GT Academy USA 2011

2011 US GT Academy winner Heitkotter is making his Daytona Speedway racing debut in support of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona competing in the Continental Sports Car Challenge “Daytona Rising 200.” He will be piloting the Skullcandy Nissan Altima Coupe along with Vesko Kozarov in the Street Tuner (ST) category. Bryan’s last professional race was back in September when he ran a Nissan GT-R in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Class. He has achieved much success running in CTSCC previously with the Doran Racing 370Z, this will be the first race for him in the front-wheel drive Altima racecar.

U.S. GT Academy winner Bryan Heitkotter recently sat down for an in-depth one-on-one video interview with InsideSimRacing‘s Darin Gangi. Bryan discusses his background, what it was really like to come up through the ranks of GT Academy USA, and how he’s making the most out of his time with Nissan in preparations for the 24 Hours of Dubai.

Following in the footsteps of GT Academy champions Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson, European GT Academy 2011 winner Jann Mardenborough and his US counterpart champion Bryan Heitkotter would conclude their intense driver development programme at the Britcar “Into The Night” 3-hour endurance race around Brands Hatch circuit. This race would signify the last segment of the pair’s development campaign and their last competitive race before the GT Academy 2011 grand prize, the chance to compete at the prestigious Dubai 24 hour race.

The North American GT Academy finale is about to begin on Speed TV, tonight at 10:00PM Eastern Time. As announced yesterday, GTPlanet and Nissan are hosting a live viewing party on Twitter (where Nissan is about to give away even more prizes), and I hope you’ll join us!

It’s been interesting and entertaining to watch America’s fastest Gran Turismo players make the transition from virtual to reality over the last four weeks, and now the final episode of GT Academy on Speed TV airs this Tuesday, October 18th at 10PM Eastern Time. If you haven’t been able to watch, don’t worry – all the episodes are right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qaTfP1RWSM

When it was first announced that GT Academy would be coming to the United States, it was also mentioned that the competition would air as a reality show on SPEED TV in the fall of 2011, with host Kristen Adams. Now, we finally have air dates for the program according to SPEED TV’s website:

Since Bryan Heitkotter took home victory at the U.S. GT Academy finals, Sony America and Nissan’s PR haven’t done a lot to promote Bryan’s accomplishments (though, in fairness, they may be waiting for the finals to air on Speed TV), despite some very impressive on-track results.

Brian Heitkotter (GTXf_CudaMan) has just been announced as winner of the first U.S. GT Academy! The win comes at a great time for 30-year-old Brian, who is bouncing back in a big way after having been laid off from his former job as a delivery driver in California. Now, he gets a quick break at home before returning to England, where he’ll continue training throughout the summer with Nissan for the 24 Hours of Dubai next January. Congratulations, Brian!

If you competed in GT Academy USA earlier this year, you know exactly how difficult it was to make the cut during the Round 3 time trials. Those who made it to the National Finals in Orlando are obviously very talented, and the final 16 going to Silverstone next week are the best in the country. What’s it like to make it that far in the competition, and how can you do it, yourself?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_UdLgoft9w

The top 16 drivers among the 50,000 participants in GT Academy USA 2011 have now earned their place in the Silverstone boot camp! The last few rounds of heated competition went down in Orlando on Wednesday, and GTPlanet correspondent grafpt was on hand for all the action. Here’s the finalists, grouped by region:

Holy cow, where to begin! Well first and foremost I must send my biggest thanks to Jordan(GTP) and Alex and Claudine(Sony). Without them this day would never have occurred and many great things would never have been sparked.

The third and final round of time trials in GT Academy USA finally came to an end Sunday evening after an intense (and thankfully drama-free) week of competition. Only 32 players (the top 8 from each region) remain, all of whom will be now be moving on to Round 4, the “National Finals”, next month.

The previously delayed Round 3 of GT Academy USA finally kicked off today at 9 AM! After all the drama in Round 2, the 512 participants who made the original cut are eligible to compete, but only the top 8 from each region will be moving on to Round 4 (the US National Finals). The winners will once again be determined by the fastest combined lap times on two different circuits with two different cars:

Mark your calendars! Kazunori Yamauchi has just announced via Twitter the next update will be made available for Gran Turismo 5 this coming Friday, February 18th. Via Google Translator:

Wow! In an unprecedented move (and on a Sunday morning, no less), SCEA has just announced the cancellation of Round 2 in GT Academy USA, due to more abuse and “wall-banging” on Rome and Madrid. All participants who qualified for Round 2 will be automatically moving on to Round 3. The start of round 3, previously scheduled to begin on February 14th, is now “subject to change” pending the next GT5 update, which has been confirmed to introduce more sophisticated corner-cutting and wall-banging detection mechanisms to “prevent this type of inappropriate driving”.

It’s been a rough week for GT Academy USA. After corner-cutting at the Indy Road Course prompted SCEA to replace the track, most assumed the debacle was behind us. However, a few noted that on the new course, “Eifel 102A”, the grass could still be used as a runoff area without in-game penalty. This wasn’t particularly alarming to most participants, as many of top drivers used the grass to run wide at a notorious corner on Cape Ring in Round 1 (and nothing was done about that).

Sony and Polyphony Digital have, fortunately, acted quickly to resolve the issues with corner-cutting in round 2 of GT Academy USA. All times for the Indianapolis Road Course have been removed, and the track has been replaced with a new custom-built circuit known as “Eifel 102A”. As with Indy, the  Nür (R34) is the only available car. The round will still end at its regularly scheduled time (February 6th at midnight, EST).