From one of last year's North American finalists:
"I had finished 7th in Canada, but due to ineligibilites and people declining the invitation I was fortunate enough to be the 3rd Canadian selected. There in lies lesson number 1 of GT Academy... never count yourself out. The rules and requirements of GT Academy are not easy for everyone to comply with, so every year qualifiers well outside of the top 32 are selected when the eligibilities are sorted out. The final American contestant selected qualified 50th, and the fourth Canadian had qualified 11th in Canada, and was notified just three days before we had to fly to New York. Lesson number 2, read the rules thoroughly. Lesson 3, keep an eye on your email after the qualifiers close, and remember to check your junk mail folder, because most of those notified found the initial email to have been filtered out as spam. There was a thread kept at GTPlanet that worked to sort out the ineligibilites by contacting people directly, and to quote a GT Academy representative, it was 'scary accurate', so get in contact with the community that develops around the GT Academy events. They also put on practice preperation races so competitors can get a taste of what the racing action will be like."
http://forgetful.kinja.com/gt-academy-national-finals-from-virtual-to-reality-and-1607811237
