Polyphony Digital will broadcast a special exhibition race today on its social media channels, and Race of Champions 2024 will round out this yr's racing calendar.
This one-off, season-ending race is now in its second yr, having first been officially staged in 2023. As the name may somewhat suggest, the event consists of a single race between several players who’ve won Gran Turismo World Series titles through the years.
These include the newly minted champions for 2024, with Takuma Miyazono winning the Nations Cup, Kanata Kawakami, Coque Lopez and Harald Walsen of Team Lexus within the Manufacturers' Cup, and Jose Serrano as Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup champion.
In fact, the assembled dozen players have 35 titles under their belt dating back to the primary season in 2018. It will see five-time winner Miyazona face off against fellow Grand Slam champions Igor Fraga and Mikail Hizal, with Lopez being the one driver to win championship titles in 4 consecutive seasons – from 2021 to 2024 — and each Olympic champions: Kylian Drumont and Valerio Gallo.
The race itself, which shall be held on the Polyphony Digital office over the Christmas weekend as a part of the corporate's annual end-of-year event, shall be familiar to players participating on this week's Daily Races. It shall be an incredible ten-lap clockwise ride around Tokyo Expressway East in specially tuned road cars with Racing Hard tires.
Each of the dozen or so drivers will race on a unique machine, and a mix of expectations and just a few surprises awaits us. For example, defending champion ROC Gallo will drive his proven Honda NSX Type R, while 2023 Manufacturers' Cup champion Ryota Kokubun will once more drive a Mazda (as in 2024) within the RX-7 Spirit R. Miyazono selected the recently added Lamborghini Gallardo, while Serrano selected the recently added Lamborghini Gallardo. sibling Audi R8 V10 – also debuting.
Fraga, Lopez, Walsen and Hizal will drive a unique generation of the Nissan GT-R, R32 to R35 in that order, while Drumont, Urra and Yamanaka will select the F40, AMG GT Black and 991 GT3 RS respectively at Euro. That leaves Kawakami, who this yr set the record for the longest gap between two titles, within the classic Mk4 Supra.
The broadcast starts today, Tuesday, December 31, at 15:00 UTC, in English and Japanese commentary options.
