Where dreams are made: Inside Nissan’s GT Academy

FOR many, standing on the podium at one of the top race tracks in the world was only ever a dream. Not anymore.

YOU can hear the sound of race cars roaring, exhausts crackling as you sit, anxiously holding the steering wheel, waiting for that ‘Go’ signal.

Winning here will change everything. You only have one shot.

For Nissan’s world-conquering GT Academy drivers it wasn’t all that long ago that they were just ordinary guys who loved playing video game Gran Turismo.

Sure, they may have dreamt of one day standing on the podium at Spa or LeMans, but it was always just that — a dream.

Enter the GT Academy.

Australia’s six finalists for the Nissan GT Academy.

The brain child of Darren Cox, Nissan’s global motorsport director, the GT Academy is an international competition that gives Gran Turismo players the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a real-life professional driver.

Any player who can prove their driving skills in the virtual world can compete on a real track in a real car.

The prize? A $1 million contract to race for Nissan Motorsport across the world.

The program has been nothing but a success, with inaugural winner Lucas Ordonez now a formidable force in international motorsport for Nissan, winning some of the most coveted races in the world at tracks like LeMans, Spa and Germany’s Nurburgring.

The current poster boy for GT Academy though is 22-year old Brit Jann Mardenborough.

Since winning GT Academy in 2011, he has gone from strength to strength and currently races in GP3, the Formula 1 feeder series. He has even signed a contract to Red Bull’s Formula 1 development program, the same program that current F1 drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel went through.

“If you had no experience at all at driving anything in real life, and you had a pedal setup in a rig and had Gran Turismo 6, you could jump from that into a real car, and drive it very near the limit or on the limit,” Mardenborough told news.com.au at the GT Academy International Race Camp in Silverstone last week.

From gamer to pro racer. Jann Mardenborough is looking to make his way into Formula 1.

This is the first year the competition has been properly opened to Australians, but it certainly won’t be the last.

The six Australian finalists who qualified for the International Final at Silverstone, England dominated most of the week, showing the rest of the world what Aussie gamers and racers can do.

Winners are grinners.

The challenges themselves are devised by some of the best brains in international motorsport and are designed to separate the boys from the men, and then to separate those who think they want it from those who really want it.

The first challenge was fitness, which aimed to test the competitors’ mental strength rather than physical.

If you were still pushing your very hardest until the very end even after swimming through swamps, running through fire and climbing rope walls, then you got through.

If you showed even the slightest hint of giving up, though, you were sent packing before even stepping inside a car.

Motor racing is a team sport.

The next few challenges involved racing old Nissan Micras and showing your ability to overtake, while contestants were gradually eliminated after each challenge.

Head judge Rob Barff said the first few tests sorts out who really wants it and who doesn’t.

“You see the relief of some of the guys’ faces when they get sent home, they simply can’t handle the intensity of the competition,” Barff said.

Aussie contestant Benjamin Smith getting some advice from previous winner Jann Mardenborough.

Struggle to concentrate driving when its raining? The next challenge took that to the next level, with contestants required to drive through a muddy course while being fired upon by paintball guns.

While being great fun for all involved, it was meant to test their ability to drive under intensely changing conditions.

Just before it flipped. Now this is what you call a shunt.

Eventually there were only two contestants left from each country, and the next challenge was Rage Buggy racing on a drizzly English paddock circuit.

The results of this race would determine the grid positioning for the final race around the fabled Silverstone Formula 1 circuit.

Team Australia, consisting of 19-year-old Marcello Rivera and 27-year-old Josh Muggleton managed to grab a 15-second lead before Rivera showed his age and took a mound too fast, flipping the buggy over, putting them in last place. The disappointment and heartbreak could be seen on everyone’s faces.

“That’s just motorsport, though,” said V8 Supercar driver and Australian mentor Rick Kelly.

V8 Supercar driver and Australian mentor gives the hard news that Rivera is heading home.

The “dogfight” challenge, which was basically a one-on-one race, was next and would decide which Australian would take part in the final race to potentially win the million dollar contract and live their dream. Eventually, Josh Muggleton came out on top.

Mexico’s Ricardo Sanchez just held off Muggleton to take home the final prize.

Starting from the rear of the grid, Muggleton was calm but nervous.

“I was actually very calm on the grid, a lot calmer than I thought I would be. I remember sitting there saying to myself, ‘This is it, this is your opportunity, give it your best, have no regrets and take any opportunity that’s given to you,’” Muggleton said.

While the following eight laps showed his ability as a racing driver, eventually fighting his way into second place, Muggleton came up just short, losing by 6/10ths of a second, nearly overtaking winner Sanchez on the final corner.

“It’s just disappointing that we threw away the win in the buggy challenge, which would have given us pole. It would have been a whole different story then,” he said.

Sanchez will now compete in amateur races to gain experience needed for his international racing license, before competing in his first professional race, the 2015 Dubai 24 hour.

Rivera, Smith and Muggleton talking to Rick Kelly after the Micra challenge.

Aside from the challenges, mentors like V8 Supercar driver Kelly would teach the basics of fast driving to contestants, head judge Barff taught the physics behind racing and the guys tested their mental capabilities in the NISMO labs.

The competition was fierce, gruelling and the most challenging thing most had ever experienced in their life, so it’s no surprise that Nissan’s program has taken the motorsport world by storm.

It won’t be long before other race teams try to come up with a similar program to find their next global superstar.