Nissan GT Academy Finals Results | Six Winners To Fly To Silverstone, UK

Nissan GT Academy kick started the hunt for a racing driver in June this year, in association with Sony PlayStation. Nissan announced the commencement of the GT Academy National Finals for India. The event hosted over two days at Chennai’s legendary MMSC Racetrack saw the top 20 qualifiers from online and live qualification events compete for the top spots.

The six winners of the second season of GT Academy in India will now proceed to Silverstone, UK for the ultimate race camp, where they compete with the finalists from Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in the GT Academy Asia Championship. The winner will then get an opportunity to undergo a driver development program and compete for Nissan at Dubai 24-Hours. GT academy contest not only exudes an international platform to motor racing aspirants, but also converge the orifice between ‘virtual to reality’ concepts of driving.

Live Qualifying rounds took place in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, and picked up top twenty winners across the country based on the best time clocked by them on race simulators. The eleven winners from the Live Events joined nine winners from the online game, who competed with their PlayStation3 and Gran Turismo 6 on the Sony Entertainment Network. Abhishek Dwarknath, Anush Chakravarthi, Askhay Gupta, Dhruv Dayal, Jaideep Chahal, Shantanu Kallianpukar who staged their incredible driving skills in the contest are now set to perform at the historic Silverstone track.

Guillaume Sicard, President – Nissan India Operations expressed his excitement by seeing the growing enthusiasm in the country towards motorsports. The GT Academy 2015 hosted 10000 participants with hopes of making it to the top spot. Nissan aims at democratizing motorsports in India by celebrating the success of GT Academy. The six winners will now be at the international event and this contest would be a decisive factor in their lives by fulfilling their aspirations

Arun Malhotra, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd ensured Nissan’s commitment to India and its people to fulfill their dreams by providing them with unique opportunities. The aspiring racers and gamers can take full advantage of this opportunity and now stand to turn their dreams into reality. The six winners will now spend a day with Karun Chandhok, mentor of Team India and judge at GT Academy, who will help them prepare for the Silverstone Race Camp. The mentor has vouched for driver development programs that help budding racers. GT Academy is a wonderful initiative to enter motorsports, especially if you do not have the necessary backing. With an aim of upbringing the contestants to compete with other international finalists is a difficult task ahead for the mentor.

Abhinay Bikkani, one of the finalists from India last year, is currently racing in the Nissan Micra Cup in Canada and currently stands at the fifth position overall. Last year, gamers from all over India competed against each other in the race to the GT Academy final race camp. Six fastest contestants from the National Final in India then made it to Silverstone to compete with the winners from other regions. It was an apt performance by Indian racers last year with a hope of creating history this year with good staging skills of driving.

The 2015 GT Academy competition will be the biggest year yet for the virtual to reality competition. Gamers from up to 24 countries around the world will be able to enter, with GT Academy International and Asia reaching a staggering 2.2 billion potential entrants. Nissan and PlayStation are looking for the very best to progress from virtual racing to the real world of racing for Nissan. So now all the eyes will be on the Silverstone for the upcoming finals.