Nissan Playstation GT Academy Aussie qualifying opens

Australian qualifying for the Nissan Playstation GT Academy is now open, allowing video gamers to rise from couch potatoes to globe-trotting race drivers.

And for the first time Australia will get its own final to be held in Melbourne around July. In all, 28 Aussies will vie for six spots in the international final held later in the year in the UK.

First conducted in 2008, the GT Academy selected one gamer per year (now it's four per year) who is exceedingly good at the Sony Playstation 3 racing game, Gran Turismo 6 (GT6), and offers them Nissan factory-backed race drives with the Nismo team.

Online qualifying for the 2014 GT Academy opened today, April 22, and closes on Monday June 16 at 4:59pm. Those who want to enter need a Playstation 3, a copy of GT6 and a Playstation Network ID, and after downloading the latest GT6 patch can complete the various driving tests.

The 14 fastest drivers will join another 14 Australian hopefuls who were quickest during live ‘free-play’ sessions in GT Academy simulator ‘pods’ at the 2014 Australian F1 Gran Prix and other Australian motorsport and GT Academy public events across Australia.

After the final 28 Australians are selected, they will be whittled down to just six racers during the national finals, who will then be whisked off to the UK to race against an international group of drivers from India, Mexico, Thailand the Middle East.

The overall winner will then get three months intensive training ahead of a racing debut with Nissan at the Dubai 24 Hour endurance racing in January 2015, alongside three other winners from the German, US and European GT Academies.

And from there, Le Mans, GT sports car and maybe even F1 racing is possible.

The original GT Academy winner from 2008, Lucas Ordonez from Spain, has since claimed podium honours for two Le Mans 24 Hours races in the LMP2 class, and this year drove a Nissan GT-R GT3 alongside V8 Supercar driver Rick Kelly at the Bathurst 12 Hour race.

“I am very happy that [online] qualifying has now begun for sixth season of GT Academy, kick starting our world-wide search to unearth another gamer with the talent to become a real life racer,” said Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital, the developer of GT6.

Although no Australians have yet made it from Playstation to professional racer via the GT Academy, Daniel Holland came close in 2010. He was flown to Europe as one of the final 18 competitors, and was one of the fastest and most promising of the finalists.

However he missed a media briefing at the Silverstone racetrack in the UK and was disqualified.

The finals of the GT Academy are about much more than driving, with competitors judged on fitness levels and even media relations.
For more details and entry conditions, go to www.facebook.com/NismoAus