Japanese car maker Nissan has been running the GT Academy programme for quite some time now and the main aim through this is to spot new talent in racing amongst gamers. Recently, the program conducted a competition that invited anyone who holds a driver’s license to participate in the qualifying tournament. These events were held in metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. The organisers required participants to record their best timings in a span of ten minutes on a virtual circuit, which was set in the PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 4. This event saw the participation of 10000 and only 20 were chosen.
The final round of the racing saw the aspirants getting tested on other things than lap time and it involved them driving in a virtual Silverstone – the British Grand Prix circuit. They were also tested on their capabilities with respect to handling of a real car. The Nissan Micra was the used in a short course, which was designed by racer Karun Chandok – the mentor of the programme. A few gruelling physical tests were also given to participants and the evaluation was done on basis of media interaction.
Winners of the contest were six people, namely Dhruv Dayal, Akshay Gupta, Abhishek Dwarkhnath, Shantanu Kallianpukar and Jaideep Chahal. Luckily for them, they will be heading to the Silverstone racing camp and one will be racing at the Dubai 24 Hours for Japanese car maker Nissan.
