24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours endurance festival is only hours away from starting. This weekend a total of 60 entrants will try to reach the podium in one of the most gruelling motorsport events known to man. Needless to say, we won’t know the outcome until the very last second.

With 322 race starts to his name, Rubens Barrichello handily owns the title of most experienced Formula One driver. Despite never winning the driver’s championship, the Brazilian did finish second in points in 2002 and 2004 as Michael Schumacher’s teammate at Ferrari, and more recently third in 2009 during Brawn GP’s whirlwind single-season campaign.

With both grief and tears, supporters of the largest Japanese car manufacturer will remember this last weekend at the prestigious Le Mans festival. Toyota lost the race which was seemingly destined to be a sure victory, the first one for the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ after a long 25 years of hovering around the podium’s top spot.

Hotel rooms are booked up, restaurant reservations are all filled, and traffic jams are occurring outside of rush hour. While this would be business as usual in any city with a healthy tourism industry, in the French city of Le Mans it can only mean one thing: it is June and another 24-hour endurance event is about to kick off, bringing a massive influx of foreigners to support the most prestigious motorsport race in the world.

It’s time for one of the biggest races in the 2015 GTPlanet Endurance Series’ calendar: the 24 Hours of Le Mans! The race kicks off today (June 27) at 13:00 GMT/UTC (click here to convert this to your local time), and will be live-streamed right here via GTPlanet’s YouTube channel.

Nissan’s much-anticipated Le Mans challenger, the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, made its race debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend. Such is the scale of the challenge to enter the top endurance class, Nissan set a target of getting one of it’s three cars to the finish of the 24-hour race.

Nissan is doing pretty much everything outside-the-box for their assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year: they’re competing with a front-engined, front-wheel-drive LMP1 car (with wider tires in the front than the back, no less) that’s going to be piloted by two drivers who began their racing careers in Gran Turismo, Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordoñez.

GP3 race winner Jann Mardenborough was revealed as one of the drivers of Nissan’s LM P1 racing car at the Chicago Motor Show today. At the same time in Yokohama, Japan, it was announced that fellow GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordoñez, had also been selected to race the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, along with NISMO racer Michael Krumm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gx_E23VpQQ

This weekend GTPlanet hosts its second 24 hour endurance race in GT6 of the year, the 24 Heures du Mans.

Wolfgang Reip steps into the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time, in one of the most non-typical debuts yet seen for the world famous race – in the hybrid electric Nissan ZEOD RC. Nissan is entering the car in the “Garage 56” category, which is a special entry slot by Le Mans organizers reserved for experimental or innovative racing concepts. He’ll share driving duties with team mate and colleague Lucas Ordoñez, who will be contesting his fourth straight Le Mans.

Le Mans 2013 got off to a tragic start, as Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen was killed in an accident on the Tetre Rouge corner shortly after the start of the race. The thoughts and prayers of the GTPlanet community are with his family as we all mourn the loss of a very talented racing driver.

Nissan and GT Academy are making a big splash at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, with both Lucas Ordonez and Jann Mardenborough driving together in Greaves Motorsport’s LMP2 car. (We’ll have a post up tomorrow with links to all of the live coverage feeds you need to follow the race this weekend – stay tuned.)

Last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours was spiced up for fans of Gran Turismo with two GT Academy winners in two cars going head-to-head, as Lucas Ordoñez drove the #42 Greaves entry with the father-son Brundle duo and Jordan Tresson was aboard the #23 Signatech entry with Franck Mailleux and Oliver Lombard.

Nissan power took nine of the top 10 positions at the Le Mans 24 Hours today, rounding off an incredible week for Nissan at the world’s best endurance race. Former Le Mans winner Martin Brundle made good his return when he came home in eighth place in class with his son Alex and GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez.  The second GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson made his Le Mans debut, impressing the Signatech Nissan team with his professionalism as he powered to ninth place alongside Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is finally here! This year’s race features not one but two drivers competing thanks to the Gran Turismo video game series.

Following up on their “Road to Dubai” series, which covered the development of all four GT Academy graduates as they worked towards this year’s Dubai 24 Hours, the Eurosport television network has now turned their attention to Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson’s preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8BVV602Oc

As you’ve probably heard by now, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez and his teammates Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari drove an incredible race at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite two unfortunate tire punctures, they pushed their Signatech Oreca Nissan back up through the field of LMP2 cars – all the way to a second place class finish in the world’s toughest endurance race.