Nissan Begins Real-World Tests for 36 Winning GT Academy drivers

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GT Academy is in its fourth year. It allows gamers to qualify through a series of online competitions in the PlayStation3 Gran Turismo 5 video game. Players compete against other people from their region, and Nissan selects the 36 best drivers for a weeklong driving school and competition. 

Many of the contestants have never driven a car on track before. The week begins with some instruction, but the contestants are constantly being evaluated on how they apply what they learn on track. Nissan says that 830,000 people just in Europe competed in the in-game tests this year. 

The best 36 have been brought to Silverstone for their testing. They will be split into groups by region for their instruction. There are six from France, six from Italy, six from the UK and Ireland, three from Spain, three from Portugal, three from Belgium, three from the Netherlands, two from Austria, two from Switzerland and two from Poland. The drivers will be driving the Nissan 370ZNissan 370ZJapan, 2008 > 201226 versions
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and Nissan GT-RNissan GT-R Nismo GT3Japan, 2012 > present1 photo
. The training drivers are an illustrious group of professional drivers including: Johnny Herbert, René Arnoux, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sébastien Buemi, Dani Clos, Bas Leinders, Rob Barff, Franck Mailleux, Tim Coronel and previous winners of the GT Academy Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough.

The students will be eliminated during the weeklong program until there is one left from each group. They will compete against each other for the final two days to determine the winner. The end of the program coincides with the WEC Six Hours of Silverstone where the winner will be announced. 

Ordonez will drive in the LMP2 class for Greaves Motorsport during the WEC race, and Tresson will drive for Signatech Nissan in the LMP2 class. 

The winner will return to Silverstone the following weekend to begin racing to become qualified to race with the previous GT Academy winners at the Dubai 24 Hours in January. 

Because of the event's popularity and success, Nissan is giving talented drivers a better chance to win the contest. This is the first year that it has split it into four regions each with a winning driver: Europe, Germany, USA and Russia.