2010 Nissan GT Academy Final 18 Competing at Silverstone

One of the most challenging quests put up by Nissan and PlayStation takes place these days at the Silverstone circuit in the UK. No more than 18 winners from the 17 participating countries are gathered there to compete against each other until the best two competitors are selected.

The two winners of the Silverstone event will then start an intensive two-month driver training programme. This will allow them to qualify for an international race license, while also learning racing technique.

Following this phase, only one of the drivers will be chosen to compete a full season in the European GT4 Cup series driving a Nissan 370Z GT car alongside Alex Buncombe in the Nissan PlayStation RJN Motorsport team.

“So far GT Academy has been a major success. The time trial phase played on the Gran Turismo game was like a huge virtual group test drive of the 370Z for over 1.1 million people,” Nissan’s European Interactive Marketing Manager Darren Cox said in a release.

Guiding and training the competitors will be an international team of experienced race instructors headed by Rob Barff. Barff will also act as a judge alongside former F1 boss Eddie Jordan, F1 and Le Mans-winner Johnny Herbert, and two-time Nürburgring 24-Hour winner Sabine Schmitz.

“We have then had some extremely competitive national finals events run over a variety of race circuits on the game that demonstrated the determination of these gamers,” added Cox, “We now enter a really fascinating stage to watch how these guys are able to adapt their obvious talent to being on a real track. We have a great group of instructors at Silverstone to deliver the programme and some fantastic judges to pick our winners.”