GT Academy Returns to Europe on March 4th

GT Academy February 15th, 2011 by Jordan

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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113 Comments

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  1. March 4th, 2011 at 7:49 pm - #
    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. March 4th, 2011 at 4:30 am - #
    d4t1983

    Errrr… where is it? :) Was hoping to wake up to some details!

  3. February 25th, 2011 at 4:17 pm - #
    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?

  4. February 18th, 2011 at 3:08 am - #
    Gulyo

    The patch is out now …
    Good one :)

  5. February 17th, 2011 at 6:24 pm - #
    davissi

    I’m hoping the winner comes from the UK or Portugal

  6. February 17th, 2011 at 11:47 am - #
    Wesleyvl

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

    • February 17th, 2011 at 4:33 pm - #
      GTP_Calcifer

      You do realise you can kiss your GT-A top 25 spot goodbye when .fi moves here? (.nl) :)

    • February 22nd, 2011 at 2:40 am - #
      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?

  7. February 17th, 2011 at 3:41 am - #
    pampsu

    I have a feeling that the winner comes from Germany

  8. February 17th, 2011 at 3:39 am - #
    Anghammarad

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

  9. February 17th, 2011 at 2:25 am - #
    Acan

    Hope there will be GT Academy for Asian Region…

    • February 17th, 2011 at 2:32 am - #
      Pole_Position

      Start a petition in the forum and I’ll gladly sign up to it.

  10. February 17th, 2011 at 1:53 am - #
    Chiz

    You give people some good news and they still find a way to be pissed

    • February 17th, 2011 at 2:26 am - #
      Rudolf

      Yah, that would make sense if it where people that where actually included that where pissed. (Facepalm)

    • February 17th, 2011 at 2:26 am - #
      Acan

      True Story…

    • February 17th, 2011 at 2:29 am - #
      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.

  11. February 16th, 2011 at 5:15 pm - #
    Maltese man

    yep, guys like us have imaginary homes in other countries, with addresses of restaurants and stuff. HAHA

  12. February 16th, 2011 at 9:48 am - #
    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.

    • February 16th, 2011 at 2:10 pm - #
      new_soul

      I feel your pain m8, lets go to England :D

  13. February 16th, 2011 at 9:43 am - #
    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

    • February 16th, 2011 at 6:45 pm - #
      Jens_Muff

      hah.. that poem made me lol :)

  14. February 16th, 2011 at 8:23 am - #
    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.

  15. February 16th, 2011 at 7:52 am - #
    Greyum

    Nice to see that the entries have been limited this time around.

  16. February 16th, 2011 at 7:23 am - #
    Danny

    This is quite a disappointment that the Academy has shrunk significantly, thought it was getting bigger. Ah well.

  17. February 16th, 2011 at 7:13 am - #
    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

  18. February 16th, 2011 at 6:11 am - #
    Maltese man

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

  19. February 16th, 2011 at 5:44 am - #
    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.

    • February 16th, 2011 at 6:50 am - #
      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.

    • February 16th, 2011 at 8:07 am - #
      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.

    • February 16th, 2011 at 8:33 pm - #
      Tintorera

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

  20. February 16th, 2011 at 5:40 am - #
    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