Nissan’s GT Academy competition is truly unique. Gamers who are the best at driving cars in the virtual world are brought out to tracks around the world to compete behind the wheel of real Nissan racecars for a place on a race team. Nissan believes in the drivers it finds through the program so much that it is getting ready to field a team in the Dubai 24 Hour endurance race that is made up entirely of GT Academy drivers.
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To be fair, many past GT Academy winners have been very successful on the racetrack. Jann Mardenborough of the United Kingdom, who will be joining the Dubai team, has won races in the GT300 class in Super GT racing and brought home second place in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship.
The team training to take to the Dubai course in January is a quartet comprised of Mardenborough, France’s Romain Sarazin, Ricardo Sanchez of Mexico, and the most recent GT Academy winner, Mexico’s Johnny Guindi. This race will be Guindi’s international race debut. Since winning GT Academy last month, Guindi has had no time to relax. Nissan has been putting him through intense training to make sure he is really ready for a race with professional drivers. This includes entering him in some races with the Nissan 370Z Group N car at the famed Silverstone, Brands Hatch, and Snetterton race tracks.
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We’ll keep an eye on this unique race team. If you want to spend 24 hours watching a race for yourself, 24 Hours of Dubi runs from January 13-14, 2017.
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