…UK contestants eliminated on day two of the Nissan and PlayStation®’s GT Academy 2010
Ireland, Italy, France and Spain progress through to the final two days
The GT Academy 2010 has moved a step closer to unearthing a real racing talent. The 18 Gran Turismo® racers who set out on their quest to win a season long Nissan 370Z drive in the European GT4 Cup have been reduced to only four after three days of intensive driving challenges.
GT Academy made a great start on Friday (26 February), despite a dramatic last-minute driver change. Belgium’s national champion, Stijn Wackenier, was forced to withdraw from the competition due to illness.
Second placed in Belgium’s national final was Benjamin Peron. He arrived at Silverstone late on Thursday night and joined his PlayStation colleagues for an 0830 briefing on Friday morning. The 18 drivers moved to Silverstone for medical and fitness tests, media interviews and to take to the wheels of a fleet of new Nissan 370Zs.
An eight-lap assessment on the Stowe circuit was followed by a “superpole” competition.
Next up was a transfer to a kart track for a two-hour endurance race in some powerful 125cc karts. The competitors were split into pairs and briefed on endurance racing strategy by Academy judges, and successful endurance racers, Rob Barff, Johnny Herbert and Sabine Schmitz. Each pairing was responsible for their own driver and refuelling strategy. Some incredibly fast laps and fierce competition on a cold circuit eventually saw the Franco- Portuguese duo of Jordan Tresson and Felipe Barreto pip Spaniards Roberto Ortero and Marco Calvo for the win.
A late night press conference with members of the international media underlined that there is more than one side to the life of a racing driver. The media took part in judging the drivers on their presentation skills. Difficult conditions greeted the 18 at Silverstone today (Saturday). But despite some heavy rain during the day, all driving activities went ahead as planned. A sprint competition in the 370Zs was followed by 3 separate activities in the afternoon – a head-to-head, parallel course time-trial in the awesome Nissan GT-R, drifting and car control in the 370Z, and lapping Stowe circuit in the 370Zs with an instructor assessing their progress.
At the end of the day, the competitors undertook a teamwork challenge. Split into two teams, they were timed to undertake a full ‘pit-stop’ on the new 370Z GT4 race car, delivered to the circuit by their potential new boss, Bob Neville of RJN Motorsport. Back at the GT Academy’s hotel base, the judges, armed with the competitors’ times and scores supplied by Silverstone’s experienced team of instructors, deliberated on the fate of the 18 hopeful gamers. After less than an hour, the decision was taken and the two British competitors were among the 10 competitors eliminated on day two of GT Academy 2010. John Moorby from Macclesfield said; “It is going to be hard going back to work next week. I have had a great time and don’t feel too bad. I think the karting took it out of me and it was hard to stay concentrated. I have definitely learnt a lot and had good fun. Maybe I tried to change too much in one go on some of my laps and I got it wrong and gave a bad impression to the judges.”
Sunday 28 February 2010 proved the toughest day of the competition so far, when the fate of eight Gran Turismo® racers left in GT Academy 2010 was decided. Jordan Tresson from France, Marco Calvo from Spain, Luca Lorenzini from Italy and Daniel Collins from Ireland will all progress to the final two days of the Silverstone ‘boot camp’.
The four will keep their hopes alive of being one of two drivers that will undergo an intensive race training programme to qualify for an International C Race licence. One winner will then progress to drive a Nissan 370Z GT car in the European GT4 Cup. Day three began with a 6.00am wakeup call for participants. They were taken to Silverstone’s off-road experience area to be put through an extreme fitness test.
Three ex-marines guided them through an assault course that would be tough at any time. In temperatures of less than two degrees, with driving rain, wind, mud and lots of water it became almost unbearable for some of the competitors. Mental and physical strength were pushed to the limits but all eight hopefuls made it through. “This was not really a test of fitness, but more one of mental stamina,” explained ex-Royal Marine Commando Ben Mason who ran the assault course. “In that respect, they all did very well. Some of the guys might not have been fit by our standards, but they pushed hard to the end in difficult conditions.” France’s Jordan Tresson had both the physical and mental aptitude required to take first place. He was followed home by Italy’s Giacomo Cunial and Ireland’s Daniel Collins.
After a much-needed hot shower and breakfast, the competitors met with Nissan athlete Geraldine Fasnacht. The Swiss gave the racing hopefuls an insight into her life as an extreme sportswoman and what it takes to survive at the top. Former ITV Formula 1 presenter, and ex-Jordan Grand Prix press officer, Louise Goodman then enlightened the participants in the ways of the media. She gave them a brief but impressive media training workshop to prepare them for a possible life as a racing driver. Back at Silverstone the competitors were back on track, albeit a damp track. They continued to hone their car control with a drifting test in the rear wheel drive manual Nissan 370Z.
The contestants enjoyed the pleasure of lapping Silverstone’s National Circuit in the GT-R set-up in race mode. The final, and perhaps most challenging, on-track session of the day took place in Silverstone’s single-seaters on the new Stowe Circuit. The GT Academy instructors assessed all activities to feed back to the judges. In a packed day, there was no let-up for the competitors on their return to the hotel. They were taken straight to a class room to undertake their ARDS (basic race licence) exam before a mind-coaching session with a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) expert.
A welcome addition to the Academy judging panel was former Formula One team owner, Eddie Jordan. The BBC F1 presenter, who counts Michael Schumacher as one of his former protégées, was impressed with the competitors: “I’m staggered by the standard,” explained the experienced Irishman. “I didn’t believe that it was possible for people from the virtual world to have that relationship with the car. They are undoubtedly the quickest and best on PlayStation 3, but to come here and display such immediate talent, speed, commitment and understanding is impressive. I underestimated them. They are racing drivers in disguise!
“It’s going to be an interesting couple of days with these four guys. If it is as difficult to get them from four to two as it was to separate this eight, it is going to be very hard for us!” Ends The GT Academy 2010 continues tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday with the on-track action intensifying. The judges will be scrutinising all four competitors before a final decision on the two winning drivers is taken on Tuesday night.
