Right now the creator of the Gran Turismo series, Kazunori Yamauchi, is undertaking the titanic endurance challenge of the Nurburgring 24 Hours race, as part of Team World Car Awards, driving the #72 Lexus IS-F (sp8 class).
The race didn't begin well, as the team missed the dry qualifying round and started 174th in the rankings. At the moment, after nine hours on the winding Nurgburgring track (that by the way will appear in Gran Turismo 5 in all it's three incarnations, road track, F1 circuit and the 24 hours track that's a combination of the other two), Yamauchi's car is now 88th (and 6th in it's class. In this kind of competition cars of different classes and power race all together, but have different ranking boards) after working it's way up through the rankings almost costantly in what seems to be an almost heroic ride to get back towards the front.
If you want to cheer for Yamauchi-sensei or simply follow the race you can load this url: http://24h-rennen.de/livecast/live_01.asx in media player to see a live stream (in german), follow an english radio coverage on radiolemans.com, a live rankings stream for the sp8 class here (and a more up to date but less flashy one showing the general rankings here), and Lexus Europe twitter page for further news. I will update this post myself if anything significant happens.
Go Yamauchi-Sensei! Show em that there's a game developer that can drive something else than a console :D
Update 1: almost 10 hours in. #72 has dropped slightly, in position 90, still 6th in sp8 class. The 5th ranked in the same class is now #71 Audi RS4 (Ironically Forza 3's cover car is an Audi), of KIWI Team Nurburgring, now ranked 78th. Will Yamauchi's team manage to overtake it?
Update 2: 1:10 AM local time. Yamauchi's #72 is climbing the rankings again, now in position 86 while the #71 Audi has dropped in 79th. There are only six cars between them, and an overtaking in 5th class position seems possible!
Update 3: 1:37 AM local time. It's pitch dark and #71 Audi slowed down considerably, completing lap 55 three and a half minutes slower than Yamauchi's #72 Lexus. Now #71 is 80th. Yamauchi's Lexus is 82nd, gunning in for the kill! Only one car in between, Go Yamauchi-sensei! :D
Update 4: 2:03 AM local time. Something must have happened, as Yamauchi's #72 completed lap 56 in 22 minutes, taking 12 minutes longer than it's usual pace, and now dropped in 94th position. Trying to find out what the problem is.
Update 5: 2:21 AM local time. Whatever happened (I couldn't find out for sure, but it's probably just a long pit stop and driver change) yamauchi's #72 is back running, completing lap 57 in 10:48 and back up in 91st position. Unfortunately now it'll be a climbing battle to catch up to #71.
Update 6: 3:00 AM local time. We're past the 12 hours points. Yamauchi's #72 is climbing ranks steadily as it's now in 81st position again. #71 is almost one lap ahead though, in 71st position. Will Yamauchi's team manage to catch up again to their closest opponent?
Update 7: 3:42 AM local time. Yamauchi's #72 seems to be struggling gaining positions at the moment, hovering around 83rd with average lap times around 10:40. However, it suddenly just posted a very fast 65th lap, with a great lap time of 10 minutes and 9 seconds. Did the new driver finally start to push it?
Update 8: 3:58 AM local time. Yamauchi's #72 finally managed to ovrtake #71 and is now in 75th (5th position in it's class)! The car is being very fast right now. The driver seems to have gotten used to the track and is posting regular laptimes under 10 minutes and 15 seconds.
Update 9: 4:42 AM local time. Yamauchi's #72 is now in 72nd position (still 5th position in it's class). The team managed to overtake more than one hundred cars in little less than 14 hours! This almost feels heroic, and honestly I can't wait to recreate this epic race on Gran Turismo 5. Let's hope they'll announce a close release date at E3.
In the meanwhile the pace has slowed a little bit because of an incident on the circuit.
Update 10: 5:18 AM local time. 10 hours to go. It's finally dawning and some blue is now visible in the sky, It's also extremely windy. The pace is going to go up soon as soon as visibility increases. Yamauchi's #72 is still climbing the ranking, now 69th. There are now only six cars between it and it's most direct competitor in 4th position in the sp8 class: #49 Alexander Krebs' Audi R8. Yep, Yamauchi's car is now pursuing relentlessly Forza Motorsport 3's cover car.
But as a further spin, give a look to it's picture at the top of the windshield. Notice anything? Yamauchi's #72 is pursuing Forza 3's cover car, sponsorized by GT5 :D
I'm sleepy as hell and this funny details keep me awake.
Update 11: 5:40 AM local time. The sky is much brighter now. Yamauchi's #72 went for a pit stop, and momentarily fell back into 88th position overall, also overtaken by #74 Gentle Swiss Racing Aston Martin N24 (mind you, I just noticed that basically all the cars have the GT5 sponsor on the windshield, pretty cool), that's in the same class. But as many other cars entered the pits the following lap, #72 went back to 68th position, overtaking #74 again and with the #49 R8 still leading it in 60th position. Will #72 manage to grab 4th position for it's class?
This is my final update for the night. I need some sleep, but I will come back as soon as I slept some to cover the finale of the race. Gambare Yamauchi-sensei!
Update 12: 1:30 PM local time. I'm back reporting. Yamauchi's #72 and just overtook #74 Aston Martin during a pit stop for both cars, and is now in 4th position for ir class and 62nd overall, with #74 following suit in 63rd. one hour and an half to the end of the race. It seems it'll be a duel for class 4th place!
Update 13: 2:00 PM local time. Only one hour left! Yamauchi's #72 is solidly in 4th position in it's class and 60th overall, with #74 fallen down to 81st position, class 4th place seems secure, but everything can happen in this kind of race!
Update 14: 2:30 PM local time. Yamauchi's #72 is still 4th in it's class and 60th overall. Only half an hour to go!
Update 15: 3:00 PM local time. This 24 hours-long drama comes to an end! Yamauchi's #72 grabs 4th place in it's class and 60th overall, after starting in a very difficult situation and overtaking 112 cars! Glorious!
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