GT Academy

This weekend saw the FIA GT  debut of the GT Academy RJN Nissan GT-R GT3s at Nogaro – and it was quite the eventful start!

Jann Mardenborough got the Nismo Athletes’ season underway with a three race round of the European Formula 3 series at Monza.

With the 2013 motorsport season getting underway, 2012’s final GT Academy champions have yet to be decided as eight Middle East and eight South African gamers head to a Silverstone showdown.

As part of a large Nissan Motorsport announcement at the opening of the new Nismo headquarters, the most recent graduates have had their 2013 seasons revealed.

In 2012 Jann Mardenborough became the first GT Academy winner to drive in British GT. After a season long assault on the title, including a momentous win at Brands Hatch, his RJN Motorsport GT-R GT3 came within half an hour of the championship only to be denied by the reliability of the brand new car. But the team have been denied entry of two RJN cars for 2013 because Academy drivers are too fast.

Along with an expansion to new territories, GT Academy has expanded to a new gender as Faiza Al Kindi – known on GTPlanet as “Hollow” and pictured here with GT Academy judge Sabine Schmitz – became the first woman to qualify for a regional final.

The GT Academy team has once again scored a podium finish in the season opening Dubai 24 Hours, bettering last year‘s finish by one place.

As I’m sure we’re all aware by now, the Dubai 24 Hours represents the annual “final” prize for GT Academy. The 2013 race is less than a week away from us and the 2012 winners have been allocated their seats for this year’s race, each looking to better last year’s podium result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Kpna1qfO31g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLXGW1-i16A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLXGW1-i16A

As previously announced, GTPlanet has teamed up with Nissan to host a live Twitter party during Thursday night’s episode of GT Academy 2012, which aired on Spike TV at 11:30pm ET in the United States.

Following the end of the accompanying RTL “reality TV” GT Academy show, the German GT Academy winner’s identity has been revealed as 25 year old Peter Pyzera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLI_q7Ev9qk

A new website and video trailers have just been published for the 2012 U.S. GT Academy reality TV show, which premiers on Spike TV, Thursday, November 1st, at 11:30pm Eastern Time (check your local listings for other time zones). It will also be re-broadcast on MTV2 and available to download via YouTube and the PlayStation Store.