Gamers from Gran Turismo’s GT Academy took second place in the Pro-Am class at the 2015 Dubai 24 Hours race; also finishing fifth place overall. The all gamer team had earned their drive by winning the Gran Turismo national finals in their respective countries, showing that video games can teach people how to race fast cars.
The GT Academy takes place each year with players competing in online Gran Turismo tournaments. The programme run by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, GT developer Polyphony Digital, and Nissan Europe then invites the winners to a Race Camp in the UK for the final driver selection.
Four countries were represented among the GT Academy team with drivers coming from France, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and USA. German Florian Strauss rounded out the team their senior driver. The team drove a full race spec Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and the race is the final stop for the members of the Academy.
This is not the best finishing of for an all gamer team, as the GT Academy drivers in 2012 had finished on the podium. With that being said, several graduates from the Academy do go on to have racing careers and the programme has proven to be a legitimate way of discovering new talent.
The FIA has previously revealed plans to bring the GT Academy to more countries in 2015, with Malaysia on the list of new markets. It has, however, been extremely quiet about the news.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
