The top 12 finalists remaining in GT Academy North America have just been announced!

A “team of programmers from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe” are reportedly on the Isle of Man, studying the famous TT Race circuit which stretches over 37.73 miles across public roads on the island.

Silverstone again played host to the UK National Final of GT Academy this week and, despite some concerns about the quality of entrants thanks to a new entry method this year, showed the competition is just as strong as ever.

A new batch of A-Spec races are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring a series of new drift and time trial challenges exclusive to non-racecars, rally cars, race cars, and American non-racecars.

A special sale on Gran Turismo 6 has been announced with several participating retailers in the United States, offering another chance to get some of the game’s 15th Anniversary content which was originally only available as a pre-order incentive. The content includes:

This weekend GTPlanet hosts its second 24 hour endurance race in GT6 of the year, the 24 Heures du Mans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmKl73ChFYw

A new batch of A-Spec races are now available, ranging from a beginner’s challenge to that of an expert while overtaking as many opponents as possible within the allotted time.

Nissan has shuffled its driver line-ups ahead of this month’s Spa 24 Hours. In the No.35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 squad – already strengthened by the addition of two-time Super GT GT500 Champion, Masataka Yanagida –  Mark Shulzhitskiy replaces his Russian counterpart Stanislav Aksenov and joins Katsumasa Chiyo and Miguel Faisca.

This is a special post written by Adam Suswillo, GTPlanet member and 2013 GT Academy European Racecamp runner-up. We invited Adam to put together a brief recount of his trip to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed as his prize for winning the Aston Martin online time trial in GT6.

This guest contribution is by Nick McMillen, 2013 United States GT Academy Champion. This is the account of his journey as one of the newest Nismo Athletes. Stay tuned for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

The 2014 GT Academy North American finals are coming up later this week, and with a motorsports career on the line and some of the best Gran Turismo players in the world behind the wheel, these will be the most competitive and dramatic online races seen anywhere – and you’ll be able to watch it all, live!

EuroGamer has published an extensive article covering this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which had a strong Gran Turismo presence and was attended by Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

Making it to any GT Academy final is tough enough, but when you’re competing in the newest region of the annual competition with a billion countrymen, it’s a bit more special.

A new batch of A-Spec races are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring a series of new drift and time trial challenges exclusive to two-wheel drive non-racing European cars, rally cars, race cars, and the Mazda Roadster (MX-5).

While not the busiest weekend of the summer for the Nismo Athletes, there were still seven men and four cars doing their day jobs around Europe yesterday.

The live stream is now over; watch the replay above. Thanks to all who participated!

The all-new Track Maker (or “Course Maker”) has been one of the most highly anticipated features in Gran Turismo 6 since it was first officially announced back in November, but there’s been no word on its status since the game’s release.