Nissan and PlayStation® will demonstrate the growth of the GT Academy , taking new pilots to the prestigious real competition. The winners of the GT Academy of Europe, the United States, Germany and Russia will be on the grill of the prestigious 24 hours of Dubai (from January 10 to 12, 2013) at the wheel of two Nissan 370z Nismo GT4 of races. Gran Turismo®5 players have taken only four months to become official pilots of the Nissan resistance team.
The Belgian Wolfgang Reip (winner of the European edition in 2012) and the Russian Mark Shulzhitskiy (champion of the 2012 Russian edition) will form a team in the first of the Nissan 370z with two very experienced pilots, the first winner of the GT Academy , the Spanish Lucas Ordoñez, and the Russian pilot of the signatech nissan team of LMP2, Roman Rusinov. Both are experts in 24 -hour races, with impressive results in the 24 hours of Le Mans, where Ordoñez was second in the LMP2 category in 2011 and Rusinov fourth in 2012.
The second 370z Nismo with the colors of the GT Academy will be piloted by the German Peter Pyzera (winner of the 2012 German edition) and the American Steve Doherty (winner of the 2012 American edition). His teammates will be the "Queen of Nurburgring", Sabine Schmitz, and the judge and mentor of the last three years of the GT Academy , the British, Alex Mocombe, who in the previous seasons achieved victory with the Nissan team in this race with three winners of the GT Academy who debuted in the world of competition.
26 years old, "Wolfie" Reip was one of the more than 830,000 players who participated in the European Academy and achieved the victory after being the best in the exhausting Race Camp that was held in the Silverstone circuit last August. Wolfgang and his fellow winners, Mark, Peter and Steve, have been trained in all imaginable circumstances that a racing driver should know how to handle, in addition to being subjected to tests with street cars, karting, and physical and nutrition training programs as well as a sports psychology course and multiple simulator sessions. In addition, the four winners played a series of races in the United Kingdom with the aim of getting the international license to compete and be prepared in Dubai with the Nissan 370z Nismo GT4 .
Darren Cox, Global Director of Motorsports of Nissan, explains: "Every year we have updated and improved the pilot development program for the winners of the GT Academy and I think it is currently the best in the world. We are absolutely sure that these boys who will run in Dubai are better prepared than many of their most experienced adversaries who have taken a more traditional path in motor competitions. And Jann Mardenborough, the first winners of the European GT Academy , have shown that we are forming great pilots.
The creator of Gran Tourism, Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital, shares that opinion: "Every time a new winner disputes the 24 hours of Dubai it is a very exciting time for all those involved in the GT Academy . The 2013 pilot staff combines the raw talent of the last winners of the GT Academy with the experience of Lucas Ordoñez and three other professional pilots, which will be There to support the debutants and witness the success of the program. "
