Over 830,000 enter Nissan and PlayStation GT Academy Online Competition

Bid to find this year's game driver to real life racer begins in earnest.

Entry to the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy 2012 qualifying closed last week after more than 830,000 people from the participating European countries downloaded and played the online qualifying demo.

The demo, based on the Sony’s Gran Turismo 5 attracted over 161,000 entries from the UK alone. The qualifying demo made use of an array of virtual Nissan cars on a variety of circuits before culminating in a one lap time trial using a Nissan 370Z on a new virtual version of the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

The 16 fastest gamers from the UK and Ireland join 16 Live Event Wild Card winners to take part in a National Final event at Silverstone Circuit (17th and 18th July), where they will face a combination of GT5 gaming challenges and real driving tests using the muscular Nissan 370Zs. Six leading UK and Ireland candidates will then return to the home of British motorsport in August for the renowned International GT Academy Race Camp.

The week long GT Academy Race Camp will see the six UK and Ireland finalists go head-to-head, as they are put through a series of gruelling driving, physical and mental challenges designed to measure what it takes to become a modern day professional racing driver. The leading UK and Ireland competitor will then battle it out against other European finalists to determine who will be crowned the 2012 GT Academy European Champion.

The overall winner will embark on GT Academy’s comprehensive and immersive Driver Development Programme to bring the virtual-to-reality champion up to international race licence standard and prepare them for their ultimate prize, a drive in the Dubai 24 Hour race in January, 2013 in a full race-spec Nissan 370Z GT4 car.

The three previous GT Academy Europe champions all now compete with Nissan in top-level international motorsport and are a living endorsement of the life-changing competition. Lucas Ordoñez (Spain, 2008/09 GT Academy champion) and Jordan Tresson (France, 2010 champion) both competed at the Le Mans 24 Hour race in Nissan powered prototype cars earlier this month. Meanwhile, Jann Mardenborough (UK, winner in 2011), won a round of the British GT Championship in the GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 car at Brands Hatch on Sunday, 24 June and is also competing in the Blancpain Endurance Series in Europe.

We’ll be following this year’s event with interest so expect updates as events unfold at Silverstone.