The Incredible Story of Jann Mardenborough

so like a lot of you except if you're in the states I guess I gave in and snagged a ticket to this gem kicked back for a couple of hours and just let my brain melt to another one of Neil blomkamp's futile attempts at understanding filmmaking credits roll lights come back on and I gotta say it was pretty decent perhaps bloomcam spits working every decade but as a tragic nerd of motor racing I did have to watch this film with a bit of suspended belief because it wasn't all that accurate it is after all quite a loose retelling of the whole tale artistic license yeah fair enough but hey here I am with the YouTube channel a moderate degree of knowledge as a mouth way too big for my own good the second movie review so if that's what you're looking for um yeah it's not that instead I'm gonna give you all the brief rundown on the true story of the protagonist of the film I'm gonna tell you the story of how Jan martinborough went from being a kid playing Gran Turismo to a fully fledged full-on professional racing driver yarn was like most kids who loved Motorsport growing up he didn't want to work in a trade or in a bank or in any other Noble job that doesn't pay nearly as well as it should he had an obsession that was all-encompassing he did take an interest in Motorsport engineering but Above All Else what he wanted to be Was a Race Car Driver but much like those other kids the family just couldn't afford to take yarn racing the consequence of racing costing 110 billion dollars and the martinborough is not really having 110 billion dollars lying around I guess they didn't utilize that 24 hours in a day even in go-karts a European season could cost well into the six figures and seen that for Jan despite his overwhelming urge to be a race car driver that just wasn't gonna happen possible from perhaps one of the more unlikely places [Music] so how the hell does that work because Gran Turismo is not just some Rinky Dink arcade Gamo no it's the real driving simulator like millions of wannabe Pilots all around the world when it came to Gran Turismo Jan was hooked whether that was hooning it around to our mountain or perfecting a racing line for a super license but a game update and a menu change later and Yan stumbled across something that will change his life forever the GT Academy the concept well that was simple could a gamer become a racer he was a competition a time trial that pit the best Gran Turismo races in the world against each other the prize a funded seat with the Nissan racing team and a drive at the Dubai 24 hours oh don't mind if I do but GT Academy's real gift is the unlike traditional racing series your family doesn't need to be richer than Elon Musk just for you to make the grid all you needed here was a PlayStation Gran Turismo and some but there'd be some 90 000 entrants all of whom had talent and only the top 20 would go through and for Yan well this meant some track time nine hours of daily for six weeks straight but that was light work for Yam because for him this wasn't a game this was an opportunity of a lifetime and there was simply no way that he was going to let it slip Jan ended up 10th until the National Finals at Brand hatch he'd made it through here yam would compete with 19 of his first in a set of ninja warrior style physical challenges second in a set of driving challenges think it International a license but in a real car only two drivers would make it through to the next round the international final one of those you've guessed it was Jan mardenberg this time in the international final being for more grueling challenges pulling and pushing cars more driving challenges more Sim races and then a race for all the marbles at Silverstone but good martinborough really get this done could he bring his dreams into reality you bet you bomb dollar he could because after putting his 370 Zed on pole Jan would take the checkered flag Take a Bow sir Jan mardimra celebrated his victory with Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert F1 Legends both but on this day top step of the podium was his because he was International GT Academy Champion but not even seven months later Jan would buckle up for the Dubai 24 hour it doesn't get much realer but you had to put it quite frankly was unfazed Testament to just how unfazed incredibly he'd finished third in his class third surely this was only the start for Jan martinborough well maybe but in retrospect it is easy to see why people would be a little bit reprehensive about the longevity of a GT Academy driver's career see despite Nissan and Gran Turismo gladly parading these graduates around as proof of the success of the program the goodness of Datsun and the realism of the game not many of them are racing nowadays and most were dropped from the factory team before they even had a chance to say wait a minute this ain't the rebel junior team but for yarn at least they were prepared to run with them for a little while two weeks after the race in Dubai it was announced that he was gonna be thrust into the British GT Championship piloting a Nissan GTR and co-driving with Alex Buncombe this was his chance to prove his worth and he did Jan won his first ever race at a professional level at Bran's hatch that year and heading into the final round at Donington he and bunkin were in contention for the title Buncombe got them up into the lead when he handed the drive over to martinborough and then he got a puncture this ripped up the damper and forced them out of the Race Championship hopes over but those in the team knew that yarn was a commodity as a driver Nissan did put him in the GTR for the block pan endurance series as well but for 2013 it was decided that Jan would not be racing in the British GT Championship anymore instead they threw him into Formula Three now that's a bit of a step after one year of racing GTRs against turnip farmers and genetas and Lotus Sephoras he's now going to be competing in the most competitive Junior racing series on the planet where the heck did that did this come from he would be driving with Colin a good team willing to help yarn learn the robes and progress as a driver his problem was that his teammates were all drivers who were much better prepared than he was they had more mileage and had been doing it since well the dawn of time his teammates were Harry tinknell Jordan King and Nicholas latifi and Daniel Kim yet hung around for a few rounds as helmet Marco did his best to throw him into the deep end signal on King finished the European season in P5 and P6 respectively latifi was in 15th which was hardly surprising though Jan martinborough was 21st ouch only four points finishes that year barely finishing ahead of Roy nasani in the standings the British Championship wasn't much better he did score his Maiden podium in the final race at spa but he was still behind his teammates in the standings and in the zanville Masters too on the surface it was a terrible year but you gotta remember this was his first ever year in Open Wheel racing cars and those in the team knew that under those circumstances it was not bad at all there was a lot fian to learn so they sent him to the junior formula Motor Racing boot camp known as the Toyota Racing Series of course I had to bring that up didn't I five weeks in New Zealand to learn about racecraft and other things required to beat king latifi ah but on the plus side of all of his teammates in that Championship it was he who finished the highest a loss of consistent results which predated his main European Assault but it wasn't just Formula Three that they were preparing yarn for that year he'd make his Le Mans debut driving and lmp2 car alongside Michael Crum and fellow GT Academy winner Lucas ordonas after 24 hours of racing on this one of the most prestigious and most important races in all of motor racing he finished third in class on the podium a stellar result considering just a couple of years ago he didn't have a hope and Hell of becoming a race car driver yes Harry was Aloft the most prestigious podium in all of motor racing he earned all of it but there was still more to come for 2014 Nissan decided that Yan despite finishing Below latifi in three lots of standings was worthy of another step up they decided to put him pretty much on the path to Formula One they put him in the gp3 series on top of this he would be completing simulator work for the Red Bull formula one team and once again would begin his year with another stint in the Toyota Racing Series just can't keep away from the series can't I whilst last year was a bit of a damp squip yarn started off 2014 quite decently nice and consistent and fast and then he started to win stuff a win in Timaru a win at Highlands another at Hampton Downs and heading into the last round he was within a whisker of winning the whole Championship all he needed to do was to finish a couple of positions ahead of Championship rival Andrew tang in the final race the New Zealand Grand Prix in that race yarn finished second behind Nick Cassidy it was just and only just not enough in the end mardimra finished second in the championship again he beats all of his teammates but what it ended up proving in the gp3 series was that Jan was progressing as a driver him finishing as the top driver in the team was becoming a constant now and he was starting to make a habit of winning races he took victory at the Hockenheim ring that year and finished P9 in the standings 2015 could have been a breakout year for yarn but for a variety of reasons this would prove to be one of the more challenging years for him first off he was thrown into gp3 again the first round started off promising with some extremely strong races but over the course of the year the results kinda stagnated he wasn't reaching the heights that we've become accustomed to and there were two rounds of he missed entirely although one of them wasn't without reason in that round he was upgraded to gp2 at such short notice that's a bit of a death sentence alas there wasn't too much to write home about that weekend but really what were they expecting he didn't end up finishing the gp3 series either missing the final round in Abu Dhabi lemon was a complete shambles too that year Nissan turned up with an lp1 car that they'd hope would bring Glory back to the brand but it didn't apart from being so ugly that it made us jealous of blind people it was unbelievably slow it was so slow in fact that one of their cars was out qualified by an lmp2 car thus Nissan abandoned the lemon attempts and in turn meant that this was the last time that Jan martinborough would race at Limon but if there was something from 2015 that stuck out above everything else it's what happened at the Nurburgring heading into floodplatz the GTR that yama's piloting became Airborne he was a total passenger as his car hurtled toward the barrier cartwheeling over the wall throwing itself in amongst the spectators it was later on when the reality hit that in that accident a spectator had lost their life it was a freak accident and no one really could blame Yan but the guilt he would have felt in that moment would have been overwhelming but he knew that he still wanted to race even after such a tragedy in just a couple of months later he would take part in the 24 hour of Le Mans the race may have been a disaster but nevertheless it did demonstrate a lot of character and Nissan still believed in him for the next year he would have a change of scenery gone were the European tracks and surroundings he would be racing full time in Japan two championships were Beyond's Focus that year the first one was Super GT Racing and the gt300 class in a very basic sense he was back to racing GT3 cars he was back behind the wheel of a GTR driving alongside Kazuki hoshino and it didn't take very long for Yan to get back up onto the Winner's Rostrum taking victory at Fuji and had a slew of good consistent results that awarded him forth in the standings that year and oh yeah there was that second Championship he was racing in he might have been gone from Europe but he wasn't gone from Open Wheel race cars he would be racing in the Japanese Formula 3 Series throughout the year martinborough was absolutely In Contention taking pole positions and winning races consistently and heading into the final round at Sugo he was leading the championship when he came out of that round however he was not the champion rival kenti Yamashita dominating the weekend and just scraping the championship away from the prince once again a junior formula title snatched from right under yarn's nose if there's any Silver Lining to this however it's that his performances were recognized and was rewarded with a drive in the super formula Championship a racing series that Formula 2 wishes it could be and would also compete with team impul in the Super GT series in that equally awesome 500 class he would only get the one year in super formula though and only a couple more in Super GT he also did score a role as test and simulator driver for the Nissan dams team and formula e but at the beginning of 2021 he would lose his drive at Nissan but hey at least he's now had a movie made about him about his career about where he came from and yes it isn't the most accurate biopic ever made according to the filmmakers every racetrack in the world is actually the hungaro ring but ultimately it told an inspiring story of a kid who didn't have a hope and Hell of becoming a race car driver and yet he did against all the yachts and he kept on as a factory driver for the better part of a decade he made the habits of beating teammates with Miles more experience than him winning races against world-class drivers and proving to the watching masses that yes Sim race car drivers can be real race car drivers Jan martinborough's career could best be summed up the same way as the Gran Turismo film itself All Things Considered pretty good pretty bloody good [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 710,950

Keywords: gran turismo, gran turismo movie, gt academy, jann mardenborough, jann mardenborough gran turismo, mardenborough gran turismo, jann mardenborough gt academy, gt academy 2011

Id: tOJjzqT1dzk

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2023