Nissan India is gearing up to launch its GT Academy in India on February 4, 2014, a day before the 2014 Indian Auto Expo. The GT Academy, an initiative that defied all convention was introduced jointly by Nissan and Sony in 2008 and was seen to be a left of centre way of getting into mainstream motorsports.
Defying all traditional forms of driver development, the GT Academy takes people who are good at sitting on their couch and playing a video game, and in a few months, sharpens their real world track skills making them competitive race car drivers. The first GT Academy saw a 23-year-old Spanish student, Lucas Ordonez who had never driven a racecar, win the GT Academy. In 2013, Ordonez was on the podium in a race at the famed Nurburgring and is looking at prospects in Formula 1.
Similarly, in 2011, 19-year-old Welshman Jann Mardenborough won the second installment of GT Academy Europe. Six months later he had an international racing license and by January 2012 he was standing on the podium with his GT Academy teammates at the 24 Hours of Dubai. In 2011, the GT Academy was introduced in the USA. A former parts deliveryman from Fresno, Bryan Heitkotter, won the competition in America and went on to train alongside Jann Mardenborough at Silverstone and was part of the winning team at the 2012 24 Hours of Dubai race. He also competed in 2012 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway putting down a competitive result.
Similarly, the winner of the 2014 GT Academy in India will get a chance to train alongside his globally victorious comrades and will get a race seat in one of Nissan’s race developed 370Z or GT-R race cars to race at an event of global stature and importance. The GT Academy has always managed to make race drivers out of ordinary individuals and we would not be surprised if Nissan manages to find a diamond in the haystack in India.
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