Lucas Ordonez

GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez has seen an incredible amount of success on both real and virtual race tracks. After coming out on top at the GT Academy Finals and scoring a drive in the 24 Hours of Dubai, Lucas has completed his first race season with seriously impressive results. Needless to say, he’s living the dream that lives inside every GT fan, and now it’s our chance to ask him anything you want! GTPlanet member 130tc is going to sit down for an interview Lucas tomorrow (October 12th), and he’s opened the floor to the entire community. Head on over to his forum thread or leave your questions in the comments below. Watch for the full interview featuring your questions very soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE3VAt07ie4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQm-6zNOEJE

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is something that’s almost too good to be true – it’s the world’s largest gathering of the mostexotic, rare, and desirable cars you can imagine, and it takes place every summer in the beautiful English countryside.  Of course, it always attracts some of the biggest stars from motorsports, but Kazunori Yamauchi, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, and the Citroen GT made this year’s show all the more special for GTPlanet members in attendance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h8GPApp1Cg

Congratulations to GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez!  After competing in the 24 Hours of Dubai, the gamer-turned-racer is back in action for the first race of the GT4 European Cup at Silverstone, where he and teammate Alex Buncombe scored a podium finish in their RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z.

Richard Meaden, professional racer and writer for the (awesome) online publication Drivers Republic, was a witness to history last month when he drove alongside GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez in the 24 Hours of Dubai.  Meaden eloquently describes the experience of the 24 hour event from a personal, honest point of view in his latest article, and it’s a fascinating read.  He covers the race build-up, paddock drama, trials and tribulations of endurance racing, and complements Ordóñez for his calm head and steady driving.

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In an awesome demonstration of ‘virtual’ driving skills in the real world, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez successfully competed in the 24 Hours of Dubai!  With highly experienced teammates like former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, Alex Buncombe, and Rob Barff, the pressure was on Lucas to keep the lap times low and the car on the track.  He managed to do just that, and despite a mechanical setback, helped the Nissan team finish 9th in their class 451 laps and over a distance of 2431km.

Djie of granturismo5.nl managed to dig up a Dutch press release by SCEE which explains the GT Academy Finals competition in great detail, describing the drama of the final day of competition which ultimately left Lucas Ordoñez and Lars Schlommer in the winner’s circle.  New photos from the event were also released today, showing the Gran Turismo livery on a pair of new Nissan GT-Rs and Silverstone’s own open-wheeled formula car.  The competitors themselves have joined the discussion in our forums, and I would like to personally welcome each of them to our growing community! Now, for the rest of us, here’s an interesting read of how it all went down in the last day of competition:

Many GTPlanet members made it into the GT Academy’s final rounds, and we have anxiously awaited to hear the results from Silverstone.  Today, thanks to a heads-up by our own dark_ruffo, we can confirm the two winners are Lucas Ordoñez of Spain and Lars Schlommer of Germany.  These two lucky and highly skilled drivers will now continue their training for the 24 Hours of Dubai race in January of 2009.  Congratulations to both of you!  If you’re reading, please stop by our forums and make yourself known!  Of course, even those who won’t be driving in Dubai had an amazing experience, as reports have begun trickling onto our message boards as all the competitors arrive home.  Grandi, of Finland, has been posting details and fielding questions about the experience.  The drivers were pushed to their limits, with tests ranging from physical exams and karting endurance races to piloting a 350Z, Caterham 7, R35 Nissan GT-R, and open-wheeled formula car in nasty weather conditions around the famous British circuit.