Following on from the Tweet detailing GT Academy‘s online participation, Kazunori Yamauchi has also Tweeted figures about GT5’s cumulative online racing to date – a truly staggering 36.4 billion miles in the 577 days since launch!

As the 2012 GT Academy qualifier draws to a close, the most recent graduates are in action again on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

We’re closing in on the final hours of GT Academy 2012, the most intense and competitive time of the public contest.

The official Italian Gran Turismo website has just published (UPDATE: this content has since been removed) new details about Gran Turismo 5’s upcoming downloadable content.

https://youtu.be/lgIV_nSqfD4

New A-Spec races are now available in GT5’s latest Seasonal Events, which feature 4WD cars of no more than 530PP. Here’s a closer look at what’s new:

GT Academy 2012 seems to have captured the interest of PS3 gamers as the number of unique players participating passed the magic 1,000,000 mark earlier this week.

Information on the second European GT Academy wildcard event is now available!

GT Academy Event 8-5 is the Platform for This Week’s WRS!

Nissan power took nine of the top 10 positions at the Le Mans 24 Hours today, rounding off an incredible week for Nissan at the world’s best endurance race. Former Le Mans winner Martin Brundle made good his return when he came home in eighth place in class with his son Alex and GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez.  The second GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson made his Le Mans debut, impressing the Signatech Nissan team with his professionalism as he powered to ninth place alongside Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is finally here! This year’s race features not one but two drivers competing thanks to the Gran Turismo video game series.

In the European rounds of GT Academy last year, Sony hosted several “wildcard events”. These live competitions were hosted at various locations around Europe, and offered players a direct ticket to the final Boot Camp at Silverstone.

The Gran Turismo 5 Asia Online Tournament 2012, an official competition similar to GT Academy hosted by PlayStation Asia, concluded last weekend with an event at the Sepang Circuit.

A Gran Turismo game has been released for every single piece of PlayStation-branded hardware to date, with the notable exception of Sony’s latest hand-held device, the PlayStation Vita. That may be about to change.

Just in time for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans – in which two GT Academy champions will be competing – the Circuit de la Sarthe takes the spotlight in the latest GT5 Seasonal Events:

The weekend of 9th/10th June once again provided us with a GT Academy winner double-header, as 2011’s champions Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough were in action on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

The final rounds of competition are now available in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game, including the all-important, final time trial challenge, which takes place at Polyphony Digital’s newly-remodeled Twin Ring Motegi circuit!

The final round of GT Academy 2012 – the one that really counts – is about to kick off in just a few days!

A large new set of A-Spec races have now been included in GT5’s Seasonal Events, featuring front-engine, rear-wheel-drive cars with no more than 500PP.

As expected, no new Gran Turismo games were announced at E3 2012, which is being held this week in Los Angeles.