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.
First things first: the competition begins tomorrow, April 21, 2015, via a new Special Event in Gran Turismo 6 introduced last week in game update 1.18. As in previous years, there will also be special “live” qualifying sessions held at various events in various participating countries – we’ll try to announce and cover these as best we can as they are announced.
There will be three international regions in this year’s competition: GT Academy Europe, GT Academy International, and GT Academy Asia. The three regions are divided up as follows:
GT Academy Europe
- France
- Italy
- Germany
- UK
- Iberia (Spain, Portugal)
- Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg)
- CEE (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic)
GT Academy International
- United States of America
- Australia
- Mexico
- Egypt
- Algeria
- Turkey
GT Academy Asia
- Japan
- India
- Thailand
- Philippines
- Indonesia
Observers will note that this is a fairly radical departure from previous seasons: there are no individual country regions, as was the case with the United States, Russia, and Germany in years’ past. Notably, Russia, Sweden, and Canada are apparently not part of GT Academy 2015.
Another big change: the final stage of GT Academy, “Race Camp”, will be leaving its spiritual home of Silverstone for the first time. The European finals will instead be hosted at the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit in Abu Dhabi. All the action will be recorded for a reality TV series airing later this year.
The prize, of course, is as big as ever, with the champions receiving a full season of racing in the 2016 Blancpain Endurance Series driving a 550bhp Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 race car.
Now would be a good time to visit GTPlanet’s GT Academy forum, which is always a popular gathering spot for challengers in each region around the world to share tips and tricks through each stage of the competition. Good luck, everyone!
See more articles on GT Academy 2015.
What? No Canada this time said the slower old fart :)
Honestly, I’m thinking that this might be the last GT Academy as they have an insane amount of drivers qualified for most spots in their priority race series already. (GT3, LMP1, LMP2, LMP3, etc.) Where else are they going to put new GTA drivers?
Well, Nissan is sponsoring Usain Bolt coming to Brazil for a friendly train, but no GT Academy here. Talk about marketing priorities for a car company… They deserve to be irrelevant in the brazilian market.
So Nissan is spending huge amounts of money on advertising in Canada about how they are Canada’s “fastest growing car company”. And what do they do to support this growth? Leave Canada OFF the GT Academy competition….. well done!! Real smart marketing move there fellas.
Guess I will change my plans and stick with buying a Ford as my next vehicle.
Well I certainly don’t recommend that..
Pretty lame Nissan Canada!
It would be sweet to GT the hell out of that Yas Marina circuit…
I did not read anything about the countries left out of this year’s Academy not having access to the ‘Speacial Event’. So to those who feel slighted by PD and Kaz’ oversight, l suggest yall put in your best laps to show the Academy just how mistaken they are. Or setup some rooms…
So far 2:11 is proving to be a difficult time to best with my lack of skills and controller. Silver so far, but it’s the last seconds and tenths and hundredths and thousandths that usually wear me out.
Power to the truely talented!
Seems interesting but also seems unfair to leave county’s like Canada, Sweden & Russia out of it.
Whats about Austria??? We also have streets AND racing circuits (Red Bull – Spielberg!!!)!
Japan’s gonna blow the Asia region away. Not agreeable that India’s part of GT Academy.
Why leave Brazil, Russia, Canada and many other countrys off the challange?
Please post prize cars and/or colors, tracks here. So l can continue to sweat out this grind. This track is hard to gold for my skills and or controller. Thanks!
Nevermind, I’ll check the forum ;)
Canada? Sweden? Russia? GCC? Brazil?…No? Okay… well done Nissan for ruining and giving a big F to them for no reason. :(
Denmark and Norway aren’t there to.
It’s business fellas, that’s just how it goes. If you want GTA to return to your country, your best bet is to lobby the hell out of them from this point forward.
The picture looks very digital to me, hope this track is coming to GT6!
Is that first image a render/model of Yas Marina? It looks suspiciously sparse, clean and ‘3D’ to me. The background could be sat photo and the buildings in the distance models/blocks. I’d like to see the origin of that image if possible, Jordan?
No, I’m pretty sure those images are from the real deal and not 3d renders.
The hotel at the track still reminds me of a giant ladies razor :D
1st Round … Silverstone GTR Nismo (GTA) SS tyres… 2.11.000 for gold ( but that’s not what we’re competing for is it) … there are some fast times up there already. ..
Egypt and Algeria and Nooo Morocco ???
It’s a shame!!!
I’m picturing a bunch of egg shaped heads which flap up and down whenever they speak complaining to Stephen Abootman at the World Canadian Bureau about this. Expect Canada to be going on strike!
Good luck everyone.
lmaooo
I guess Let_Canada_In will have to come back out of retirement.
The legend never dies.
I hope this means Silverstone won’t be one of the tracks then
I’d love it if Yas Marina gets added to GT6 though. I like that track a lot. Always have
Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi is not even in Gran Turismo 6 anyway, why is it used in GT Academy in the 1st place?
That should be in the game as well as Shanghai GP Circuit and Paul Ricard Circuit.
Just a suggestion for circuits as there were used in GT Academy anyway.
It might be an indicator that the track is coming, but as always, money talks. Abu Dhabi has lots of money.
Like Johnny said it might be an indicator that the track is coming in GT6 but perhaps the main reason why is that the Yas Marina Circuit is used as the Young drivers test at the end of the F1 season.
If you also remember neither was Silverstone in GT5 yet they still used it for the GT academy race camp.
Yes I would love to see this circuit in GT6 (or GT7) but I also would love to see the Shanghai Circuit and Hockenheim (the old track and the new configurations) as well as Snetteron and Donnington.
Yas Marina circuit. FIA certification for GT6. Hope we get it. Too many original tracks and no real world ones.
THIS SUCKS!!!!!
Maybe we’ll get the track in game at a later date ? maybe ????
And cars…
As a perennial loser I can only look forward to cars and tracks.
Just gonna lay my prediction for the final seasonal event being the Nissan LMP1 car at Yas Marina.
I can’t understand why there isn’t just an American region for the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Hell maybe even throw Venezula in there.
Sounds good, but I would be happier if PD surprises us with a GTA Download for PS4, simply because the userbase of PS4 has eclipsed 20 million in under 2 years and lots of GT players could have sold their PS3 to make room for the new kid in town. I have both but I would still love to for it to grace my PS4 as a teaser for things to come.
Maybe even a GT7 Prologue? I know some here would throw a fit, but can you imagine yet another Prologue platinum seller just from preorders? I sure can.
When is Brazil going to participate?
ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS!
Oh man, I’m gutted for you!! This sucks big time!!!
You can always immigrate :)
Dropping Canada? Ouch, GTA. Ouch.
Oh crap, I really need to win this year!
US vs Australia? Aww yeah
Unless you are an Australian, careful what you ask for, if I look at last year’s top 10 for Australia and USA….. :-)
2014 Top 10 Australia
Rank Online ID Time Gap
1 joshmuggo 2’14.386 – – –
2 SpeedyReadie94 2’14.432 0.046
3 warrior2167 2’14.445 0.059
4 Adam_2167 2’14.560 0.174
5 benna151 2’14.587 0.201
6 g25cello21 2’14.788 0.402
7 Dylan318is 2’14.795 0.409
8 TRL_beau 2’14.904 0.518
9 MINT_GTR 2’14.949 0.563
10 beau231 2’14.968 0.582
2014 Top 10 USA
Rank Online ID Time Gap
1 outlaw4rc 2’14.864 – – –
2 Hugh–Jayness 2’14.938 0.074
3 TC-doodlemonoply 2’14.990 0.126
4 ATW_Hero 2’15.006 0.142
5 VindictiveScrub 2’15.007 0.143
6 SprintCupChamp1 2’15.089 0.225
7 SilentAdrenaline 2’15.099 0.235
8 GumballCGT 2’15.109 0.245
9 z06fun 2’15.121 0.257
10 L_Harrison 2’15.131 0.267
To be honest, I hated last year’s combo.
You’re one to complain, sitting pretty in 3rd place in the US rankings. :P
I think most of those Aussies are ineligible anyway, all the race camp finalists and beau (twice) through age. Besides which, online qualifying is about being fast in your own country, and has no relevance to the actual race camp apart from who’s there. Doodle’s biggest threat online is if previous US finalists are eligible again due to it being a different competition. ;)
Good luck, Andrew, I still say you’re a danger to everyone. :tup:
As much as I appreciate that ex finalists aren’t allowed in as it provides spots to compete for its a bit of a shame…. Josh (Aus) got robbed last year ..(my opinion)
. i think they should allow ex finalists to compete for one spot on race camp … 5 newbies and a returning champ.
..
Sorry boys and girls….this is Australia’s year ;)
I’m not participating this year even though I’m old enough.
I think Canada is paying the price for having one of it’s citizens in last GT Academy’s top 6!!! How dare you, Canada?
My bad….. Sorry guys :(
It really is a shame. There are many Syrup-drinking, Moose-hunting, Hockey-playing, Canadians that would surely wake from hibernation and climb out of their igloos for such an event! All jokes aside, I’m pretty chapped that we don’t get to participate and represent our beautiful country on the world stage.
I guess maybe I can wait until my next lifetime till it comes to Brazil and I can be assed to pick up the game again.
aww shucks, no Canada participaction. I guess I’ll be giving away my PS3 sooner than I thought.
Saw the image of Yas Marina before reading the title and got excited briefly–oops.
I wouldnt even care if Yas Marina were coming to GT6. Project cars is just weeks away…
So? Yas Marina would still be a great addition to GT6…
I knew I wasn’t the only one. :D
I think the odds are pretty good that the track will make it to the game, although not guaranteed of course. Definitely not one of my favourite tracks though. Too flat, too boring, too many 90 degree corners. It’s the epitomy of a modern F1 track..and that’s not a compliment. Damn you FIA and Hermann Tilke!