GT ACADEMY winner Lucas Ordonez is going to see all of his dreams come true when he competes at Le Mans in the Signatech Nissan LMP2 car, this weekend.
‘Le Mans has been my dream since I was ten-years-old,’ said Ordonez. ‘It is the most important race in the world and a very important event for my family. My father has all the yearbooks, which I used to read as a kid, never thinking I would one day be part of it. Even after winning GT Academy I never expected to get this far and I don’t think I’m really going to believe it until it happens.
‘The Test Day was an amazing experience for me; on my first lap is started to rain so it was pretty scary along the Mulsanne. After that though I enjoyed the moment, going through all those legendary corners and I can’t wait to go back there for the race.’
Nissan has created a rich history at Le Mans since its first attempt at the world-famous race in 1986 where the company entered two of its R85V prototypes.
Throughout the 80s and 90s Nissan entered a host of GT and prototypes in the 24-hour race – from the R90CK which took pole position in 1990 to the R390 GT1 that finished third overall in 1998 and finally the R391 in 1999.
Now after an eleven-year absence Nissan is back.
The Japanese manufacturer is supplying the Nissan VK45DE V8 engines to three LMP2 teams in the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours: partner team Signatech Nissan, Greaves Motorsport and Team Oreca Matmut.