Jann Mardenborough - The 2011 European winner of the Nissan Playstation GT Academy - Secured a podium place at the Dubai 24 hours on the 13th & 14th January.  Jann popped into Wessex Garages High Performance Centre for a chat with the GT-R Specialist Richard Mapley and General Sales Manager Gareth Howells upon his return to the UK.

 20-year-old Mardenborough from Cardiffin South Wales was part of a four-man team, with every driver a graduate of the GT Academy which has turned Playstation gamers in to professional racers. Driving a Nissan 370Z, the team came home third in class with Mardenborough bringing the car over the line with just six months of racing experience under his belt and securing the fastest lap for the team.

"That was without doubt the weekend of my life," said Mardenborough. "The only thing that compares to it is winning GT Academy last June. It feels like pure joy. This is just the first step for me and now I hope that my performance inDubaican take me further."

Since winning the GT Academy in 2011, Mardenborough has undergone an intense driver development program and competed in a number ofUKnational races to earn his international race licence. He was joined atDubaiby 2011USAwinner Bryan Heitkotter, 2008 winner Lucas Ordonez and 2010's champion Jordan Tresson.

Bob Neville, boss of the RJN GT Academy team, said at an interview inDubaithat he was proud of the four drivers.

"This is the first time that all four of my graduates have raced together so it is a special moment for me," Neville said. "I couldn't have asked for two better guys when Jann and Bryan won the European andUSAcompetitions last summer. Like Lucas and Jordan before them they came into this with their eyes and ears open and absorbed everything we taught them.

"It's particularly nice that we should do this in Dubai as it was here three years ago that an idea formed by Darren Cox of Nissan and Mark Bowles of Sony Computer Entertainment really came to life. This race was the toughest test and they all passed with flying colours. I'm proud of them all and proud to be part of GT Academy."

For 2012, Jann will be staying with Nissan and the RJN Motorsport Team taking his racing skills to the “European GT Endurance Series” http://www.blancpain-endurance-series.com driving the Nissan GT-R Nismo. This is one of the most demanding and newest of GT Endurance Series and one of most demanding. Jann said to his many follows via Twitter that he was “delighted and only had 4hrs sleep waiting for the news”.

Jann is looking forward to the launch of the new GTR in March and will be involved in Wessex Garages’Cardiff’s launch activities.