I hope you all had a great Easter. I am absolutely delighted to share some news that will be as mouth-watering as the chocolate treats you hopefully received last week.
The great news I can reveal today is that in just a few short weeks (May 1, so three to be precise), we will see the return of GT Academy.
GT Academy, as some of you may recall, is a remarkable PlayStation and Nissan competition that intends to take gamers from sofa, bedroom or other suitably domestic environment, to the high-octane world of international motorsport.
Now entering its fourth year, the competition has so far unearthed three real-life racing drivers from Europe and a fourth US driver from amongst the massed ranks of global Gran Turismo gamers.
The first ever GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez managed an incredible podium finish last year at the world famous Le Mans 24H and the subsequent winners Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough have both gone on to establish themselves as genuine racing talent whose blossoming racing careers will continue in 2012.
This year as in previous years, GT Academy 2012 will consist of a number of stages kicking off with a PlayStation 3 based online event, National Finals, real life driving challenges at Racecamp, Silverstone and then on onwards and upwards towards a potential chance to race for Nissan at the Dubai 24H race in January 2013.
This year’s Academy is even more special as it will be kicked off with a newly created online qualification event developed by Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony. This brand new Gran Turismo 5 based content will be completely free to download from PlayStation Network as of May 1 and you don’t even need to own Gran Turismo 5 to play it.
The new content features a set of exclusive challenges that should be a lot of fun whether you’ve played Gran Turismo before or whether you are coming to the game as a complete newbie.
So what countries are involved in GT Academy 2012 and how are they arranged? Well here’s the rundown:
Group 1
- UK & Ireland
- France
- Spain
- Portugal
- Benelux
- Poland
- Switzerland
- Austria
Group 2
- Germany
Group 3
- Russia
More news will be coming very soon on what you can expect for GT Academy 2012 and it will be here on PlayStation.Blog, gran-turismo.com and facebook.com/GTAcademy, so keep checking back.
In the meantime feast your eyes on the stunning opening movie from the brand new GT5 content incoming on 1 May that will kick things off.
21 CommentsAdd Yours
1
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 12:18 pm by miattyheat
sounds great time to get back into some racing
2
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 12:23 pm by vicheous
Ah! No Scandinavian country’s included!
3
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 12:36 pm by Pro_espace72
Why not Scandinavian countries + Finland included? I bet there is really good drivers on those countries
Oh well, but have fun guys! :/
4
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 12:37 pm by JonnyPauz
Where is the love for Australia, we do have some incredible driving talent here such as Mark Webber.
5
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 12:42 pm by marclvztan
bring it on im ppl
6
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:05 pm by StevoB_
Count me in! Bring it on!!
7
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:15 pm by kivi95
Nothing for us Scandinavians
8
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:20 pm by LCachero_PHI_NZL
Penrose this is a massive slap in the face for New Zealand and Australia.
We had 38 other national finalists from those two countries who would’ve given it a whole lot more than the two who got sent to the 2010 race camp because quite frankly; they wasted their chance of becoming contracted racing drivers for Sony and Nissan.
We didn’t get our second chance last year and it is actually painful to find out that we’re not getting it this year either…
9
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:36 pm by OttoT
This is amazing. It´s fun to see how this game transfers to the real world.
It´s sad a lot of countries are excluded, why is that?
I´m not good enough to win but I´m sure going to have fun trying.
How you don´t need GT5 is kind of a strange desision to me. The game is very cheap now and it´s a great insentive to buy it if you want to try to become a real racer.
10
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:44 pm by Azerach
Will the event be at least downloadable in countries excluded from the Academy? Would be fun to try it out and see how we stack up on the leaderboards.
11
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:53 pm by Katun78
Where is Italy?
12
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 1:57 pm by GTClub_Capp96100
And Italy? where is?
13
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 2:25 pm by Huono_peleis
Second rate customers for Sony, Polyphony digital and Nissan come from Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Montenegro, Moldova, Macedonia, Ukraine, Georgia, Czech, Cuprys, Croatia, Bulgaria and so on…
14
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 4:07 pm by GTClub_Capp96100
Read here. Italy is confirmed:
http://www.pressreleasemanager.co.uk/viewPressRelease.asp?ID=FCF52F26-A649-4F95-AC8B-D6FD23402272
15
Posted on 16 April, 2012 at 4:08 pm by GTClub_Capp96100
http://www.pressreleasemanager.co.uk/viewPressRelease.asp?ID=FCF52F26-A649-4F95-AC8B-D6FD23402272
16
Posted on 18 April, 2012 at 8:02 am by IVI4IVIuRdeR
I remember reading about one of the previous winners and thinking how cool this competition was, I never had a PlayStation then but I do now so really looking forward to this.
17
Posted on 18 April, 2012 at 8:02 am by IVI4IVIuRdeR
awesome
18
Posted on 18 April, 2012 at 8:58 am by Marky264
My favourite Annual GT Event is nearly here
Can’t wait! Getting my DFGT this week as well so timed perfectly!, Can we pleaseeeeee have Gran Turismo Avatar Logo’s on the Store?! I’d really love that GT Academy 2012 Logo as an Avatar have you guys got any info on this?
19
Posted on 21 April, 2012 at 7:30 pm by APK-78
Terveisiä vain kaikille Suomalaisille faneille
Nordic Countries will thank and bow.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/VITTU-MITÄ-PASKAA/273336379540?ref=ts
20
Posted on 25 April, 2012 at 4:22 am by tomek24euro
Hi Guys
Do You know maybe what about Norway?
Will they can race with others?
21
Posted on 25 April, 2012 at 4:27 am by tomek24euro
And one more thing.
I will buy this week a race wheel for my play station.
But the question is-:on what kind of race wheel Gt Academy will organize in this 2012 racing competition?
Do You know maybe?
Thanks
We close the comments for posts after 30 days. If you would still like to comment on this post, please use our contact form.