There’s just one more GT Academy 2012 champion waiting to be crowned, and the final Race Camp for the U.S. competition has just begun at Silverstone.

Last week, Kazunori Yamauchi joined the European GT Academy finalists at Race Camp and spoke with them, answering some of their questions.

The European GT Academy final reached its ultimate conclusion at a sodden Silverstone earlier this afternoon, with Belgium’s Wolfgang Reip crowned the ultimate winner for 2012.

The 2011 U.S. GT Academy champion, Bryan Heitkotter, is about to make his debut in the Pirelli World Challenge at Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon Raceway, as found in Gran Turismo 4).

This is it for the European GT Academy 2012 finalists; only six remain, one from each region of the competition. Their names are below, listed from left-to-right in order of the picture above.

The latest round of new GT5 Seasonal Events are now live; they’re available to players who achieved all Gold times on Round 7 of the GT Academy 2012 mini game and were awarded the Nissan GT-R Black Edition Tuned Car (GT Academy) ’12.

After the video update on the first two days of the European GT Academy 2012 Race Camp, the competition has intensified and eliminations have been handed down from the motorsports stars on the judging panel.

New Time & Drift Trials are now available in Gran Turismo 5’s Seasonal Events, featuring one of the game’s most popular driver’s cars, the Mazda Miata!

Owning a fresh new copy of GT5 is about to get even more affordable, with a new MSRP price reduction for Gran Turismo 5: XL Edition in the United States.

Following on from Jordan’s review 3 years ago, Wheel Stand Pro have kindly sent over a complementary pair of their upgraded v2 stands for GTPlanet to put through their paces. On review this time are their Logitech Driving Force stand (compatible with Driving Force GT, EX, FX and Pro wheels) and the Logitech G series stand (compatible with G25 and G27 wheels).

Each year at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Kazunori Yamauchi personally selects a car at the show to be awarded the “Gran Turismo Trophy” and included in a future Gran Turismo title.

The European GT Academy 2012 Race Camp is well underway at Silverstone, and highlight videos are already being uploaded to YouTube! As always, there’s even more detailed coverage on GT Academy’s Facebook page.

Tuning – in the real or virtual world – can dramatically change a car’s performance and handling characteristics. It can also be very time consuming, involving hours of tweaking, testing, trial, and error.

The famous GT Academy Race Camp gets underway Saturday at its now traditional home, the world renowned Silverstone Circuit in the UK. Over 830,000 people from across Europe entered the fourth iteration of the European competition this year, and only the best 36 remain.

The latest special GT5 Seasonal Events are now live for players who achieved all Gold times in Round 6 of GT Academy 2012 and have received the Nissan GT-R Black edition (GT Academy) ’12.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbkwrsjUb-4

Powerful pickup trucks take the spotlight this week in Gran Turismo 5’s latest Seasonal Events. The races are open to trucks with no more than 470PP and no better than Sports/Hard tires.

A team of Sony / Polyphony Digital engineers were spotted at a high-end tuning shop south of Los Angeles, capturing exhaust sounds for the Hyundai Veloster Turbo and Genesis Coupe on a dynamometer.

While speaking in an interview with VG24/7, Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, made some encouraging comments regarding the Gran Turismo series:

The focus of the automotive world will be on Monterey, California this weekend for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and accompanying historic races at Laguna Seca, with the Shelby Cobra as this year’s featured marque.