Your country needs you!
The countdown has started to the end of the GT Academy Time Trial and the online action is extremely competitive. At stake is a prize that will make a dream come true - the opportunity to swap your PlayStation3 for the controls of a real Nissan 370Z racing car and compete for a whole season in the European GT4 Cup. An added incentive to enter GT Academy 2010 is national pride, with the GT Academy Facebook page recording a league table of participating nations, currently headed by Germany.
Participants have until midnight (GMT) on 24 January, 2010 to record their fastest lap times on the stunning new Gran Turismo version of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Time Trial is available to download via the PlayStationNetwork. Anyone taking part will drive the Gran Turismo versions of both a standard, road version of Nissan’s stunning 370Z as well as a tuned version of the same car, with the combined lap times determining positions on the leader board.
At the end of the Time Trial, the holders of the twenty fastest times from each participating territory will battle it out in their National Final to qualify for their place at the GT Academy 2010. This racing driver ‘boot camp’ will take place at the world-famous Silverstone circuit and offer participants some real-life intensive driving training and challenges as well as fitness and mental tests. Two winners will emerge from Silverstone to be further trained in race-craft and to qualify for an international race licence. Only one winner will be given the chance to campaign the Nissan 370Z in the European GT4 Cup.
The unofficial national league tables on the GT Academy Facebook group (facebook.com/GTAcademy) have added an extra dimension to the competition. The group has a league for the fastest individual times from each of the 17 participating countries as well as an average of the fastest 20 players from each. With less than a week until the end of the competition, the individual league table looks like this:
1 Germany
2 France
3 Australia
4 Spain
5 Finland
6 Italy
7 Portugal
8 UK
9 Switzerland
10 Netherlands
11 Sweden
12 Belgium
13 New Zealand
14 Austria
15 Norway
16 Ireland
17 Denmark
“I have been amazed by how quick the lap times are and how many people are playing each day,” commented PlayStation 3 brand manager, Mark Bowles. “The speed and determination of some of the players on top of the leader board makes me confident that we will discover another real-life racing talent from GT Academy 2010.
“In the meantime, there is less than a week left of the Time Trial and so I am urging all Gran Turismo fans from Denmark to get onto the game to try to catch the Germans!”
“My own attempts at a fast time have been pretty poor, but I certainly enjoyed the experience,” added Nissan’s European Interactive Manager, Darren Cox. “It has also been great fun to follow it all on the Facebook page and see which countries are faster. There are definitely a few surprises, but it is not too late to join in and help your country to the top. With over one million downloads since 17 December, this has been a very successful start to GT Academy 2010. It will be great to see a busy final few days in what has surely been one of the biggest test drives of a car ever – albeit at the wheel of the stunning virtual version of the 370Z!”
GT Academy 2010 contestants that are in the top 30 of their territory leader board at midnight on 24 January will have to go online at eu.gran-turismo.com in order to register their details and interest in progressing to the National Finals events. Only 20 players will compete in each National Final, but 10 reserves will be on standby in case any cannot make the event or are ineligible.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that the Gran Turismo Time Trial will remain playable, and the leader board available, until 24 February, after which time it will no longer work on PlayStation 3. The download will stop being available from PlayStationStore from the time that entries for GT Academy 2010 close on 24 January.
For people who want to find out more about GT Academy, lots of news and views will be shared on a variety of platforms including:
facebook.com/GTAcademy | eu.gran-turismo.com | twitter.com/GTAcademy
