EUROPEAN winner of the 2011 Nissan PlayStation GT Academy, Jann Mardenborough, and his American counterpart Bryan Heitkotter, have completed the final race of their intensive five-month ‘Driver Development Programme’.
The pair competed in the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship race at Brands Hatch, and recorded a notable first-in-class finish (fifth place overall) in their RJN Motorsport run Nissan 370Z GT4 race car.
The result moves them ever closer to achieving their main goal of competing in the Dubai International 24 Hour race in January, 2012.
Driving against a strong field, the Gran Turismo 5-gamers-turned-Nissan-racing-drivers qualified second-in-class, in 14th position overall.
The team got off to a great start with Heitkotter courageously fighting his way through the field, climbing eight places in the first one-hour session.
Mardenborough responded by delivering a faultless display, putting in fast, consistent lap times throughout his session. Before the driver changeover, Mardenborough had climbed three places to take the Nissan 370Z to third place overall. Heitkotter took the wheel again and settled back into a good rhythm to record a first-in-class, fifth place overall finish for the GT Academy team.
Mardenborough said: ‘It was a useful opportunity to develop my technique of using visual reference points in the dark to navigate around the circuit. It’s proved a valuable lesson, which I can now take to Dubai. I can’t believe how quickly the last five months have gone during my driver development programme. I loved every minute of it. I can take a lot of confidence from today’s result and I’m massively looking forward to Dubai.’
‘One hundred percent mission accomplished,’ said RJN Motorsport team boss Bob Neville. ‘We were a little bit unlucky at one point, because the safety car picked us up instead of the leader, which cost us a place.
‘Nevertheless, both drivers drove brilliantly in the dark and it’s been a faultless performance by the pair. We can now start looking forward to Dubai. Jann and Bryan will be arriving in tip top condition and they could not be in a better position to take on such a competitive race.’