ends at midnight GMT* on Sunday, 17th April

It’s not too late to win your chance to be a professional racing driver National pride is at stake! Register at gran-turismo.com (terms and conditions apply1) The GT Academy 2011 Time Trial will end at midnight GMT this Sunday (17th April). The competition, that aims to turn a gamer into a real-life racing driver, has seen entrants slugging it out since 4th March on a specially designed circuit on PlayStation®’s Gran Turismo®5 game. Holders of the fastest 20 lap times in each participating territory will be invited to take part in a live National Final event with two winners from each progressing to the Race Camp at the famous Silverstone circuit. The overall winner will undergo an intensive race training programme in order to qualify for an international race licence and the chance to race in the prestigious Dubai 24 Hour International Race in a Nissan 370Z GT4 car.As well as the incredible prize, there is also an element of national pride at play. So far, France/Switzerland is dominating the leaderboard with 21 of the fastest 50 times across all territories coming from that region. Spain and Portugal are next with 15 and UK/Ireland have nine competitors in the overall top 50. At this stage, the Netherlands does not have a top 50 time while Italy only has three and Germany/Austria has two. With a few days left, this situation could yet be evened out!The fastest qualifying times, i.e. the 20th fastest time in each territory, mirror the above league table, but there is a slight shift in the order when average top 10 times from each country are calculated: 20th fastest time (qualifying time) per territory Average top 10 times per territory 1.     2’16.978(FR/CH)2.     2’17.196 (ES/PT)3.     2’17.359 (GB/IE)4.     2’17.448 (IT)5.     2’17.491 (DE/AT)6.     2’17.745 (NL) 1.     2’16.687(FR/CH)2.     2’16.736(ES/PT)3.     2’16.868(GB/IE)4.     2’17.091(DE/AT)5.     2’17.104 (IT)6.     2’17.469(NL)

Note: Times date from midday on Tuesday, 12 April and may have changed"We have had a great response to GT Academy 2011 as people now recognise it as a serious competition to give them a fast track into top-level motor sport,” explains Sony Computer Entertainment’s Gran Turismo product manager Penrose Tackie. “We are now close to the end of phase one, but it is still not too late to enter the competition for a chance to take the wheel of some fantastic Nissan cars. It is interesting to see that the French/Swiss territory is proving to be so fast. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who might like to try and redress the balance between now and Sunday for a little bit of national glory! It costs nothing and is easy to give it a go on GT5.”

Nissan in Europe’s Sports Car programme manager Sylvia Mink has also issued a call to arms – or at least PS3s! “I work in France and so it is good to see the French at the top of the leaderboard. However, I am German and so would like to see a final push to move us up the board! On a more serious note, this weekend our 2010 GT Academy winner, Jordan Tresson, will be racing a 370Z GT4 car at Monza in the Blancpain Endurance Series. In two months time, Lucas Ordoñez, our winner from 2008, will be campaigning an LMP2 prototype at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race. This is an incredible achievement and proof that GT Academy is a serious route into top-level motor sport. So I recommend that anyone who has ever fancied themselves as a driver gets onto the Gran Turismo game and signs up for GT Academy if you have not already done so!”