GT Academy winners get Nissan BES seats

Three winners of Nissan's GT Academy video gamer-to-racer scheme will team up for an assault on this year's Blancpain Endurance Series.

Frenchman Gaetan Paletou and Mexican Ricardo Sanchez, respective winners of the European and International competitions last year, will share a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 run by the RJN Motorsport squad, together with 2013 winner Florian Strauss.

Their entry in the Pro-Am class joins RJN's entry in the Pro Cup for Alex Buncombe, Wolfgang Reip and Katsumasa Chiyo. Nissan global motorsport boss Darren Cox said the GT Academy continued to "find genuine talent."

The Japanese manufacturer has also confirmed its line-up for the Nurburgring 24 Hours in May: Nissan LMP1 full-season driver Jann Mardenborough will share one GT-R with Buncombe, Reip and Strauss; Chiyo will drive the other with Michael Krumm, Lucas Ordonez and Kazuki Hoshino.

BLANCPAIN LINEUPS TAKING SHAPE

Jerome Policand's Auto Sport Promotion team will make a full-time return to the BES after a season in the European Le Mans Series with a trio of Ferrari 458 Italias, one entered in Pro-Am and two in the Am class.

Former French national and Manchester United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, who made his Le Mans 24 Hours debut with the team last year, will be part of ASP's Am lineup. The Rinaldi Corse Ferrari team, which finished second in the Gentlemen Trophy class in last year's BES, will mount an attack on the sister Blancpain Sprint Series this season.

The German team's Ferrari 458 Italia will be raced by former Porsche Supercup runner-up Norbert Siedler and team regular Marco Seefried. The duo will also contest the BES, sharing with Russain Rinat Salikhov.

Originally on Autosport.com