Nissan's Gamers-Turned-Racers to Compete at the Home of GT Academy

SILVERSTONE, UK – The Blancpain Endurance Series rolls into Silverstone this weekend for the British round of the 2013 series. After a competitive showing at the season-opener at Monza in April, Nissan GT Academy Team RJN is out to break into the podium positions at Silverstone.

NISMO Athletes Mark Shulzhitskiy, Wolfgang Reip and Steve Doherty (all of them graduated from GT Academy at Silverstone last year) will race the No.32 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.  On the other side of the garage, Alex Buncombe, Lucas Ordonez and another 2012 graduate, Peter Pyzera, will race the No.35 YouTube-liveried GT-R.

Alex Buncombe did a great job of demonstrating the pace of the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 when he hunted down the race-leading McLaren at Monza and took the lead.  The win sadly slipped out of the grasp of the No.35 crew at Monza but this has only left them more determined for a top result this weekend.

Since the Monza race the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s have been on track at the Zolder round of the FIA GT Championship and the drivers have had some extra time in another GT-R, testing for NISMO at Portimao.

With a full 60-car entry at Silverstone, the competition is going to be just as intense as it was at Monza. Some cars have had performance breaks since race one, so Silverstone could see a shuffling of the pack. Whatever the race brings, it promises to be a top weekend of GT action.

The Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars will first head out on track at 09:00hrs local time on Saturday morning. After a practice day, qualifying takes place on Sunday at 09:00hrs, and the three-hour race gets underway that afternoon at 14:50hrs.  Live streaming and timing will be available at http://www.blancpain-endurance-series.com.

WHO IS THE FASTEST?
Some of the NISMO Athletes had the opportunity for a little refresher at Silverstone recently when they attended the celebration of 15 years of Gran Turismo.  The Silverstone Circuit features on the yet-to-be-released Gran Turismo 6 and Lucas, Wolfgang, Peter, Jann and Steve, were quick to try out the game preview.

The NISMO Athletes couldn't stay in gaming mode all day though, so after a three-lap race on the game pods to set the grid position they headed out to the pit lane to jump in five GT Academy Nissan 370Zs for the virtual-to-reality Champions Race on Silverstone's south circuit.

2013 BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE SERIES CALENDAR

June 2: Silverstone, UK
June 30: Paul Ricard, France
July 27: Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 22: Nürburgring, Germany

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