Nissan have launched their second GT Academy in the Middle East giving budding young racing drivers the chance to move from virtual reality in the PlayStation game Gran Turismo to the real-life dream of competing as a professional.
This unique partnership between PlayStation and Nissan has already proved to be a huge success around the world since it was launched in 2008.
The first Middle East GT Academy last year made a dream come true for Salman Al-Khater who went from being a mechanical engineer to a fully fledged racing driver thanks, initially, to his skills on Gran Turismo.
The Qatari won his first race in last year’s Britcar 1000km and he and six other international GT Academy winners are racing for Nissan in this weekend’s Dubai 24 Hours.
The second season of GT Academy Middle East is spreading its net wider by allowing 18-year-olds to compete.
Last year the limit was 21. The Academy, which has professional racing drivers as judges and mentors, provides a unique opportunity for youngsters to get into professional motorsport without the huge costs normally involved.
The first stage of the competition sees gamers testing their skills on a customised stage within the GranTurismo game. The fastest go on to a regional final before the very best head to Race Camp where they are assessed on their fitness, mental at-titude and car control.
The eventual winner gets the dream prize of racing in a Nissan 370Z GT car.
Yolande Pineda, head of corporate communications for Nissan Middle East said: “There are two ways to compete. You either play online or you get the opportunity to play in a live event.
We bring GT Academy to the region at events where we install gaming pods in different places and we invite youngsters who have a driving licence to play Gran Turismo and race.
“We then take the fastest, and here in the Middle East last year we had 25 youngsters who had either won online or at a live event and we took them to a regional final where we filter them down to eight who go to Race Camp at Silverstone.
“There, we take all their skills and push them to the extreme and we end up with the winner who goes through to a driver develop-ment programme which lasts three to four months.
They have to move to Silverstone and live there during this intensive training. At the end of that they become a graduate and they get to race.”
Lucas Ordonez who won the GT Academy in 2008 has gone on to win the Blancpain Endurance Series in a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 car and also finished on the podium at Le Mans 2013.
He said: “My life changed completely when I won the Nissan GT Academy. I tried to become a racing driver but it costs a lot of money and I couldn’t make it so I went back to my business studies in Madrid.
“Then Nissan and PlayStation joined forces to create GT Academy. I entered online and since then I have had an incredible six years.
“This doesn’t all happen by magic just because you happen to be a good Gran Turismo gamer. The game is a great simulator and teaches you the right race lines but it does not, for example, have the G-force you experience in real life. That is the biggest difference.
“There is a big, big process to complete between winning a Gran Turismo race and climbing into a real car at Le Mans.
I have to say that when I first started racing I don’t think I was taken seriously by the other drivers who couldn’t believe that a guy who got his chance by playing Gran Turismo could do well.
But when they see that GT Academy winners are often faster than them their attitude soon changes.”
More details of how to enter will be released in the coming weeks but you can also check out facebook. com/GTAcademy and twitter.com/ PlayStation ME.
