GT Academy

UPDATE: Due to high demand, Matt has decided to open up the competition to a second race, to be held two hours after the first. Get all the details here.

We’re sure many of us have some annoyances about certain things — commonly referred to as pet peeves — that puts us in great discomfort every time we think about it. Everyone’s got something that makes them tick, so it shouldn’t be unusual to hear even racing drivers have a few of their own, as they often find themselves in rough and seemingly merciless conditions. NISMO TV has a sampling of the personal bugbears its racing drivers grapple with, including GT Academy grads.

According to an official NISMO Facebook post and AutoDeal, the currently-underway 2016 GT Academy season has found its first dozen Silverstone-bound finalists. This selection of drivers from North Africa and Philippines will compete in the International Race Camp this October at the famed British circuit.

Last weekend saw a landmark achievement for one of the most promising graduates from the GT Academy programme, as the 2011 U.S. winner Bryan Heitkotter was able to to take his first overall win in professional motorsport — which was then swiftly backed up by a second win the day after.

GT Academy 2016 kicked off just over a month ago in various Asian territories. Now, it’s swinging down to the country that will play host to another racing game this year: Australia.

The 2016 Spa 24 Hours endurance event recently finished with the #99 BMW M6 GT3 from ROWE Racing team claiming the victory after 531 laps. Variable weather conditions and several unforeseen pace interruptions caused enough anxiety to make the race entirely unpredictable.

Gran Turismo’s immensely successful GT Academy programme has started to roll out it’s preliminary rounds across Asia as it reaches it’s 8th year in competition. The hunt for new racing drivers start with Sony and Nissan hosting live events across Thailand and the Philippines. The top 20 drivers who set the fastest times will progress to the next round. The car/track combo is the Nissan GT-R 2017 on Tokyo Expressway, PD’s newest street circuit for the series.

Yes, it’s been officially confirmed on the NISMO Facebook profile page: GT Academy has enrolled into another season of close online competitions that will try to track down talented drivers over the next several months. Although a significant number of countries won’t be supported on the initial run of the 2016 season, players residing in few select ones will get an exclusive chance to test-drive the upcoming GT Sport before everyone else.

GT Academy, the notable racing program made as a result of cooperation between Nissan and PlayStation, quickly gained recognition for offering PlayStation and Gran Turismo users an opportunity to take part in real racing. Currently running strong in its 8th year of existence, the program has life in it yet as, according to recent news, there are more things to come.

What a difference a month makes. When we last caught up with the Pirelli World Challenge after Round 7 (here), Johnny O’Connell and Michael Cooper were leading the points tally in their pair of Cadillac ATS-V.R’s, followed closely by Alvaro Parente in a McLaren 650S GT3. A significant gap existed between Parente and the two Porsche drivers that rounded out the top five – Michael Lewis and Patrick Long. 2011 GT Academy winner Bryan Heitkotter sat in ninth, while his teammate JD Davison slotted in directly behind Patrick Long.

Of course Polyphony has been programming AI for the Gran Turismo series for almost 20 years and in recent iterations of the game you’ve been able to train and micromanage your own versions of the AI in a game mode called “B-Spec” – so players have taken to calling the driver “B-Spec Bob”. With two decades of experience creating AI that can deal with high-speed racing, Polyphony should be confident.

You’d be excused for calling the beginning of 2016 a rough start for most of the previous GT Academy grads. While veterans like Ordonez, Mardenborough, and Heitkotter all had their positions announced by Nissan in February – joined by recent grads like Matt Simmons – an alarming number of winners were notable for their absence. Gaetan Paletou and Wolfgang Reip were just two of the drivers that found themselves without a seat in the new year.

Following on from the Nismo mention of the program last week, GT Academy held a press event yesterday in Egypt. Taking place at the Autovrooom track in Cairo (Facebook link if you have a particularly strong interest in the Sunny and/or Juke), few details were released, though GTPlanet member (and 2015 GTA North African champion) sems4arsenal was present. Much as the case was last year, expect some changes to the format…

It wasn’t all sunshine and smiles in Florida this past weekend. After a solid season opener the week before in Texas, Heitkotter and teammate JD Davison faced stiff competition on the tight street circuit of a cloudy St. Petersburg. While outright victory would evade the GT-R’s in Florida, the two drivers made points progress nonetheless, including a podium finish.

The Le Castellet circuit in France, better known to the motorsport community as the Circuit Paul Ricard, was this week’s home to the Blancpain GT Series as the official pre-season testing began for the upcoming season.

The Pirelli World Challenge season got underway this past weekend, bringing more success for GT Academy grads and Nissan’s 2016 motorsports teams. Bryan Heitkotter was bumped up to the top GT class in the PWC mid-season last year, where he ended the series in a respectable 10th place. For 2016 however, Bryan started on an equal footing against other professional drivers, and wasted no time establishing himself as a contender with an award-winning drive in Texas on Saturday.

2016 will see Nissans of all manner of shapes and sizes take to the track all over the globe once more, as the manufacturer, aided by the NISMO Athletes, aim to top a hugely successful 2015 with 34 drivers across 14 series.

Back in the summer, a 26-year old postal delivery driver took part in a little competition you may have heard of: GT Academy. This van-driving man – by the name of Matt Simmons – would go on to win the International Region GT Academy competition. In the article linked, we mentioned Simmons was entering the usual post-Academy 3-month training program that Nissan puts each winner through, in preparation for the Dubai 24 Hours race in January. That’s not the case anymore, however.