GT Academy: Silverstone, Here We Come!

97 2
GT Academy: Silverstone, Here We Come!

GT Academy logo

The time has come! We are now a little more than a week away from crowning the first winner of GT Academy here in the US. This weekend, the nation’s top 16 Gran Turismo 5 players will be making their way across the ocean to participate in the final phase of GT Academy, an intense week-long racing camp to be held at the Silverstone Circuit in the U.K. Participants will be judged by an expert panel of racing veterans, judging each competitor’s performance behind the wheel of real Nissan race cars, as well as through other grueling challenges designed to push their physical and mental stamina to the limits. The person who is judged to have the most natural talent and potential to succeed as a professional race car driver will be crowned the first GT Academy champion in the US.

Watch a recap of what went down in March at the National Finals event, where the nation’s top 32 GT5 players, who made it through a field of over 53,000 entrants, faced off to determine which 16 would make the trip to Silverstone to compete in real cars for a shot at being GT Academy champion.

The GT Academy champion will go on to train with elite race coaches and drivers before competing as part of a professional racing team. If the champion truly has what it takes, he will go on to take part in major international races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, just like the first European GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordonez, who will race at Le Mans in a few weeks. In just three short years, Lucas has gone from grad student to making his first appearance on Le Mans… and the US GT Academy champion could be joining him there in a few years!

Congratulations from Sony, Polyphony Digital and Nissan North America to these truly amazing 16 individuals. We wish them all good luck.

The top 16, in no particular order:

Bryan Heitkotter, Christopher Roberts, Jason Miller, Andre Gomes, John Wilding, Christopher Morton, Kris Norris, Gregory Russell, Connor Clifford, Phillip Arscott, Nick Fontana, Rich Pratt, Glenn McGee Howle, Steve Driscoll, Sean Johnston, Jose Cedeno

Join us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news and happenings direct from Silverstone next week, and watch for the GT Academy reality show to debut on the Speed Channel this fall.

Comments are closed.

97 Comments

2 Author Replies

  • Sausage fest lol

  • What I don’t understand is why Sony tells the media Sony Store is 6 – 8 weeks from coming back but won’t say a thing to the players on the website. Lame!!!

  • May 28 and nothing of the ps store, NOTHING NOTHING, not an update no nothing only more wait wait wait…..

  • Man it sure is nice to be able to redeem my online pass and preorder DLC for the game I just bought… oh wait I CAN’T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Well theres a 6 hour maintenance scheduled for this tuesday and sony did say theyre targeting having the store back “by the end of this month” and the end of this month IS tuesday… so keeping that in mind plus the fact that theres a maintenance that day Im hoping that maintenance will be followed by the store coming back

  • WTF does this article have to do with the Playstation Store? And what do you expect to accomplish by complaining about it being down to a guy that has nothing to do with it being put back up, or, for that matter, a company that obviously wants to see their store (i.e. a source of revenue) back up. It really frightens me how stupid people are out there.

    Anyway, great idea for a contest — congrats to those who got this far.

  • you know at this point i really dont care any more.

  • I think the real reason it is taking so long is that they have to deal with other stuff like Ninjas, Space Pirates, and Godzilla, they can’t rely on Kevin Butler all the time, there is only so much he can do even for him.

  • yeah yeah great, BUT WAT ABOUT THE PS STORE?!?!?!?! I WANT MY FREE GAMES!!!!!

  • @53 i agree with you why yall keep bugging the person posting blogs about the ps store you know they have nothing to do with it so cut them a break i believe sony has a 800 number call that number and bug about the store dont fill up the blogs with this nonsense leave it open for people who actually like to hear about new things coming out

  • this is to djspinshouse4u your calling ever one a kid because they are whining ha you make me laugh YOUR the kid YOUR the one acting like a kid by the way YOUR talking so YOU need to S T F U and yes that’s all the ADULTS are doing is just talking not taking any action so before YOU open your mouth think before YOU speak thank YOU and have a nice day

  • What i don’t like about what is going on is how sony doesn’t post things about the network. PSN is up in japan just a couple of days ago but have they posted anything NO!!! they just keep posting about games, events,and awards that we dont care about. the only good thing that sony has posted was about the official headset for the ps3 that comes out this fall. Sony PLEASE let the next thing you post be about the store and how well/bad it is coming along. Im not threating to leave sony i have had a playstation since i was 5 so im not leaving just getting a little tired of how i might actually have to return a great game (HOMEFRONT) just because Sony cant get the store up

  • GT Academy huh? Pretty neat. Now an update on the store would be nice. The people who are working on the network restoration should really come and read the stuff being posted here. >.>

  • The Store won’t be opening on May 31st, Sony won’t tell us it isn’t opening until the 31st, they also won’t tell us when it will actually open. It will probably open June 7th, or June 14th I have no proof of this it’s just a feeling I have.

  • anything on the PS store yet on when its coming up

  • guys stop bugging them about a update. its memorial day weekend and believe it or not, the people working at sony HAVE LIVES TOO (unlike some people.) they cant be working every second. and they care more then you guys cuz there getting hurt 3x as u because the same money they get from the store is the same money that puts food on there table. they already said its coming up on the 31st so shut up.

  • sorry 4 bad grammer/english, here here in Quebec the area i live in speaks french :D

  • double here’s? lol

  • shakoo_makoo… hey man no need to get mad all i did is ask a question my brother wouldnt shut up on the subject of the ps store so i put that on there to make him happy

  • Sony are having fresh air on their balls and we have to wait a full month and having a look in what at May 24 I bet that the ps store will be back online at 2012. Why I am angry? because I have a code and it says it expires and I can’t use it until you finish with that hard work you say. $30 wasted

  • I’m going to stop reading the comments until the store comes back on, because they give me a headache. They’ve said a bajillion times it’ll be back by the end of the month.

  • Will ever see GT Academy for South America? :(

  • It amazes me how many morons say ” when is the PS store going to be up” Really? Are you really asking that? They said by the end of the month. The end of the month is the 31st. The 31st just so happens to be a tuesday, which is the weekly PS store update day. Put two and two together..what do you want them to tell you? You already know the answer..

  • hahaha that guy at 1:32 reminds me of the guy from tokyo drift, the one that dies in the crash. (sry i cant remember the names)

  • the speed channel what channel is that ?

  • is PSN down for anyone else? I was on fine at 5:00 AM EST, neither wife nor me can sign on now since 8:00 AM EST. 800710002 again. god i hope this is scheduled.

  • Yea its down for me too. Im in Ohio.

  • Its down in DC too

  • Something is wrong.

  • MOLINA_520_KILLA

    not again

  • guys, this is a good thing! it means there getting ready for the store to be up. the error code is something like 80710092 and that means the servers are going under maintenance

  • down in Indiana also

  • sirkillsalot707

    Down in california there probably working on the psn store

  • they have been working on the store this whole time and the network has been up

  • Wen is the store coming back online?

  • Indiana is back up

  • really i cant wait anymore for the store

  • LOL these guys think they can drive for real? Look at the way they hold the steering wheel LOL.

  • its down for me to here in Missouri maybe its a sigh that the store is coming back up and one more thing for the free games i own both a ps3 and a psp so does that mean i get to pick 2 for each system or just one for each

  • GT5 is awesome, the PSN store being down SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • hey daxter i too have both a ps3 and psp link to one account i also would like to know if were going to get to choose 2 from both systems i sure hope so i really want mod nation racers

  • you probably can.

  • jelloboy94…. yea i know i want that one to for the jak and daxter mods and carts thats why im getin little big planet to for the jak and daxter mods

  • One question, how were folk able to comment if the site wasn’t working?

  • thats cool, but theres a big difference in racing games and driving real cars. some people would be cocky and they would be in for a surprise when they come out last, but then again some people might come out in first every time.

  • nice vid

  • EIMADD__DRONEHHF

    WHY R U WATCHING THIS JUNK!!!!!!!!!!

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields