GT Academy

The second round of GT Academy USA kicked off Monday, this time with two car/course combos: the Indianapolis Road Course in a GT-R V-Spec II Nür (R34) and a Toscana Tarmac circuit in the XANAVI NISMO Z Super GT race car.

After more than a month of grinding away at Tsukuba, Rome Reverse, and Cape Ring, the top regional drivers in GT Academy USA have finally crossed the finish line – see here for all of the official results. I’d like to congratulate all GTPlanet readers and members who made the cut, and a special thanks to everyone using their GTP_ “tagged” PSN accounts which can be found throughout the leaderboards (nice work, GTP_potatochip for being the highest-placed tagged driver).

It’s been a long time coming, but GT Academy finally arrived in the United States last month to, apparently, a very warm reception. According to the PlayStation Blog, over 50,000 players have registered since it kicked off just one month ago. Though registration is still open, if you need to act fast if you want in – Round 1 ends this Sunday, January 23rd, at noon EST.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8D5BcFJPiI

The first-ever United States GT Academy is about to kick off on December 20, 2010, and Sony officially opened registration earlier this week. Click the big “Register Now” button right here to get started (you must be 18 years of age or older as of December 6, 2010 to enter – see the official rules for more). Once you provide your personal information, you’ll be assigned to one of four different national regions:

Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) and Polyphony Digital Inc., in collaboration with Nissan North America, announced today the opportunity of a lifetime for gaming and racing enthusiasts — the debut of the GT Academy in the U.S. Starting December 20th, fans can compete in Gran Turismo® 5 exclusively on the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) for a chance to make dreams of becoming a race driver with a professional team a reality. Registration for the GT Academy competition begins on December 6th, and fans who think they have what it takes can find more information about the program at: http://us.gran-turismo.com/.

GT Academy 2010 is about to be turned into a reality TV series, airing Sundays this fall on UK television’s Channel 4. As you may recall, GT Academy 2010 took the world’s fastest hot-lappers (so long as they didn’t live in excluded countries, such as Japan, Canada, or the United States…ugh) from the GT5 Time Trial Demo and put them under stewardship of real-world motorsports stars such as Eddie Jordan, Johnnie Herbert, and Sabine Schmitz for 5 days of physical, mental, and driving tests at Silverstone. The winner joined the RJN Nissan Motorsports team to compete for the FIA GT4 2010 European Cup.

Great news for our man Lucas Ordoñez (winner of the first GT Academy)! Lucas and his team, RJN Motorsports, have qualified their Nissan 370Z have first in its class for the Spa 24 Hours race this weekend. I’m not aware of any online live video streams of the race (if you find one, please share it in the comments below), but Lucas has promised me that he’ll be constantly updating his Twitter feed and his Facebook page directly from the paddock throughout the event. Good luck, Lucas!

GTPlanet’s own Maziar Shahsafdari (Synwraith) joined RJN Motorsports last weekend for their first race of the season, and he’s come away with a new appreciation for GT Academy winners Jordan Tresson and Lucas Ordoñez. His close contact with everyone in the team has provided an inside look at who these guys really are, and explains how their mental toughness sets them apart from the rest of us. It’s a great read, and I guarantee you’ll come away from the article with a new perspective on the GT Academy program and the driving talent it has discovered so far. Click here to check it out, and be sure to leave a word of thanks to Maziar for all of his hard work in putting this together (thanks again, Maz!)! I’d also like GTP reader Casey for sharing the following pictures from last weekend’s race:

We know the GT Academy 2010 Silverstone finals were intense, but what was it really like? For those of us who couldn’t make it (or were geographically excluded from the competition…), here’s the complete experience on video, showing what the competitors went through during each day of the finals. Watch all of the clips below, and don’t forget to check out video from the first GT Academy finals as well!

Jordan Tresson has been announced as the winner of GT Academy 2010. The 21-year-old Frenchman completed a short head-to-head test today on Silverstone’s new Grand Prix circuit against friend and rival Luca Lorenzini. The pair drove five flying laps each in the 420bhp Nissan 370Z GT4 race car that Tresson will now campaign in the 2010 European GT Cup series.

The GT Academy finalists took their first step on the road to the grand prize, when Italy’s Luca Lorenzini and Frenchman Jordan Tresson took to the track at the Snetterton circuit in a pair of identical Nissan 370Z cars. The pair recorded 10th and 11th place finishes respectively in the 750 All Comers event but, more importantly, secured valuable signatures that will assist them in their bid to qualify for an ‘International C’ race licence.

After five intense days of on and off track action, Luca Lorenzini from Mantova in Italy and Jordan Tresson from Villers La Montagne in northern France have been announced as the two winners of the GT Academy 2010. More hard work awaits the victorious pair who will be back at Silverstone next Monday to commence an intensive driver training programme to qualify them for an international C race licence. Only one of the pair will then be given the opportunity race a full season in the European GT4 Cup in a Nissan 370Z GT car.

With the famous Silverstone Circuit bathed in sunshine today (Monday), the GT Academy 2010 action hotted up once more. The final four Gran Turismo® racers in the competition had an incredible day of on-and-off track action. Jordan Tresson from France, Marco Calvo from Spain, Luca Lorenzini from Italy and Daniel Collins from Ireland were pitted directly against each other in a series of challenges designed to unearth the racing driver with the most potential to succeed in the European GT4 Cup race series.

After the toughest day of the competition so far, the fate of the eight Gran Turismo® racers left in GT Academy 2010 has been decided. Jordan Tresson from France, Marco Calvo from Spain, Luca Lorenzini from Italy and Daniel Collins from Ireland will all progress to the final two days of the Silverstone ‘boot camp’. The four will keep their hopes alive of being one of two drivers that will undergo an intensive race training programme to qualify for an International C Race licence. One winner will then progress to drive a Nissan 370Z GT car in the European GT4 Cup.

Difficult conditions greeted the 18 at Silverstone today (Saturday). But despite some heavy rain during the day, all driving activities went ahead as planned. A sprint competition in the 370Zs was followed by 3 separate activities in the afternoon – a head-to-head, parallel course time-trial in the awesome Nissan GT-R, drifting and car control in the 370Z, and lapping Stowe circuit in the 370Zs with an instructor assessing their progress.

The first day of the GT Academy 2010 Silverstone Finals are complete! The participants saw little bit of everything: fitness tests, written tests, 370Z track time, and a karting endurance race. The France/Portugal team has done the best so far, winning the karting competition, with Spain and Benelux coming in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Read through the first-hand reports in our new GT Academy 2010 forum, or keep reading to check out the complete gallery from Day 1.

Well, as a last minute replacement and completely-baffled newbie amongst serious publications’ reporters (I count the Daily Star, Ireland Daily Star, Times, Mail, AutoWeek and the BBC, amongst others), I’m here at the GT Academy Boot Camp Media Day…

The GT Academy 2010 Silverstone Finals are getting an extra boost of star power this year, with long-time F1 team manager Eddie Jordan, Nurburgring super-star Sabine Schmitz, and F1/sports car driver Johnny Herbert joining the team. Of all the new judges, the introduction of Eddie Jordan is perhaps the most significant, given his uncanny ability to choose and develop world champions. Eddie has worked closely with successful drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill – he even gave Michael Schumacher his first season in Formula 1. He also worked with Johnny Herbert, who himself enjoyed an 11-year career in F1 and a victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Here’s a nice clip to give you an idea of how the combined French/Swiss GT Academy 2010 finals went down. Thanks to gamer28 for sending this in!