GT Academy Returns to Europe on March 4th

First mentioned at GT5’s Madrid launch party, the next round of the European GT Academy has been officially announced! The online time trials kick off Friday, March 4 and will continue through Sunday, April 17th. Players from 10 different countries, grouped by “territories”, will be eligible to participate:

  • UK & Ireland
  • France & Switzerland
  • Germany & Austria
  • Spain & Portugal
  • Italy (starting March 18)
  • Netherlands

The top 20 drivers from each territory will move on to their own regional finals. Only the top two drivers at each final will move on to the final stage: “Race Camp”, which once again will be held at Silverstone. The winner from Race Camp will then compete in the next Dubai 24 Hour International race, to be held January 2012.

Along with the winner of this year’s GT Academy USA and previous EU winners Lucas Ordonez and Jordan Tresson, Nissan may be able – for the first time – to field an entire team of GT Academy drivers for the race! Stay tuned for more details.

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Comments (113)

  1. Shadou

    I was like yay, when i show the news on GT5 then i was like YAY free CAR,then i was like fuuuu…kk EU only O_o got my hopes up =(

    Oh well good luck to those who are able to join.

    PD you have control on the news, don’t post stuff that’s got nothing to do with a region on the news page in GT5 =/

  2. GTP_pk_090

    “The winner from Race Camp will then compete in the next Dubai 24 Hour International race, to be held January 2012.”

    will this incur 5 tears of delays aswell?

  3. Wesleyvl

    Haha all those angry people sceaming why no nordic country’s just emigrate to a decent land . Netherlands for example.

    1. XaNoR

      The reason why Finland and Sweden is’nt allowed to participate is that PD is afraid that Finland or Sweden will win as usual… Please name one REALLY GOOD race driver from the Netherlands?

  4. Anghammarad

    It would be interesting to know why so many countries that have been in previous academies were left out now.

    1. Alan

      Ehh, but then you’d have to come up with a new pointless complaint to troll with. Good news, you don’t have to think today.

  5. Tvensky

    So Sad Sony dont support all Europe.. I would try this, but I cant register my country in PSN :( Im From Latvia (baltics) but using fake PSN accaunt (finland) with wrong flag and everything.. there are literally millions of fake users as me out there in GT5 online :( sad. over 5 years and still no support for all PSN users.

  6. HugoReyes-8

    Why do some members JUMP all over others for a SLIGHT mistake: ie. Sony instead of Polyphony Digital

    Thanks for correcting me DOUQA but my point is that marky could have been a little KINDER with his words.

    There’s a saying that goes like this:

    Be careful of the words you say
    Keep them soft and sweet
    Because you never know from day to day
    Which one’s you’ll have to eat

  7. Conundrum

    a lot of questions can be answered by reading the publication. nissans marketing director commented on the upcoming event. what more do you need to know? i mean if i was serios about this i would let the nissan racing director have a word that everybody should race their arses off for this once in a lifetime chance. and not fuss about how great nissan sportscars are.

  8. tweetman_277

    I Really hated Indy last year!!! You couldant turn the driving aids OFF! But hoefully this year we will be able to do this, so i’ll do better than 7000

  9. Maltese man

    MALTA IS NEVER INCLUDED IN THIS DAMN COMPETITION. I ALWAYS ENTER THE FINALISTS, YET I WOLDN’T BE EGIGIBLE. :-(

  10. zzz_pt

    For those who said: “ch*at, im from Canada, South America, Finland” etc..

    Is there any Important Real Championship in your regions?…

    I think Sony and Nissan are only interested in good championships with worldwide projection.

    1. Jens_Muff

      Just because we don’t host any championships doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to compete.. The Danish driver Tom Kristensen has won the 24H Le Mans 8 times from 1997 to 2008 just to name an example.

    2. P1

      @zzz_pt – The list of ineligible countries have absolutely nothing to do with what you said. You can still get someone from Antarctica to race in a European championship. The only issue would be the cost of transporting that person to and from races assuming that he/she’d like to travel back home between them.

      The grand prize for GT Academy 2011 (and the US one) this time around is only a one-off race drive in the Dubai 24h anyway so the stakes aren’t exactly worth as much as last time.

      SHAME ON YOU SONY EUROPE for notifying PAL regions about this in your blog who can’t actually take part.

    3. Tintorera

      Norway, Sweden and Finland host WRC rallys! Denmark is big in LeMans. Plenty of “real” championships in our region.

  11. Hortus

    looking forward to competing with some of the best drivers’ time trial times this year… just hoping i get a wheel before it kicks off to have any hope of being competitive

  12. Tintorera

    This is BS. Europe consists of 50 countries!!! They have decided to invite 20% of the european countries to the European GT academy.
    They practically left out all of eastern and northern parts of the continent!!!

    1. Mosquit

      Europe consist of 47 countries. Also it would be difficult or rather pointles to bring them all [GT5 Academy for Vatican o0″ ]

    2. Tintorera

      According to wikipedia(dot)org europe consists of 50 countries… But if your sources say different please refer to them. Regardless if the number is 50 or 47, the point is that a lot of European countries with many motorsports profiles and GT5 players are neglected here! I remember during the GT TT last year the nordic countries where included.

    3. Tintorera

      PS: Quote from wikipedia.

      “-Recognised sovereign states:
      There are currently 50 internationally recognised sovereign states in (or partially in) Europe,”

    4. Carmen

      Might want to try NOT editing the quote to suit you purpose Tintorera.
      What it actually said at wikipedia:

      “There are currently 50 internationally recognised sovereign states with territory located in Europe, of which 44 have their capital within Europe. All the recognised sovereign states, except Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City, are members of the Council of Europe.[12]Since 2007, 27 of these countries are also member states of the European Union, which means they are highly integrated with each other and share their sovereignty with the institutions of the European Union”

      That means 44 countries in Europe, and 6 with territory in Europe, but not necessarily considered to be European. Many people also include three of those for a total of 47, though the total is often listed has 44 as well.

  13. Christian

    How can they call “European” and leave out some countries? It’s not fair. I thought GT5 would be the full package but so far it isn’t.

  14. kalakanto

    Finns left out… We got racers in all level of motorsports, this is not fair. Also on last GT-Academy we dominated our ‘division’.

  15. MrSkyline

    lol the smallest country (The Netherlands) has the most people participating then :p (accept for Italy, but we all know Italians can’t drive ;) so that’s not a problem :p )

  16. Kovalex

    The should do a World GT Academy.. Pick the 5 best drivers of each country for the 1st round. The 2nd round would round up to the top 100. 3rd round would reduce the number to an acceptable ammount for real track racing. And the real academy will begin!

  17. starkrush

    Massively looking forward to it just for seeing where i can get in the time trials, even if I don’t want to get through. Hope there’s prizes for doing well in round 1 (like in the US version)!

  18. Joshmuggo

    Australia left out this time? And New Zealand.

    Not too mention all the other countries who have been left out from last time.

    Not happy.

    1. Jens_Muff

      well, I’m not surprised, that Auastralie and NZ are left out of the European. Geographical issues – It would be quite pricy to transport those to the final rounds.

    2. boblikepie

      I find it silly that they left out Australia and New Zealand and a lot of other countries that were in the GTA last year…

  19. Jens_Muff

    Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway…?

    Ok, they could justify leaving a couple out, but come on! They left out most of Europe :-/ I noticed loads of great Scandinavian racers on the online servers.

    1. Sasek

      There are many good drivers in Poland too… Check the time attack times on Seasonal events. In top 100 there is 4 to 6 players…

    2. Raito_CZ

      We have also a great racers here in Czech Republic, this pretty sux. I had good times in TimeTrial GT Academy last year just with Sixaxis, now i have Logitech DFGT… and for what?

  20. PaTrond

    Afraid of Nort-Europe or something? Fins are generally quite good, so why aren’t Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland on the list? There are several Danes in the 24h races too, for example driving for Audi in Le Mans. Norway has some FIAGT drivers and a Ferrari Challenge and FXX driver. Don’t forget the Solberg brothers either. So no excuse for saying that North-Europeans aren’t active in the motor-sport branch.

    1. Rene

      There are 2 Danish drivers in 24 hour le Mans , for audi and Corvette

      And Tom kristensen who drives for audi is the guy who has won the most time ever in le Mans “8 times”

      And jan from team Corvette has won it 6-7 times in gt1 class

  21. HugoReyes-8

    I see the only customers PD cares about are Europeans and Americans.

    Thanks PD, you’ve just given me another reason to throw this game in the garbage.

    1. GTP_Marky264

      Oh be quiet. The most idiotic comment i’ve read all day. It’s not up to PD it’s up to Sony Computer Entertainment around the Regional Area’s wheither or not they host within other countries. PD Would Ideally love to run the GT Academy in every country in the world. But simply it’s not possible.

    2. HugoReyes-8

      Who pissed in your Corn Flakes today marky. That’s the only comment you had. How productive of you.

      Keep your opinion to yourself jack***

    3. DOUQA

      His comment was much more productive than your whining. He explained it to you so you no longer misunderstand. He did you a great service.

    4. Ryan

      I admit, I laughed at the irony of Hugo telling Marky to keep his opinion to himself. Especially considering, Marky’s comment was a fact that it’s not up to PD, and Hugo’s comment was just ill-informed whining.

    5. anes

      So it’s Sony Computer Entertainment’s decision is it? Well thanks Sony for putting the final nail in your coffin. I’m ditching my PS3 and I’m moving to iracing – a proper simulator with proper support.

      Ignored Australian here btw

    6. anes

      Yes because that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to send Sony bankrupt

      /facepalm

      Protip: If people are disappointed with GT5, research the PC simulators. It might be what you’re looking for.

    7. Henry

      It’s always funny when trolls say something stupid, then try to turn it on the other guy when it backfires……never works, but still funny.

    8. Andrew

      Never fear people, I’ve been meaning to replace my old 20gig fat. I’ll go buy a slim and save the company from almost certain death. 8P

    9. anes

      How is this trolling? Maybe you fanboys haven’t noticed but a lot of people are disappointed with GT5. This is yet another disappointment to add to the list and the final straw for me. I was in the GT Academy last year. I also expected “The real driving simulator” with 5 years dev time to be decent. The fact is it’s an unfinished arcade game with sim ambitions.

      But guess what? There’s an alternative. The PC sim world exists and it is many steps above consoles so for the people like me who want a proper sim with proper support then my suggestion is to look into iRacing(dot)com

      Fanboys eh. Open your eyes if you haven’t already been blinded by jaggies.

    10. Troll defined (lol)

      The art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue.
      Trolling does not mean just making rude remarks: Shouting swear words at someone doesn’t count as trolling; it’s just flaming, and isn’t funny. Spam isn’t trolling either; it pisses people off, but it’s lame.
      The most essential part of trolling is convincing your victim that either a)you truly believe in what you are saying, no matter how outrageous, or b) you give your victim antagonizing instructions, under the guise of help.
      Trolling requires decieving; any trolling that doesn’t involve decieving someone isn’t trolling at all; it’s just stupid. As such, your victim must not know that you are trolling; if he does, you are an unsuccesful troll.
      Signs that your trolling is unsuccesful: *Your victim identifying you as a troll. *Identifying yourself as a troll. *Your efforts being ignored. *Being counter-trolled……

    11. blademask

      Anes,

      I doubt you’re a huge GT fan to begin with.As a racing sim fan(as most GT owners are). Most are aware of PC Sims, which most also participate in.

      GT is a good balance and challenge, with the best visuals & immersion and variety of any sim, PC or Console, which is why people continue to buy it more than Forza for example.

      Its clear you’re a troll, but I just wanted to mention that. You googled racing sims, and have come up with iRacing. I doubt you play it, and if so.. Lets play in the next few hours or so, so I can see how amazing of a driver you are, enough to condemn GT for its lack of simulation. When you can’t, we will all understand.

      We’ve all heard the same trolling about PC sims, but its not as if anyone ever declared GT to be better than them..

      The comment about the ‘jaggies’ was a dead giveaway as well. You were owned by Lmbo’s comment.

    12. Pole_Position

      You guys need to stop talking about trolling and start talking about what Sony Computer Entertainment Europe did wrong and should do to set things right.

      If you check the European Playstation Blog they ALSO released the news of GT Academy 2011 in the following regions – AE, AU, NZ. One could assume that those abbreviations stand for Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand.

      Now why on earth would they decide to release the news of GT Academy 2011 to regions that aren’t even getting the chance to participate?

      The answer is simple – MARKETING and SALES. Sony doesn’t give a rats arse about who gets to participate in this thing. All they care about is selling more PS3s, TVs and getting their whole “make.believe” ad campaign through to prospective customers so they buy more Sony s***.

      You could say fair enough, they’re a business and it’s all part of it but SONY – PLEASE DONT GIVE BULLS**T TO YOUR CUSTOMER WHO LIVE IN REGIONS THAT CAN’T TAKE PART IN YOUR OVERGLORIFIED MARKETING STUNT. THE LAST THING WE F***ING NEEDED WAS ANOTHER FALSE PROMISE FROM YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM.

    13. Erwin Ronald

      You know Pole_Position, You could have posted that all has a seperate reply on it’s own, minus the troll reference, and it would probably gotten more reads. By tacking it onto a troll attack from 24 hours ago, I almost didn’t bother to read it, and didn’t really read all of it anyway (almost never need to when a post ends with a whole paragraph screamed out in caps). Sorry.

    1. huh

      Thanks to our cutters you guys will have a update to stop that for your event. Without the update, it would be no different. Europeans bounced in the first gta.

  22. McClarenDesign

    No Americans, so the European Academy should go off without a hitch. Best of luck to those across the pond.

    1. huh

      Yeah it will go smoother because the game is updated to stop cutting and all. Pre update it would be no different. Guys were bouncing on eiger on gt5p in the gta. That was Europe only.

    1. Hortus

      i agree… some of the fastest (and fairest) racers, in my personal experience, come from places like finland and denmark so this should be something which is looked into soon.

    2. Pole_Position

      Here you go Erwin Ronald (gtplanet.net/gt-academy-returns-to-europe-on-march-4th/#comment-75373). The same post where it can get more reads. Scan actually see what they’re doing.

      “…

      If you check the European Playstation Blog they ALSO released the news of GT Academy 2011 in the following regions – AE, AU, NZ. One could assume that those abbreviations stand for Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand.

      Now why on earth would they decide to release the news of GT Academy 2011 to regions that aren’t even getting the chance to participate?

      The answer is simple – MARKETING and SALES. Sony doesn’t give a rats arse about who gets to participate in this thing. All they care about is selling more PS3s, TVs and getting their whole “make.believe” ad campaign through to prospective customers so they buy more Sony s***.

      You could say fair enough, they’re a business and it’s all part of it but SONY – PLEASE DONT GIVE BULLS**T TO YOUR CUSTOMERS WHO LIVE IN REGIONS THAT CAN’T TAKE PART IN YOUR OVERGLORIFIED MARKETING STUNT. THE LAST THING WE F***ING NEEDED WAS ANOTHER FALSE PROMISE FROM YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM.”

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