Gran Tursimo Academy winners announced and it proves itself as the real deal.

[EJ25RUN]

Even though it is about Gran Turismo, this really does belong in the competition forum.

Back in July 2 of 2008, Gran Tursimo began a tournament and set out to find two of the best GT players in Europe. It then wanted to train them to become professional racing drivers and actually compete in the 2009 Dubai 24 hour sportscar event with a Nismo 350Z race car. Many skeptics said this is a bad idea (I was one of them). I thought the idea of just throwing some guy in a racecar cause he's good at a video game was the dumbest idea ever but as i have watched the progress of the tournament, I could really see this wasn't just some publicity stunt put on by Polyphony Digital. Many very respected auto manufactures as well as race car drivers have included themselves in the training and even the Silverstone GP circuit was used. The two winners: Lucas Ordoñez of Spain and Lars Schlommer of Germany, had to complete a strenuous amount of mental and physical testing in order to insure they were capable of operating a car at the limit. The training included karting endurance races and driving a 350Z, Caterham 7, R35 Nissan GT-R, and open-wheeled formula car in the wet of Silverstone (A Grand Prix circuit). I say congrats to them for this once in a life time experience and congrats to Gran Turismo for once again reaching outside a TV screen to bring cars and professional motorsport to the average Joe.

I wrote that ^ so don't dare say i plagiarized.

Here's pix.

DAY 1

Finalists


Event location



Silverstone




Day 2

Nismo 350Z Race Car



R35 GT-R



Single Seater


F1 race winner and LeMans champ: Johnny Herbert


Proof this is the real deal: Testing in the wet of a GP track.