Lucas Ordoñez will contest the full 2010 European GT4 Cup in a Nissan 370Z GT4 car.
The Spanish driver, who turns 25 today, was the winner of PlayStation® and Nissan’s first GT Academy competition in 2008.
He went on to drive in the Dubai International 24 Hour Race alongside Johnny Herbert as his prize, with his impressive performance earning him a full season’s drive in the 2009 European GT4 Cup. Racing alongside experienced British driver Alex Buncombe, the pair finished a close second in the drivers’ championship but managed to secure the teams’ title for the PlayStation Nissan Team, run by RJN Motorsport.
Since the end of the 2009 season, the MBA graduate has been busy as a race instructor and attended the five-day international final event of GT Academy 2010 at Silverstone in February. Today (Friday) he lined up again at Silverstone to practice for the start of the European GT4 Cup series. For the opening race, Lucas will be back in the 2009 350Z car he shared with Buncombe while RJN Motorsport complete the build of his 2010 370Z GT4 car. He will, however, run in the distinctive new yellow livery of the PlayStation Nissan Team. Another difference is that Lucas will drive on his own in 2010, while Buncombe partners this year’s winner of GT Academy, 21-year-old Frenchman Jordan Tresson in a yellow 370Z. “I am very excited to be racing again,” said Ordoñez, who tested on Silverstone’s new Grand Prix circuit last Wednesday.
“It has been very, very tough to put the budget together and so I have to thank PlayStation Spain and Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital for making this possible and Nissan for their continued belief in me. Having finished second last year, Yamauchi-san has put a lot of faith in me and believes that I can win more races in my second year as a professional driver. We certainly have a great team and so there is no reason why I can’t be challenging for podiums from the opening race at Silverstone.
“Of course, this year will be a bit different as I will no longer have Alex to help me and so I’ll have to work alone to find the right set up and limits of the car. It will also be tougher physically to drive the full race, but I have been very busy training throughout the winter. Now I can’t wait to race again and I am excited about watching how Jordan and Alex get on. I hope I can help Jordan in the same way that everybody was so good to me last year.” Legendary creator of the Gran Turismo series of race simulation games and President of Polyphony Digital, Kazunori Yamauchi was keen for Lucas to be given another season to fulfil his racing ambitions.
“Watching how Lucas progressed from Gran Turismo to become a real racing driver via the first GT Academy was immensely satisfying for me,” he said. “It was one of my dreams when I first came up with the concept of Gran Turismo. I really believe that Lucas has the ability to go even further this year and that is why I was keen to join forces with Sony Computer Entertainment Spain and Nissan to provide him with this opportunity.”
Head of Sports Cars for Nissan Europe, Darren Cox said: “Lucas has been fantastic to work with and a great ambassador for both the Nissan and PlayStation brands. He now has one objective, and that is to be 2010 GT4 champion. If he does that he deserves our continued support to get him even further up the GT racing ladder. It is easy to forget that just two years ago he was a student that entered a competition on his PlayStation! Amazing.”
