Steve Doherty is the 2012 GT Academy US Champion

After seven months, 400,000 competitors, and a six-week television series that captured every challenge and human drama of an intense week of racing boot camp, Steven Doherty of Plainfield, IL defeated the rest of the top 16 to win the coveted title of 2012 GT Academy US Champion.

The 29-year old mechanic actually competed in the first US GT Academy competition in 2011, but during the National Finals he missed the final 16 for Silverstone by just six tenths of a second. So in 2012, Steve came back with a vengeance and trained incredibly hard, both mentally and physically, to be a top contender at Silverstone. In the end, Steve came away victorious in the final “Winner Take All” race — and set an all-time track record amongst all previous GT Academy contestants in the process.

Currently in the UK for his intensive racing training for an international license, Steve and three other GT Academy Champions from Europe will team up in two race-prepared 370Zs to race at the Dubai 24 Hour race in the Middle East on January 10th. We look forward to seeing Steve and the rest of 2012 GT Academy Champions follow the same racing success of Lucas, Jordan, Jann, and Bryan.

Go to the official Nissan GT Academy page for full episodes and more info.