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§       Time Trial challenge preview of Gran Turismo®5 will feature Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and two Nissan 370 Zs

§       GT Academy 2010 goes live on 17 December

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, Tuesday 15 December 2009: Nissan and Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand (SCENZ) have revealed that the online, time-trial stage of GT Academy 2010 will be fought out on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Entrants will record lap times in Gran Turismo® versions of both a standard, road version of Nissan’s stunning 370 Z as well as a tuned version of the same car. Combined lap times will give each player their leaderboard place.

GT Academy 2010 will go live on 17 December, 2009. The prize at stake is a dream for all motor sport fans. The ultimate winner of GT Academy 2010 will be given an extensive racing driver training programme in order to qualify for an international race licence. They will then be entered for a full season in the European GT4 Cup with a drive in a race-spec Nissan 370 Z GT4 car.

The choice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was made by Gran Turismo game creator Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital. “Indianapolis is one of the most iconic motor sport venues in the world. It seemed like a worthy virtual venue to host this exciting time trial. GT Academy is not about ‘oval’ racing and so we opted for the Grand Prix circuit. Having been a Formula One venue from 2000 until 2007, we think that many racing fans will be familiar with the layout. It is a good balance of some tricky, tight corners on the infield section, the ultra fast banking of the oval and some very fast straights. This track has never featured on the Gran Turismo series before. It is one of many exciting additions for GT5 that will be released in 2010.”

The time-trial stage of GT Academy 2010 runs until 24 January. The fastest 20 Gran Turismo drivers from each territory will then face each other in live national finals events. A total of twenty winners will emerge to attend the GT Academy at Silverstone – a ‘boot camp’ for racing drivers. Two winners will then be set up with accommodation at Silverstone itself while they are trained to international race licence stage during a two-month period. Only one, however, will have the chance to drive the Nissan 370 Z GT4 for the RJN Motorsport Team.

For people who want to find out more about GT Academy, lots of news and views will be shared on a variety of platforms including:

www.facebook.com/GTAcademy | http://eu.gran-turismo.com/ | www.twitter.com/GTAcademy