Looking for the next car racing star

 

Photos by Charles E. Buban

 

With an accumulated time of 4:12.408, the three-member Green Team headed by former De La Salle center Arnold Van Opstal emerged as winner of Saturday’s Nissan GT Academy Celebrity Challenge held at the  SM Aura activity center at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

The fun-filled segment capped the Nissan GT Academy’s final recruitment day that was able to attract over 21,000 participants nationwide.

Van Opstal is joined by members of the Motoring media namely, Vince Pornelos (AutoIndustriya.com) and Chira dela Cruz (Top Gear Philippines).

The trio bested Blue Team composed of former Ateneo forward Von Pessumal and Motoring media Iñigo Roces (Manila Bulletin) and Aries Espinosa (Business World).

“After holding 15 live events in seven key cities in Metro Manila and provincial areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, last Saturday’s live event was the last chance for all aspiring gamers of the Sony PlayStation-4-exclusive Gran Turismo Sport to post their best time that would be their ticket to one day become an actual professional auto racer,” said SJ Huh, Nissan Philippines Inc. (NPI) GM for Marketing.

2nd season

Now on its second season here in the Philippines, NPI is especially proud to be part of this worldwide search considering the country’s first winner last year, 29-year-old Joward Policarpio, was crowned the grand winner and became the first Filipino Nissan GT Academy Asia champion, besting other winners from Japan, India, and Thailand.

Last year, the maiden search attracted over 13,000 Filipino hopefuls that vied for the Top 6 slots that represented the country at Race Camp Week at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom.

“We at Nissan have given more Filipino gamers access in realizing their dreams of making it as a racing driver. By giving Filipinos easier access to racing through the Nissan GT Academy, we are helping steer the development of motor sports in the country,” said Huh.

GT Academy is a unique, world-renowned competition that sees gamers qualify for their country’s national final by posting times in Nissan cars at the Sony PlayStation-4-exclusive Gran Turismo Sport. The official worldwide launch is in November.

Narrowed down

Now that the recruitment stage has ended, the thousands of gamers will be narrowed down to 20 players who achieve the best time during the live event phase.

These top 20 players will then be invited to compete in the national finals (second stage of the tournament) slated from Sept. 6 to 7.

From these 20 players, only six will be selected after considering their performances during challenges and tests.

The Top 6 players who qualify for the next round will then go bumper-to-bumper with other winners from various countries (Thailand, Indonesia, North Africa, Mexico and Australia) during the Race Camp Week, which is the third stage of the tournament.

The Race Camp Week, schedule in October at the famed Silverstone Racing Circuit in the United Kingdom, will put the participants through several activities to test their strength, stamina, mental agility and driving skills.

The lone winner will then enter the fourth stage of the tournament, which is the Driver Development Program.

Here, the emerging GT Academy Champion (like Policarpio) will undergo rigorous training under the wing of professional coaches and racers at Silverstone Racing Circuit.

From there, the winner will get a chance to prove he or she has what it takes to become a professional racing driver and acquire a slot in the Nissan team for the Dubai 24 Hour Race.

In 2015, former GT Academy winners and currently NISMO athletes competed in racing championships across the globe, including the FIA World Endurance Championship, Super GT, GP3 Series, Japanese F3, the European Le Mans Series, Blancpain Endurance Series, ADAC GT Masters, the Pirelli World Challenge and more.