Nissan’s GT Academy turns gamers into real racing drivers

IT SOUNDS too good to be true, but Nissan is turning virtual racers into real racing car drivers for their international racing team.

The ultimate virtual-to-reality contest.

IT’S a stinking hot Bathurst day at Mount Panorama, the ferocious sounds of race cars engulf all we can hear as qualifying takes place for the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour.

“I have to pinch myself quite a lot to realise what’s happening,” says Wolfgang Reip, one of the drivers in this year’s Nissan GT-R entry.

“I never thought in my life I would be in Australia, let alone be racing here,” the 26-year-old Belgian said.

“Wolfie” as he is affectionately known didn’t start his career the typical way, he didn’t go through amateur Formula Ford races or race sport sedans, in fact, the most racing experience he had came from the indoor go-karting he did when he was a kid. Although he always dreamt of pursuing a career as a professional race driver, the high costs of the sport stopped that dream from becoming a reality.

That was until he heard about the GT Academy.

Wolfie about to race in Bahrain.

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 to win a spot on the Nissan racing team.

The competition originally started in 2008 in Europe, but has since expanded into the United States. Any PlayStation player can join the competition with a simple download from the PlayStation Store.

The top players are chosen through a series of time trials in pre-selected cars, with hundreds of thousands of aspiring drivers being narrowed down to just a few who compete in a finals event before being chosen to take part in the final selection round — a racing bootcamp held at the famous Silverstone racetrack in the UK. This is where the drivers jump out of their virtual car into a real Nissan racecar and try to prove they have what it takes to be a professional driver.

The ultimate virtual-to-reality contest.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said Bob Neville, one of the founders of the Academy “Give me 20 journalists, 20 accountants and assuming they’re fit and committed, I’ll be able to turn them into racing drivers. Same goes for PlayStation players.”

He was right. The GT Academy drivers have been nothing but a success, they’ve been so good in fact that last year they were banned from driving in the British GT Academy for being too quick.

“You just have to look at [Lucas] Ordonez’s CV, it would make any of these [Bathurst 12 Hour] drivers green — two podiums in Le Mans, winner of Nurburgring 24-hour, GT4 champion,” says Neville about his original GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordonez.

These victories reflect the accuracy of modern video games like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport and the importance that racing simulators have in training drivers.

“The [PlayStation] drivers have proved to have very good sim skills, their ability to absorb the track information through the simulator is very high level — all we have to do is teach them how to use the car,” said Neville.

It’s looking good for Aussie hopefuls too, with both Nissan Australia’s Chris Jordan and Bob Neville confirming there was a lot of interest in bringing the program here at some point in the near future.

Who knows, maybe it could be you racing with Nissan at next year’s Bathurst 12 Hour?