Lucas Ordonez

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.

After 24 hours of all-weather driving and some unbelievable twists and turns, Team GT Academy safely brought home their #123 Nissan GT-R first in their SP8T class and 30th overall.

As reported yesterday, the 40th Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway at 16:00 CEST (14:00 GMT) today, with the Team GT Academy car 47th on the 171-car grid – and first in the SP8T class.

12 months after he scored a class victory for Schulze motorsport, Gran Turismo founder Kazunori Yamauchi returns to the Nürburgring 24hr race but this time he has another famous Gran Turismo name accompanying him.

GT Academy’s 2010 champion Jordan Tresson gets a second chance at an LMP2 debut this afternoon as the Signatech Nissan team take to the track for the WEC Spa 6 Hours.

Announced this morning via Twitter, Lucas Ordoñez will shortly find himself driving a Nissan GT-R at the punishing Nürburgring 24 Hour race.

After relatively successful pre-race preparations for the GT Academy graduates, their relative fortunes took a turn for the worse come race day.

Following Jordan Tresson’s disappointing season-opener in the Sebring 12 Hour race two weeks ago, two more GT Academy graduates are involved in their own race series debuts this weekend.

Nissan Europe has today issued a press release detailing the campaigns their three GT Academy graduates will be driving in the 2012 season.

After 24 hours contending with the heat, dark and fireworks of Dubai, the all-GT Academy team of Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson, Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough managed to bring their RJN Motorsport Nissan 370Z home in a creditable 3rd place in class and 26th overall:

All fans of driving games should be aware of this by now, but today marks the start of a most unique race. A seat in the Dubai 24 Hours has been the ultimate prize in all GT Academy events to date but today, for the first time, the car is driven exclusively by GT Academy alumni – with 2011 winners Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough joining Jordan Tresson and Lucas Ordoñez behind the wheel of the RJN Motorsports Nissan 370Z.

With the 2012 Dubai 24 hour race fast approaching on 12-14th January, Nissan have published a “GT Academy: Road to Dubai” video serial that’s been broadcast on EuroSport since last September.

In addition to the all-GT Academy team campaigning in the Dubai 24hrs this month, Signatech Nissan team boss Philippe Sinault has announced his intended driver line-up for the 2012 World Endurance Championship:

Nissan and PlayStation are aiming to demonstrate the success of their  GT Academy programme with a ground-breaking driver line-up at the prestigious Dubai 24 Hours (January 12-14, 2012). All four winners of the innovative virtual-to-reality competition will tackle the demanding endurance race as a team sharing the wheel of a 410bhp Nissan 370Z.

To put the finishing touch on an already incredible year, SPEED.com has announced original GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez as the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup “Rookie of the Year”.

An extremely valuable piece of Gran Turismo memorabilia has gone up for auction on eBay: Lucas Ordoñez’s red couch. As of writing, bids for the stylish red sofa are already well over £400, and the auction doesn’t end until Monday!

In addition to being granted full access to GT Academy 2011 winners Jann Mardenborough and Bryan Heitkotter, GTPlanet also had the pleasure of interviewing RJN Motorsport team principal Bob Neville on the team’s prospects for the Dubai 24 Hour race, the development of this year’s winners and the GT Academy programme as a whole.

GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez and his Signatech Nissan team may have clinched the ILMC LMP2 championship last month at Road Atlanta, but a class victory has remained just out of reach the entire season – until now!

The Signatech Nissan team has won the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP2 title after a strong finish in yesterday’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, USA.  The team started the season focused on a single goal: to win the title.  The fact that it is ‘mission accomplished’ with one more race remaining is testament to the work that has been put in by every single member of the team.