The 2014 Nissan GT Academy has begun, with gamers worldwide looking to get the perfect lap on Gran Turismo 6 and progress to the next round of the competition.
This year, however, the GT Academy is offering a new route to complete the gamer-to-racer journey, through the GT Academy Challenge game on Facebook.
The game is available to play exclusively on Facebook until June 16 and tests the player’s reactions and driving skills. The top scorers will be shown on a leaderboard, with the top eligible performers from each country winning an invite to an exclusive Gran Turismo 6 qualifying day where they will compete head-to-head on the racing simulators.
The best performers in the head-to-heads will win a place at their National Final, joining the top qualifiers from the in-game qualification round on GT6, as well as those who earned a place in a local Live Event competition. The National Finals will test their gaming, driving, media and fitness abilities.
From there, the winners of the National Final will go on to the European Race Camp at Silverstone, where they will be put through their paces on and off track. The 2014 GT Academy Champion will be decided following a week of challenges, earning a chance to become a real-life racing driver for Nissan, receiving three months of intensive training in preparation for the Dubai 24 Hours in January.
Former GT Academy graduates have gone on to enjoy strong motorsport careers, with no less than four previous winners scheduled to compete at the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours. 2011 champion Jann Mardenborough is also racing in the GP3 Series, while the first winner of the GT Academy, Lucas Ordonez, is racing in Japan’s Super GT championship.
“GT Academy is all about finding real racing talent from among the vast pool of superfast gamers,” said the Vice President of Product Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment, Usama Al-Qasaab. “However, we know that not all the gamers out there will have a copy of Gran Turismo 6 and so this is a chance for them to enter by an alternative route, as well as being a lot of fun. They’ll still have to prove themselves on GT6, however, to make it to the next stage.”
