MOTORSPORT: Nissan picks 'gamers' for Le Mans

Just days after the success of two video gamers in its Bathurst 12-Hour winning GT-R, Nissan has named two other gamers to drive its radical new prototype at Le Mans.

Young Welsh star Jann Mardenborough and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez have been included in the Japanese company's squad of nine drivers for the 24-hour French classic – the world's biggest sports car race – in June.

Two vacancies remain, but Belgian Wolfgang Reip and German Florian Strauss, who shared the Bathurst-winning GT-R with Japanese hero Katsumasa Chiyo last Sunday, have virtually ruled themselves out of the running.

Reip and Strauss said after their triumph at Mt Panorama that their height would be a problem in squeezing into the GT-R LM NISMO revealed last week as Nissan's challenger for the World Endurance Championship, in which Le Mans is the crown jewel.

The GT-R LM will be taking on the long-dominant Audi, Porsche with Mark Webber in one of its cars, and reigning WEC champion Toyota in the battle for outright honours.

Nissan will field two entries in the entire WEC – with Mardenborough among its six drivers for the series – and three cars at Le Mans.

The company is enjoying great success with its GT Academy, priding itself on taking video gamers on what it calls "the journey from virtual to reality", turning them into fully-fledged professional racing drivers.

Mardenborough, 23, and Ordonez, 29, have raced with Nissan teams at Le Mans before and had class success, but the premier LMP1 category is new territory for them and this Ben Bowlby-designed GT-R.

"Jann and Lucas have proved their merit as professional racing drivers, not least with their Le Mans [class] podium finishes," NISMO's Darren Cox said.

"What looks like an overnight success is years of incredibly hard work by Jann, Lucas and the Nissan NISMO team that develop all of the winners of Nissan GT Academy.

"We are here to compete at the highest level, not to make up the numbers.

"It's no accident that people like Mark Webber [Australia's nine-time Formula One Grand Prix winner] are racing at Le Mans.

"This is where you will find the most competitive racing in the world.

"It is a tough battlefield but we can't wait to join the fight."

Mardenborough won a race in GP3 – a support category to F1 – at Germany's Hockenheim last year after finishing runner-up in New Zealand's Toyota open-wheeler summer series. He is also a member of the (Nissan) Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver development program.

"I want to compete in F1, but I also have this burning desire to win outright at the Le Mans 24 Hours – I can't imagine anything more fulfilling than that," Mardenborough said.

"I have raced at Le Mans twice in LMP2, so I have seen the LMP1 cars at very close quarters out on the track.

"To think I will be racing one this year is very exciting.

"The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO looks set to be an historic race car and I get to drive it!"

Mardenborough said he still played on his PlayStation "when I get the time".

"I usually go for Grand Turismo," he said.

Ordonez was the first winner of GT Academy in 2008 (Mardenborough won in 2011) and first from its ranks to race at Le Mans.

Last year he drove in Japan's Super GT series, in the 300 category, and this year will return there in the 500 bracket.

"Now I get to race in the top class in Japan, and at Le Mans I will jump into the ultimate GT-R!" Ordonez said.

"I know it sounds like a cliche, but GT Academy really does turn dreams into reality, giving people a real chance to get their dream job, just like I did.

"For sure you have to work hard, but when you do the rewards are there."

The other five drivers already in Nissan's Le Mans squad are Spaniard Marc Gene, an ex-F1 driver and Le Mans winner with Peugeot in 2009, German veteran Michael Krumm, the first man to test the GT-R LM NISMO, France's Olivier Pla, Britain's Harry Tincknell and Japan's Tsugio Matsuda.

Related Reading:Video games the new race school