From gamer to real life racer: GT Academy announces Aussie dates

GT Academy is back thanks to Nissan and PlayStation, giving armchair racers the chance to prove their skills and graduate to the real thing – plus a chance to play the brand new Gran Turismo game ahead of launch!

Three Live Events are scheduled to take place around Australia, where gamers can show off their virtual racing ability using a pre-release version of Gran Turismo Sport.

From there, 20 finalists will be chosen to compete at the 2016 Australian National Final at Warner Bros Movie World. That 20 will get tested in-game using Nissan cars, as well as undergoing fitness tests and real world track racing, also in Nissan cars.

The six best from the finalists are then off to Silverstone in the UK to represent Australia in the 2016 GT Academy International Race Camp. The winner from that group is then heads into the intensive Nissan Driver Development Program (NDDP) to qualify them for an International Race Licence.

Last year’s international winner Aussie Matt Simmons went from postie to pro-racer and just last April was tearing around the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup in a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

If you think you’ve got the right stuff, get yourself to one of the 2016 GT Academy events below. Otherwise, hang on until November 16 and get a copy of GT Sport, exclusive to PlayStation 4.

2016 Nissan PlayStation GT Academy dates and locations:

• August 14: Federation Square, Melbourne
• August 26-28: Red Rooster Sydney SuperSprint at Sydney Motorsport Park
• September 7-9: Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast