTM/GT500 is one breeding ground, open wheel is the other. For years and years now this is where new competitive drivers are developed. Audi has only just started evaluating Rene Rast, who many obviously consider the fast man for Audi in GT, for a prototype ride when they loaned him out to an LMP2 team for Le Mans this year. Point being, even the fastest most experienced GT drivers aren’t drafted because GT3 is not an LMP1 breeding ground. Nor is the Continental Series, nor is Pirelli World Challenge.
Hartley, Red Bull development in F3/Formula Renault to LMP2 to LMP1. Di Grassi, Formula 1. Albuquerque, Rockenfeller, Fassler, all pulled from DTM. Nakujima, F1, Super GT and Formula Nippon. Treluyer, Super GT and Formula Nippon. Lotterer, Formula Nippon, Super GT, and was Jaguars test driver in F1. Buemi, pulled from Formula 1. See what I’m saying? There are a lot of drivers with Pirreli Challenge, Continental Series, and/or some GT3 experience, and nobody ever this raw. Le Mans is the most dangerous race in the world, along with Indy. This race isn’t a joke and that’s why factory LMP1 is anything but amateur driver development. If it works I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong, but these resumes certainly are nowhere close to LMP1 ready.
Should clarify in that last paragraph when I said “nobody ever this raw” I meant to add “is pulled for LMP1.”
Just wanted to make you aware that LMP2 cornering performance is very close to LMP1. Also wanted to make you aware that Mark Shulzitsky (Russian winner) hasn’t raced open wheel or prototypes prior to running first in the LMP2 class at Le Mans (before the car had problems). The last point is in the article itself. Nissan will have involvement in LMP1, LMP2 and LMP3. This means that they can pluck any of their GT Academy winners and decide which prototype series they want to put them in. The article even says that alumni will test a P3, race a P2 and if they do well enough race in P1. Point is “leave them alone, they know what they’re doing” ;).
And what factory drivers/teams are you racing against in LMP2? That’s not where the big dogs are playing, the competion level isn’t the same. Does spending a period of time in LMP2 first help? Yes, that’s how you develop drivers. But what’s happening here is that your trying to put a driver with subpar credentials through the rigger in 6 months or less abd expecting to have a driver who’s gonna be competitive against the big dogs. Will they be able to drive the car? Sure. Will they have the pace of the others and be as good negotiating traffic? Probably not. Yes Nissan knows what they’re doing, but is what they’re doing with the interest of winning or marketing? If you want to win with an American driver you would pluck a guy like Ryan Hunter-Reay to come run Le Mans.
They never specified any time frames for when a North American GT Academy driver will possibly be placed in their LMP1 race team. Realistically the only ones who are in the running for those 9 seats are Ordonez, Mardenborough and possibly Shulzitsky/Reip.
I’m sure that if any top flight American driver had affiliations with Nissan they’d be in the running (such as the drivers from the Muscle Milk ALMS race team). What Nissan won’t do is devalue their investment by having a driver development program like GT Academy and NOT utilize the talent they find from there by hiring a non-Nissan driver.
Money talks in racing and when you’ve built an expensive ecosystem that supports your brand in more ways than one it would be wise to take care of it which is what Nissan seems to be doing.
See well it’s different if they’re not going to do it next year and actually take the time to develop somebody AND not going into it expecting one of them will be chosen. There’s nothing wrong with putting GT Academy guys in, I fully expect Ordonez and Mardenbourgh to get put in seats for Le Mans and possobly other WEC races. But there is your GT Academy guys right there, you don’t need an American next year and you definitely don’t need one just for the same of having one or developing the program. GT Academy needs to serve to create drivers and giving them the opertunity, but you don’t need to put them on the top wrung just as fillers.
Nissan should get Olivier Pla first off, Sam Bird should be a choice too. Maybe Ryan Dalziel, I for sure see them taking Vergne if he has no F1 deal. Harry Ticknell if you can some how get him from Audi (he’s McNich’s prodeje). But if you want an American driver next year you want to ink an IndyCar guy like RHR or Marco Andretti, not a GT Academy guy.
Joke? The real joke is the one who is jealous spending time trashing others who had a good result. I bet you can’t be as great as them
I talked with Bryan today at COTA. He is a really cool guy! I’m having a great time at Circuit of the Americas! I can’t wait for the WEC race now! Qualifying was a blast.
Am I the only one who thinks they could do really well at the Academy driving real cars but I suck to much at video games to ever get the chance to prove it?
I agree with you. Real life is a whole different deal and you might be an exceptional driver, but suck at the videogame. These guys haven’t proved that they are great drivers in real life because they beat a stupid videogame contest; they have proved that most people that have average knowledge and common sense about cars and the physics involved could do it.
I hate GTAcademy with all my heart, but there is one positive thing about it: It has opened a new world of opportunities for those car people who weren’t lucky to be born in a wealthy family that could sponsor their racing career since young, like the elitist racing world has usually been all this time.
^^^ both of these ^^^
I wish we could “Like” comments in here.
My problem is how the fastest laps on the time trials are always so hectic and sloppy-looking. I can’t get over the habit of driving like it’s a real car that I have to take care of and bring back in one piece. I never liked the whole sliding into corners on the bleeding edge and smoking every tire throughout the lap. It just doesn’t emulate real life in my opinion and I just get frustrated in an OCPD-kind’a way.
Well, it’s clearly working.
Edit- too, not to. Grrrr autocorrect.
I’m not bitter. I wish them all the success possible. Anything positive that comes from GTAcademy can only help the series.
It’s all about adaptation.
There are plenty of pro drivers that have adapted to sims, so what’s your point? In iRacing I’d often find myself racing with people like Mike Skeen, Eric Foss, Shane Van Gisbergen, etc. Just because you’re too slow to make the cut is a childish reason to ‘hate’ GT Academy. Put the work in to get fast in game if you think your talent amounts to enough to go to race camp and win GT Academy. Otherwise, quit griping. I promise you none of the winners are scrubs. Bryan qualified 5th for yesterdays race in a field deep with talent and took some pole positions when he was in the Doran Z. Steve has a couple of wins in Pirelli WC and has also qualified well in CTSCC.
I’m sick of these jealous losers had nothing better to do then they start to trash talk at people who actually has talent and success
I’m not alumni, pick me!!