2010 Nissan GT Academy Winners Make Racing Debut

The two winners of this year’s GT Academy, Italian Luca Lorenzini and Frenchman Jordan Tresson, raced for real for the first time at Snetterton the past weekend. They were racing on road tires in standard 370Z cars, but were up against sports cars such as Radicals and Ginettas.

The race was the first one in a series of national races in order to qualify for an international licence in time for the start of the European GT4 Cup. Only one driver will be selected to race the full season in a race-prepared, 400 bhp Nissan 370Z GT car.

“I am happy with a good solid start,” PlayStation Nissan team boss Bob Neville said in a release. “This was about getting used to being on a track with lots of other cars around. The fact that most of the cars were a much faster class than ours and were on slick tyres was probably quite useful in terms of making Luca and Jordan very aware of what was going on around them and adjusting lines to let people past safely.”

Luca and Jordan will be back on-track on 27 and 28 March at Pembrey circuit, where they will compete in a round of the Welsh Sports and Saloons Championship.

“I really enjoyed the race,” said Tresson. “We didn’t go as fast as I would have liked, but our goal was to stay on track and not take risks. We finished in good places and got two signatures. I’ve been enjoying the training this week, we’ve been in the gym every day. Our next big race is at Pembrey and I’m looking forward to it as we get more time on the track.”

“It was a nice weekend,” added Lorenzini. “The car felt great, it was prepared well, there were no mistakes out on the track. I had so much fun at this event I can’t wait to race again.”