An orange sky with shafts of sunshine piercing brooding clouds hangs over the start-finish straight of Tsukuba. A Toyota AE86, a pair of Mazda RX-7s and a Honda S2000 under the start gantry. How many times have I seen this, or something like it, as the familiar synthesised bap, bap, baaaaaaap! countdown announces the start of another Gran Turismo Sunday Cup?

Virtual training at Polyphony HQ to get in the mood

This isn't Gran Turismo though, because in an amusing flip of the usual videogames fantasy I'm actually living it but imagining myself in the virtual one. This is as bewildering as it sounds, not helped by the fact I had two hours sleep the previous night, it's a humid 30 degrees and the 'Boss' iced coffee I bought is doing funny things to my head.

I'm here to drive in a four-hour media race forMX-5s, an event integral to the Mazda Roadster (as it's known here) story since the very beginning, making this the 25th anniversary year. Coinciding with the launch of the new fourth-gen ND Roadster this makes it officially A Big Deal, the car parks packed with fans and Mazda owners rubbing shoulders with media and senior company personnel, including a team made up of the Roadster development bosses in the 'Jinba Ittai' car. Basically it's Harris's idea of hell, confirmed in typically robust terms when I Tweet him a 'wish you were here' picture of a paddock full of Mazdas.

Nothing simulated about this race though!

Reality check

With formative years playing Gran Turismo and a

JDM Eunos Roadster

on the driveway I'm fully living the dream, pictures of my car joining the ritualistic sharing of business cards upon meeting people. This goes down well with the Mazda bosses before they, to a man, nod and say "and now you will have to buy the new one!". Cutesy romanticism plays a big part of the MX-5 myth. But they've got a business to run too.

The format is a four-hour endurance with a fixed 90-litre fuel quota and teams of four or five drivers. And, yes, the race features in GranTurismo. I'm joining Perth born but locally based motoring journalist Peter Lyon and a team from the Autoc One website. Peter's done this race several times before and driven alongside Gran Turismo's KazunoriYamauchi in the 'ring 24-hour so knows his stuff, team 'hand' Tamihiro Izumi a regular club competitor in his own Mazda. Of the rest of us I've done a couple of Mazda and Caterham races, journalist Tatsuya Otani hasn't raced in 10 years and Autoc One's Daizaburo Yagi is doing his first event ever.

We've all been here, virtually at least

My only experience of Tsukuba before today has been those many hours in

variousGT games

over the years, topped up with an hour or so on GT6 at Polyphony Digital's headquarters. Judging by the reaction of the UK PR man access to this facility is not typical, Peter's personal friendship with Kazunori literally opening doors.

Ah, Daniel-san

The cars going round in the track day and parked up in the paddock add to the sense of being part of the game too. Lots of Mazdas, predictably, but among them oddities like an Evo VII wagon, an Alpine A110, a track-prepped classic Mini and a rather tasty 3.0 RS style 911.

I'm slightly alarmed to hear that my first taste of the track and car will be in qualifying, Yagi-san and Otani-san getting theirs in the single practice session. The pressure of that is nothing against the fact I'll also be taking the start and first stint.

The five-man team for the PH/Autoc One MX-5

Peter tells me 1min 13s should give us the right balance of speed and fuel consumption, Izumi-san into the 10s in his earlier sprint race. His third overall and first in class buoys team spirits as I ponder whether I can translate similar in-game pace to real life.

Suited and booted for qualifying there's at least little to fear from our Roadster, liveried in anime representations of the Mazda range. A pre-facelift Mk3/NC, the identical cars have obviously lived a life and are in standard 170hp JDM street spec bar competition brake pads, a cage and disabled ABS. Rev limit for the race is marked at 6K for fuel saving, an annotated circuit map showing where we'll hold higher gears and use momentum where possible to the same end.

Tsukuba Track Battle

Obviously qualifying isn't so restricted but I'm frustrated not to break into the 11s. All the other teams have their faster drivers - journalist hot shoes with countless Tsukuba track battles under their belts, Super GT veterans and the likes of 'Drift King' Keiichi Tsuchiya among them - and the top 17 are all in the 10s. Damn. And, yes, it puts us on the back row of the grid.

Anime livery to join orange wheels on Dan's Eunos?

Thoughtful, I go and hit the vending machines for further nerve jangling pick-me-ups before race start at 4pm. Following an on-stage intro to the sizeable crowd it's time to get into race mode, MX-5 development boss Nobuhiro Yamamoto leading the field around in the new ND Roadster. I'm too busy weaving around at the back of the grid to see though, Peter's pal Anton taking charge of the comms and a soothing voice over the earpiece.

We're miles back by the time we cross the line but I manage to make up a couple of places in the melee into the first turn. And from there begins the long crawl up the rankings to a more respectable overall position.

Accurate as Gran Turismo is I hadn't quite factored in how sharp the kick uphill into the first turn is, the crest of it just at the turn-in point and, warns Peter, liable to unsettle the car if you don't get your braking right. Tentative in quali I manage to man-up, keep it pinned until the last minute and then use that short uphill gradient to help slow the car.

Parade lap with new fourth-gen Roadster

It's a good overtaking spot, a technique of watching for the other guy's brake lights and quickly counting 1-2 before hitting the middle pedal and diving up the inside working a treat. The rest of the track is pretty tight, the camber on the two hairpins crucial for carrying speed into, respectively, the fast right-left under the familiar Dunlop bridge and into the long final straight and ballsy final right-hander. It's a great track, short and technical but with real character and flow too. And so weirdly familiar.

Easy tiger

Start nerves calming my pace settle in the 12s and 13s, Anton providing measured and steadying info on the earpiece. Being told to back off and slow down a bit seems a little counter-intuitive when there are cars ahead begging to be chased but I know it's a long haul and discipline is required. I'm not helped by snippets from the tannoys as I drive, with lots of excitable "Dan-san ... a Peee-stone-heaaads ..." in the commentary. One way of introducing PH to a Japanese audience I guess. "Keep it up, the crowd are loving the overtaking," acknowledges Anton, with measured encouragement.

And they're off, PH car somewhere in background...

Towards the end of the stint I come up against the Jinba Ittai car, being driven by Skyactiv development head Kiyoshi Fujiwara. If there's one car I don't want a coming together with it's ... oh. Outbraking himself a tad into turn one I impetuously dart up the inside but he straightens and swings back. Damn. Thankfully the cars seem OK and as the pit window opens incredibly 109 appears at the top of the score board. Yup, P1 for a brief moment before I hand over to Yagi-san. A bit sweaty and bewildered I soak it all up, neck a Pocari Sweat and get some air.

Crash, bang, wallop

Out on track Yagi has a bit of a moment at turn one. He's recovered to the pits but thankfully the car seems fine and Peter jumps in, experience showing as he pumps in consistently quick laps that eventually recover the two-lap deficit. By the time he hands back to Otani we're just about back in the race but as the light fades the rain comes and everyone's getting a bit tentative. After a solid stint it's time for Izumi to see if his success earlier in the day can be repeated and though his pace is good it seems we're not the only ones to put our hot shoe in for the final stint. We can keep pace but we can't make up lost ground and by the time the flag comes down we have to accept we're bringing up the rear in this one.

Crowd pleasing overtakes put PH on the map

Peter's disappointed but the team doesn't seem too concerned and, as with all endurance racing, it's getting to the end of it that counts more than anything. As the cars sit in formation on the grid radiating heat and smelling of hot rubber everyone from spectators to team members hops the pit wall to mingle in the evening warmth. In a touching tradition everyone breaks out paper towels and rags to give the cars a respectful wipe down as a symbolic thanks to Mazda, the Autoc One car bearing a few scars but in amongst it at least.

It's been a hell of an experience for sure, PistonHeads literally making an impact on Mazda's 25th birthday celebration and launch party for the new car. Hopefully that won't count against us too much when they compile the 2015 entry list and the competition debut of the new MX-5 in its home race...

Read the Japan blog here.

Edited highlights of Dan's stint

here

.

Thanks to: Mazda, Polyphony Digital, Alpinestars, Negroni shoes, Autoc One, Peter Lyon and all the team

Photos: Yoshitada Moro

Video: Peter Lyon