Ever seen the world of videogames spill over into real-life racing? Well it will this weekend, as both Gran Turismo 5 creator Kazunori Yamuachi, and two Team Need for Speed cars are competing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours race.
In 2010 Yamauchi finished fourth in the SP-8 class with the Team World Car Awards outfit in a Lexus IS-F, and Yamauchi himself posted the second-fastest lap within the team, a lap of 9 minutes 48 seconds. This year he’s again in the SP-8 class, but this time he’s running in a Nissan GT-R with team-mates Tobias Schulze, Michael Schulze and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto.
But that’s not the only videogame representation, with Team Need for Speed fielding two teams. The first features drivers Edward Sandstrom, Tommy Milner, Fredrik Larsson and Claudia Hurtgen, whilst the second Need for Speed Team Schubert outfit includes Anders Buchardt, Peter Posovac, John Mayes and Stian Sorlie. Both teams will race a BMW Z4 GT3 in the SP9 GT3 class.
We’ll be cheering for all three teams, although we have to admit to being slightly more biased towards Yamauchi, as he’s an actual game developer who is also fast enough to race, rather than a team of professional drivers involved with a game and sponsored by them.
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