The famous GT Academy Race Camp gets underway tomorrow (Saturday, 18 August) at its now traditional home, the world renowned Silverstone Circuit in the UK. Over 830,000 people from across Europe entered the fourth iteration of Nissan and PlayStation®’s innovative gamer-to-racer competition this year, and only the best 36 remain in the competition. Over the course of the next seven days they are determined to show the experienced team gathered at Silverstone that they have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of former GT Academy winners, now Nissan racing drivers, Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough.

The 36 competitors will be divided into six territory groups for this year’s Race Camp with the groups consisting of: France (6 contestants); Italy (6); UK (5) and Ireland (1); Spain (3) and Portugal (3); Belgium (3) and Netherlands (3); and Austria (2), Switzerland (2) and Poland (2).

All 36 will be put through a gruelling programme of on and off-track challenges to assess their potential to make the switch from PlayStation®’s Gran Turismo®5 game to powerful Nissan sports cars such as the 370Z and GT-R. Assisting the experienced Silverstone team of instructors will be an impressive line-up of country mentors with top-level racing experience. These include: Formula One drivers Johnny Herbert (UK), René Arnoux (FRA), Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA), Sébastien Buemi (CH) and Dani Clos (ESP); sports car drivers Bas Leinders (BEL), Rob Barff (UK), Franck Mailleux (FRA) and GT Academy graduates Lucas (ESP), Jordan (FRA) and Jann (GB); as well as touring car driver Tim Coronel (NED).

Since hosting the first ever Formula One world championship race in 1950, Silverstone has become a vibrant, modern home of British motor racing with top-class facilities. It is a fitting location for Race Camp. The week-long format remains a secret, but is certain to include top-class race instruction in a variety of Nissan cars combined with on and off-track challenges that will test the potential, skill, determination, fitness, mental strength and speed of the competitors.

A number of eliminations will take place during the week until only one from each group of six remains for the final two days of Race Camp (Friday, 24 and Saturday, 25 August). The finale happily coincides with the World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at Silverstone in which GT Academy champions Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson will compete in LMP2 cars for the Greaves Motorsport and Signatech Nissan teams respectively – a clear demonstration of the success of the GT Academy programme since its inception in 2008.

The winner of the European GT Academy Race Camp will hardly have time to catch his breath before he returns to Silverstone to embark on an in-depth Driver Development Programme. As well as ensuring that he qualifies for an international race licence in super-quick time, the DDP will prepare the winner for the rigours of an entry into the tough and prestigious Dubai 24 Hour race in January 2013 where he will race a Nissan 370Z GT4 race car. The European winner will be joined in Dubai by the winners of the German, Russian and USA Race Camps.