After a spectacular opening to the 2012 Spa 24 hours, the GT Academy RJN Motorsport team were forced to retire from the race with undiagnosed electrical issues.

As reported earlier in the month, 2009 GT Academy champion and LMP2 racer Lucas Ordonez has joined the RJN Motorsport Blancpain Endurance team for the Spa 24 Hours this weekend.

The latest special Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Events for GT Academy 2012 participants are now available. Of course, this week features the Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II (GT Academy) ’94, which was awarded to all players who achieved Gold-level times in Round 3 of the competition.

Kazunori Yamauchi is attending ChinaJoy 2012, one of Asia’s largest video game shows, in Shanghai this week.

New Time and Drift Trials are now available in GT5’s latest round of Seasonal Events, one of which features the G Trail rally circuit at Eiger Nordwand. Here’s a complete overview of the new challenges:

While helping out with the Polish GT Academy 2012 finals, Lucas Ordoñez made an interesting comment about Gran Turismo 6’s development, which he’s reportedly involved in.

A new bundle version of GT5 has been announced this lunchtime for Europeans – the Academy Edition, to celebrate the fourth year of the Sony/Nissan tie-in of GT Academy.

Earlier this year, the Mazda 787B was released as the first car in Autoart’s Gran Turismo 5 “stealth model” series. Today, two more stealth models are available to purchase: the Nissan GT-R GT500 and McLaren F1.

Although Gran Turismo players from Asia didn’t have the chance to become a racing driver, the top players in the region still have an interesting prize to look forward to.

A series of special GT5 Seasonal Events kicked off last week, featuring the GT Academy 2012 prize cars.

If you thought the 33rd “Racer X” wildcard position brought a dramatic twist to the U.S. GT Academy finals in San Diego last weekend, you’ll be very surprised to find out what the competitors in Portugal had to contend with!

A Chinese software company known as “Sailfish Games” has published a car-driving app on Google Play (formerly known as the Android Marketplace) titled “Gran Turismo”.

Powerful, classic cars take center stage in Gran Turismo 5’s latest Seasonal Events, which feature pre-1969 cars on Comfort/Soft tires with no more than 500pp.

Six UK and Republic of Ireland players have booked their places for a Silverstone return at next month’s Boot Camp, following two days of gruelling virtual and real driving and fitness challenges.

While a group of 32 guys hopeful to follow in his footsteps competed in the U.S. GT Academy 2012 finals in San Diego last weekend, the first GT Academy champion, Lucas Ordonez, was nearly halfway around the world, racing on England’s Donington Park.

As those of you who tuned in to the live stream already know, the top 16 finalists in the U.S. region of GT Academy 2012 were determined this weekend in a dramatic event held in San Diego, California during Comic-Con.

Live streaming is now complete. Thanks to all who watched! Click here to view the archived streams and competition results. 

A series of special new Seasonal Events have just been announced for Gran Turismo 5, which feature the prize cars earned in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game.

The one and only U.S. GT Academy 2012 wildcard event is taking place today, Thursday, July 12, in San Diego, California! The winner, who will be known as “Racer X”, will take home the custom HumanRacing GT Chassis pictured above and join the top 32 U.S. contestants in the finals this weekend for a chance to go to Silverstone.