GT Academy

There’s been a lot of attention (and rightfully so!) around winner of the first GT Academy, Lucas Ordonez, after it was announced he’d be competing in the 2011 ILMC this year. However, last year’s GT Academy winner, Jordan Tresson, is also steadily making his way up the racing ladder, running in this year’s Blancpain Endurance Series – a European championship which includes the challenging 24 Hours of Spa.

Winner of the first GT Academy “Wild Card” was just announced last week, and I’m very happy to report the award goes to GTPlanet’s own James Hudson. Hudson, who goes by TwinturboCH here in our forums, has now become the very first confirmed national finalist in all of Europe. The second UK “Wild Card”, of course, is still up for grabs in the GT5 time trials currently underway at GAME retailers around the country.

If you missed out on the first-ever GT Academy 2011 “wild card” competition in London last weekend, listen up! There’s now one more direct ticket to the UK national finals up for grabs, and this time, the time trial competition is being held at GAME retailers across the country over the course of the next week:

I’m very excited to announce that GTPlanet has partnered with GT Academy and the Gran Turismo Boutique to run two special challenges alongside this year’s GT Academy 2011! Here’s an overview of how each works:

GT Academy EU 2011 is in full swing, but this year, Sony and Nissan have revealed an interesting new twist for players in the UK. A live “wild card” time trial event will be held April 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the Nissan Innovation Center inside London’s O2.

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.

GTPlanet is very excited to team up with Nissan to co-host a live Twitter question & answer session with Lucas Ordonez, the real-world racing star that’s emerged from the first GT Academy competition! As you know, Lucas and his Signatech Nissan team just finished second-in-class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first race in the 2011 International Le Mans Cup calendar. They’ll be participating in all the events around the world this year, including the ultimate endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez and his Signatech Nissan team finished second in class during their first race: the challenging 12 Hours of Sebring. After starting on pole, the team was forced to battle with gearbox and electrical issues, but still managed to bring the car home in one piece with a very respectable finish. Check the official race report for a complete overview of all the results.

As you know, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez has made huge strides in his racing career and is now competing in the 2011 International Le Mans Cup. The series kicks off today with the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida, and Lucas’ team, Signatech Nissan, are already off to a great start scoring class pole in the LMP2 category!

The European round of GT Academy 2011 has had a bit of trouble getting started in Italy. As you may recall, the rules officially stated the competition wouldn’t kick off in the country until today, March 18th, at 8 AM GMT. However, the launch date has passed and, as of writing, there’s still no sign of the Academy there yet. Italy also appears to have been removed from the list of eligible countries on the official website.

GT Academy officially returns to Europe today, with a new, custom “Eifel” track specially designed for the competition by Kazunori Yamauchi himself. Participants will be piloting a Nissan 370Z around the new course, featuring sweeping, high-speed corners with plenty of helpful camber (check out the video above for a complete lap).

Winner of the first GT Academy, Lucas Ordoñez, has just been announced as a driver with Team Signatech Nissan, to compete in the 2011 International Le Mans Cup – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans! He’ll be piloting their ORECA O3 LMP2 car at ILMC events around the world, starting with the 12 Hours of Sebring next month.

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:

First mentioned at GT5’s Madrid launch party, the next round of the European GT Academy has been officially announced! The online time trials kick off Friday, March 4 and will continue through Sunday, April 17th. Players from 10 different countries, grouped by “territories”, will be eligible to participate:

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).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQK3eWW55Bs