Esports

It’s Cinco de Mayo, and you know what that means: the second round of GT Academy 2015’s online qualifiers start today! After a challenging two weeks at Silverstone in the GT-R NISMO in the opening round, the competition is quickly picking up the pace – you’ll now be the GT-R NISMO GT3 Team RJN at the full Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, 2014 United States GT Academy Champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition. More to come soon as his racing season gets underway!

Things will be a bit more glamorous for GT Academy’s European Race Camp this year, which will be held at the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi. Although most of you probably want to be there as a finalist, there’s another way: by entering the new “GT Academy 2015 Quiz”.

Nissan’s full set of plans for the GT Academy 2015 competition have finally been revealed today, and it looks like things will be quite a bit different this year with some significant changes.

Polyphony Digital and Nissan have confirmed the official launch date for their gamer-to-racer driver search competition as Tuesday, April 21, 2015, after including a new GT Academy Special Event in Gran Turismo 6 in the game’s 1.18 update released last night.

Once again, April has come round and that means that the European motorsports season has started in earnest. Fresh from their successes at the Dubai 24 Hours, the latest crop of GT Academy winners are making their first steps in a variety of championships – joined by more experienced NISMO Athletes as they start a racing career.

Just days after the official announcement that GT Academy is returning to Australia this year, more news of the program’s international expansion has landed. According to the latest post on Polyphony Digital’s PitStop blog, GT Academy will be coming to Japan – for the first time – later this year.

Nissan Australia has confirmed that GT Academy will be returning to the “Land Down Under” in 2015, and it’s set to receive some high-profile exposure with an accompanying livery set to run on Michael Caruso’s #23 Altima V8 Supercar during this weekend’s race in Launceston, Tasmania.

An excellent 28-minute feature on 2014 North American GT Academy champion Nicolas Hammann was published on Hulu earlier today. It tells the story of Nic’s life: from his passion to cars and motorsport at a young age, to his involvement with Gran Turismo and the GT Academy program, to ultimately racing in the 24 Hours of Dubai last January.

The 2014 Bathurst 12 Hours didn’t end so well for the GT Academy team. After a strong qualifying performance, a colossal accident for Katsumasa Chiyo at Skyline in the third hour ended their race.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, the 2014 GT Academy North American champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition.

It’s been the prize for winning GT Academy for six years now, so this weekend’s Dubai 24 Hours shouldn’t come as a surprise to any wannabe-racer Gran Turismo fan out there.