GT Academy winner ranks at number 2 in european GT4 series

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"GT Academy" Winner Finishes 2nd Place in the European GT Competition Series.

The final round of the European GT4 Championship series was held at the Algarve Circuit in Portugal, and "GT Academy" winner, Lucas Ordonez won the race. As a result, Lucas and teammate Alex Buncombe ranked 2nd in the series for the driver's championship, and the Nissan GT Academy Racing Team took the team title win. The two drivers placing 2nd three times, and winning once to place them in 2nd place in the series, was chasing the leader with a 6 point gap. The race is run in two heats, and in the qualifying of the first heat, Alex takes pole position, but just before the final race, they were unexpectedly forced to retire due to electrical problems.
But in the second heat, the team showed its full potential. Lucas starting in 5th position rose to 2nd just by the first corner, and when Alex changed with him he drove aggressively to 1st place, successfully winning this race. The two drivers finished the long season at the top of the podium.

The "GT Academy" that started May 2008, was a dream collaboration between Nissan Europe and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. They called forth "Gran Turismo" players from all over Europe, and gave them a chance to partake in a real life race. Lucas was the first winner of the "GT Academy" who won out of 25,000 participants, and he successfully competed and completed the Dubai 24 hour race in January this year.

Comment by Ordonez:
"This has been the most amazing 18 months. When I look back at what has happened to me since I entered the online part of GT Academy on my PS3 there are just too many fantastic moments to list. The whole experience has been like a dream. And what an amazing weekend, full of the ups and downs of racing. To finish with a win and second in the championship in my first year's racing is great. I cannot thank Nissan and PlayStation enough for this opportunity. My team-mate Alex Buncombe and RJN Motorsport have been fantastic as well, and it is great that we won the team title. There is no doubt that GT Academy has changed my life."

Comment by Nissan Europe Marketing Manager, Darren Cox:
"It has been a very challenging weekend, so it was great to finish on a high. The professionalism of the team and both drivers has to be applauded. They picked themselves up after the disappointment of race one and drove superbly. Lucas has shown that maturity and speed all season and his performance has absolutely exceeded our expectations. He has been a pleasure to work with and has been totally dedicated to his racing and not distracted by this change in his life. We both congratulate and thank him and the whole team that worked on GT Academy for demonstrating that we could unearth a real driving talent from the world of gaming."

http://www.gran-turismo.com/hk/news/d8130.html

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As a follower of the european GT series, and an avid follower of the GT academy competition, this news today just blew me away. This was one PS3 player, who had the chance of a lifetime to fulfill a dream that most of us racing fans have, and not only did he realized his dream, he performed extremely well under pressure of a more experienced competition.

This opens up a lot of possibilites for us gamers. Now we can see that games can sometimes be actual tools to help us develop skills that in normal situations would be impossible for us to achieve, due to various factors.

Also, as a GT fan, this clearly show us that Gran Turismo has been breaching the line between reality and simulation with every game released. Hopefully we can see more and more achievements like this in the future, as we will clearly see more people like Lucas Ordonez rising up to these challengues and proving to the world that us gamers can also be as the best of the best.