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Anyone who has played a good computer game will know how easy it is to lose an hour or two in a favourite virtual world. Most people would struggle to keep going for two days straight but a team of five gamers have set a new Guinness World Record playing Forza Motorsport 6 for 48 hours, 29 minutes and 21 seconds at Ford's European headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
To set the record of 'Longest video game marathon on a racing game', which previously stood at 48 hours, 1 minute, the team drove a virtual Ford GT on a digital version of the Le Mans circuit. The team behind the wheel was; Cara Scott from the U.K.; Helene Cressot, from France; Johannes Knapp, from Germany; Andrea Lorenzo Facchinetti from Italy; and Jesus Sicilia Sánchez from Spain. In total they covered a race distance of 41,004 kilometres, equating to 3,015 laps of the Sarthe circuit.
To get through more than two days of solid gaming the team survived on a mix of power naps, sweets and soft drinks.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing driver Stefan Mucke, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the Ford GT, started the virtual race. Mucke covered 136 laps of the real Le Mans circuit in just over 9 hours of driving. Commenting on the record-breaking drive Stefan said: "They did an amazing job. Just like driving at the real Le Mans, this achievement required extreme levels of concentration, attention to detail, and most importantly endurance - because they had to keep going for twice as long as we did".
If you fancy your chances in online gaming Ford and Microsoft have combined forces with Forza Racing Championship, the largest Forza racing competition in history. Open to amateur and elite gamers, the championship runs until September 4th and will crown the best Forza player in the world. The prize in the championship is a brand new 2017 Ford Focus RS.