Start Your Engines: GT Academy 2012 Gears Up for May 1st

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Start Your Engines: GT Academy 2012 Gears Up for May 1st

GT Academy 2012GT Academy 2012

It’s time to gear up for GT Academy 2012! The competition starts on May 1st and will be open to all entrants through June 24th.

Developed for racing fans of all levels, GT Academy 2012 will offer a newly designed eight-step training and qualification program accessible as a demo based on the hit Gran Turismo 5. The demo will be made available for free on PlayStation Store via PSN and will maximize the potential of all users, from beginners to advanced drivers. All participants will compete in a series of virtual driving trials using Nissan cars, and the best of the best will compete in the National Finals in July. The action will then jump from the virtual cars of the PS3 game to actual Nissan sports cars when the winners of the National competition are invited to take part in the intense international Race Camp competition in August, where one ultimate GT Academy winner will train with elite racecar drivers and race as part of a professional team.

Entering its second season, GT Academy USA is a national competition designed to recognize elite Gran Turismo drivers and give them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill their virtual-to-reality racing dream of becoming a professional racecar driver. The grand prize for the GT Academy winner is a spot on a racing team to compete in a real race, including all the training and licensing he or she will need in order to prepare. From there, it’s up to the winner’s passion, determination, and skill.

Last year, Bryan Heitkotter from California was crowned the first US winner of GT Academy at Silverstone, beating out 53,000 racing hopefuls in becoming a professional racecar driver and now racing a Nissan 370Z Nismo RC in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series in the top GS (Grand Sport) class.

GT Academy 2012GT Academy 2012

Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony Digital, comments: “It makes me very proud to see the graduates of the GT Academy racing around the world with Nissan. This year we are aiming to make GT Academy bigger and better than ever before and so I am creating a new series of driving challenges open to anyone with a PS3 (Note: terms and conditions will apply). You don’t have to be an expert to have a go.”

So practice up on either Gran Turismo 5 or Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition and be sure to mark your calendars and get ready for GT Academy 2012 starting on May 1st.

More details to come on the official site and Facebook.

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17 Comments

  • Sweet! Looks so cool good job organizing this! First! :P

  • good

  • looks amazing cant wait for this

  • shoutout to my boy verse nd zodiac

  • Finally! I can’t wait. This is going to be great!

  • LUCKY # 7, I may have already won!!! Well I will try to win at least. Sounds like a cool way to go about it this way, with the demo and all.

  • cooool

  • superb

  • nice

  • I hope that PD can find a way to keep those who exploited the corner cutting cheats to advance through the competition last year (all of whom made it to the finals, plus many thousands who didn’t) in check. If they can manage to hold an honest, rule-abiding competition this time around, then I’ll be the guaranteed winner of this year’s GT Academy, because my driving talent is unparalleled. That being said, I still wish the best of luck to all, because if you don’t cheat you’ll need it to beat me.

  • Canada not being allowed in yet again is an outrage!
    I am faster than any American, anyone in the western hemishpere, maybe anyone in the world.
    I will prove it (again) if I get the chance.

    Turismo-lester

  • Sounds nice,but as far as Gran-turismo wheres the DLC every 2 months we were promised practly or will we get anything , there was supposed to be a DLC in March, there was talk of a Dlc in april but so far nothing . or will this may 1st download take the place of anything dlc update wise ,cause there was supposed to be a update as well or is someone at pd falling behind lol thanks guys

  • To Turismo-lester

    I share your thoughts man! I often participate to timetrials and I always see your name on top of the charts! As for myself, sometimes I reach the top 260! 200th was my by ranking yet! So you probably have more reasons to participate than I do! But, man it pisses me off! Timetrials are the only reason for me to keep on playing GT5 since I’ve gonne through the whole game! I was looking forward to the next GT Academy. But now I’m so pissed off! We’re f****** customers buying their product and in the end, the message they’re sending us is get lost, we don’t care about you! We should unite, start a movement or something! Let them know we’d like to be considered as well!

    Frederic

  • I too being Canadian want to race GT Acadamy!!!!! WTF!!! I been an active PSer sincs PS1 and have two PS3’s right now and think that Canadians are being discriminated against if we aren’t allowed to play for a second year!.I was at a loss as to why last year, as bought the special collector’s edition GT5 after having Prologue for years and couldn’t race GT Acadamy that was shown on my game case and was advertised as a North America contest. Isn’t Canada over 1/2 of it?? I think all Canadians should get together if we are denied again this year and defend our rights!! Maybe Canadians should stop buying PS3’s and stuff or Nissan cars and boycott them if we aren’t recognised as rightful customers and allowed to play like the rest of the world.Even Russia gets to this year!!

  • To outlooker7:

    I fully agree!

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