Nissan’s unique “virtual-to-reality” racing series is back for a second season. The Nissan GT Academy Season 2 hopes to discover new racing talents who share one thing in common: they were discovered through playing the video game, Gran Turismo.

“Through this virtual-to-reality racing competition, we look forward to giving more opportunities for Filipino gamers to realize their dream of becoming professional race-car drivers,” said NPI president and Managing Director Ramesh Narasimhan.


Last season, over 13,000 hopefuls vied for the Top 6 slots that represented the country at Race Camp Week at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. Joward Policarpio, who bested other competitors from Asia to win last year’s competition, was crowned the first Filipino Nissan GT Academy Asia champion.

This year, the competition is tougher thanks to a new track running on the yet-to-be-released Gran Turismo Sport. It means would-be participants will not be able to practice at home and would need to rely on the GT Academy pods to set good times. Nissan, in partnership with developer Polyphony Digital, is using the GT Academy to introduce the newest iteration of the famed driving simulator. It will released exclusively for the Sony Playstation 4 in November.


Lucas Ordoñez, winner of the inaugural 2008 Nissan Playstation GT academy in Europe, graced the opening of the event, encouraging participants to grab the Nissan GT Academy Season 2 as an opportunity to make their race-car dreams come true.

The first location of the Nissan GT Academy is at the Trinoma MRT Link. The first leg runs from today until July 3 from 10am to 10pm. For more information on the Nissan GT Academy pod locations, check out Nissan Philippines’s Facebook page.