The cream of South Africa’s digital racers met at Kyalami this past weekend to compete in the South African GT Academy finals and make the cut for the final eight and the chance to attend a race camp at Silverstone along with the top eight from the Middle East.
The GT Academy finals saw the 25 top qualifiers from the online challenges and live events held around the country late last year converge on the home of SA motorsport to do battle in a series of virtual and real-world challenges to determine the “best of the best.” On hand to record the progress of the competitors were GT Academy coordinators from the UK, Nissan South Africa personnel, professional driving instructors and a bunch of local motor media.
The first series of challenges on Saturday involved console-only time trials around the Tsukuba circuit in the GT Academy edition Nissan 370Z (a specially tuned version of the company’s sportscar) with all the electronic nannies switched off and just the slightest hint of ABS. The best 16 went through to compete on Sunday, with a quick session on the Suzuka circuit, a media Q&A, real-life gymkhanas in Nissan 370Zs and a fitness test that comprised of planks, press-ups and bleep runs.
After a hard weekend of racing, camaraderie, nerves, sweat and fun, South Africa’s top eight contenders are Louis Aylward, Hercules du Preez, Jonathan Mogotsi, Ashley Oldfield, David Peetham, Gerhard Rautenbach, Robin van Merch and JW Volschenk.
SA’s best will attend the GT Academy race camp at Silverstone in March, along with the top eight from the Middle East, and an ultimate winner will be chosen. That winner will then go on a development programme and become a professional racing driver with the Nissan.
You can follow their progress at twitter.com/GTAcademy and facebook.com/GTAcademy.
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http://twitter.com/DiveshRSA Divesh Nair