Esports

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, 2014 United States GT Academy Champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition. More to come soon as his racing season gets underway!

Things will be a bit more glamorous for GT Academy’s European Race Camp this year, which will be held at the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi. Although most of you probably want to be there as a finalist, there’s another way: by entering the new “GT Academy 2015 Quiz”.

Nissan’s full set of plans for the GT Academy 2015 competition have finally been revealed today, and it looks like things will be quite a bit different this year with some significant changes.

Polyphony Digital and Nissan have confirmed the official launch date for their gamer-to-racer driver search competition as Tuesday, April 21, 2015, after including a new GT Academy Special Event in Gran Turismo 6 in the game’s 1.18 update released last night.

All Nissan factory-backed cars racing this weekend will be carrying a small black ribbon logo to mark the death of the spectator. Meanwhile the unfortunate driver, Jann Mardenborough – who was also taken to hospital as a result of the incident – has resumed driving duties in the GP3 test this weekend, topping the timesheets amongst his Carlin team-mates in 7th overall.

During today’s ‘VLN 1’ race at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a serious incident occurred involving the No.23 Nissan.

Just days after the official announcement that GT Academy is returning to Australia this year, more news of the program’s international expansion has landed. According to the latest post on Polyphony Digital’s PitStop blog, GT Academy will be coming to Japan – for the first time – later this year.

Nissan Australia has confirmed that GT Academy will be returning to the “Land Down Under” in 2015, and it’s set to receive some high-profile exposure with an accompanying livery set to run on Michael Caruso’s #23 Altima V8 Supercar during this weekend’s race in Launceston, Tasmania.

An excellent 28-minute feature on 2014 North American GT Academy champion Nicolas Hammann was published on Hulu earlier today. It tells the story of Nic’s life: from his passion to cars and motorsport at a young age, to his involvement with Gran Turismo and the GT Academy program, to ultimately racing in the 24 Hours of Dubai last January.

Bathurst bit back almost immediately though, as Chiyo scraped the wall at the Cutting and had to limp back to the pits with some unsightly rear end damage. The team is confident of getting it all straightened up for the start of the race, which will be taken by Wolfgang Reip.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, the 2014 GT Academy North American champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition.

Facts & Guides

Nissan is making waves in the endurance racing world this year with a new car to compete in the top LMP1 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and you’ll be able to drive it in Gran Turismo.