U.S. 2015 Nissan GT Academy Finals underway in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The quest to find the next professional Nissan race car driver is underway. Today in Nashville, the top-20 U.S. GT Academy competitors battled side-by-side in Sony virtual challenges on Day 1 of the U.S. 2015 GT Academy Finals. On Wednesday, the contestants – who have already defeated nearly 30,000 fellow online gamers in the past three months to reach this point – will go through fitness challenges, skill testing and actual on-track racing in Nissan 370Z NISMOs at the Nashville Motor Speedway.

Fans can follow all the action via the Nissan Motorsports Twitter handle, @NISMO_USA.

At the completion of Wednesday's challenges, the top six performers will move on to the global finals at the legendary Silverstone Raceway in the United Kingdom next month for an intense weeklong competition to crown the next GT Academy winner. The GT Academy has produced several successful professional race car drivers in years past, and this year is poised to be no different.

Former GT Academy winners and now-professional racers Bryan Heitkotter (2011 U.S. Champion) and Nicolas Hammann (2014 U.S. Champion) were among those in attendance for today's virtual challenges, offering advice to contestants and even participating in a special race to conclude the day.

"It's a really high-pressure environment," said Heitkotter. "There are cameras here, which some people might not be used to – I wasn't during my year. It's do-or-die right now. You have to be able to handle that pressure as a racing driver, so this is a good simulation of racing in the real world because you only get one shot at each round. In my opinion, it's unparalleled in the racing world."

With temperatures expected to climb near 100 degrees at Nashville Motor Speedway Wednesday, an already grueling day filled with on-track racing and fitness challenges such as the "bleep test," "planking challenge," and push up competition will become even more difficult for the 20 contestants chasing their dreams.

But for a once-in-a-lifetime shot of becoming the next gamer-turned-professional racer, it's more than worth it.

"There's no way that myself, Bryan (Heitkotter) or others would have been able to race professionally if it wasn't for Nissan GT Academy," said Hammann. "It's all about how you take a hold of that opportunity and how you make the most of it."

The U.S. 2015 GT Academy Finals conclude Wednesday at Nashville Motor Speedway. For more information on GT Academy, please visit http://www.nissanusa.com/gtacademyshow.

About GT Academy 2015
GT Academy is a collaboration between PlayStation® and Nissan that uses the virtual world of the Gran Turismo®6 game to unearth real-world racing talent. Now in its seventh year, GT Academy includes separate competitions for Europe (France, Italy, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic), International group (Australia, Mexico, North Africa, Turkey and United States) and Asia (India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Japan).

From National Finals, the action moves onto the legendary Race Camp, where the competitors are put through their paces on track in Nissan sports cars under the watchful eyes of high profile judges and mentors. Winners from each competition will be invited to take part in the intensive Driver Development Program, where they have the opportunity to qualify for an international race license and race for Nissan professionally.

Previous winners of GT Academy are now regular racing drivers. In 2015, Jann Mardenborough (UK, winner in 2011) is racing in the World Endurance Championship for Nissan in the top LM P1 category and in GP3, a feeder series to Formula One, with the championship-winning Carlin team. Lucas Ordoñez (Spain, winner in 2008) will be racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours this year in the Nisan GT-R LM NISMO LMP1 entry, alongside Mardenborough. The 2014 Champions, Gaetan Paletou (Europe) and Ricardo Sanchez (International) are competing in the Blancpain Endurance Series with the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN.

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