GT Academy 2013 hits TV screens from Wednesday 27 November on ITV4, with three high-octane episodes airing weekly at 8pm.

The innovative GT Academy competition, a partnership between Nissan and PlayStation®, challenges the conventions of motorsport by taking some of the fastest Gran Turismo® gamers in Europe and fast-tracking one of them to become a professional racing driver. Each episode will be repeated on Saturdays (30th November at 5pm, 7th December at 5.30pm and 14th December at 5pm).

With the highly anticipated Gran Turismo®6 launching for PlayStation®3 on 6 December, this year the GT Academy qualifying stage took place on an exclusive GT6™ demo to give fans a sneak preview of the game. Over 765,000 gamers in 16 European countries took part in the qualifying rounds. National Final events were then held throughout Europe before 42 of the finest PlayStation gamers descended on Silverstone Circuit, England, in September 2013 for a week-long battle in the demanding GT Academy European Race Camp. This is where the transition from virtual expert to real racing driver began.

Driving various racing cars, from Nissan Micra stock cars to the powerful Nissan GT-R, the finalists were put through their paces to pinpoint who had the most potential to become a racing driver. They were also tested off-track, with driver psychology training and gruelling fitness sessions, to discover who had a winning mentality and who would crack under pressure.

ITV4 follows the UK’s six competitors as they strive to realise their dream of becoming a racing driver. With eliminations taking place throughout Race Camp, viewers will experience the heartbreak and the triumph as the group is whittled down to the last-man-standing for the UK, who then goes head-to-head with the top performers from the rest of Europe. The first ever British GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough, BTCC driver Paul O’Neill and British female karting champion Tiff Chittenden were on hand to offer advice and guidance to the fledgling drivers, as well as having the tough job of deciding the outcome of the eliminations.

Formula 1 and Le Mans 24 Hours winner Johnny Herbert has been an advocate of the GT Academy programme since its first year in 2008, and returned this year as the International Head Judge. There could only be one winner overall and the ultimate decision fell to him. The new champion’s prize is to embark on an intensive driver development programme this winter to prepare for racing with Nissan in a GT3 Championship in 2014.

GT Academy 2013 is the fifth iteration of the virtual-to-reality competition. Former GT Academy winners have gone on to great success, with the inaugural champion Lucas Ordoñez winning the Blancpain Endurance Series pro-am title this year, having already clocked up two Le Mans 24 Hours podium results to his name. The ITV4 GT Academy series examines the science of racing as it takes viewers on a high-tension journey from the sofa to a real race track, while contestants slug it out to determine who will be the next virtual-to-reality professional racing driver. The show delivers race-fuelled action and emotional must-see moments that will keep racing fans and gamers alike on the edge of their seats.