South Africa’s Top 25 Announced in the Nissan GT Academy
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South Africa’s GranTurismo® gamers come out in droves to compete
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Fierce console racing to culminate in ‘real world’ National Finals
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Eight finalists to head to Race Camp in England
PRETORIA, ROSSLYN (22 January 2013) – After months of gruelling competition, GT Academy is proud to announce the Top 25 South African qualifiers who will be going into the National Finals during the weekend of 26 & 27 January 2013.
The virtual racers will be competing for one of eight coveted seats on a flight to Race Camp at the famous Silverstone circuit in the UK.
The Top 25 qualifiers are as follows:
| Jacobus | Volschenk | Gauteng |
| Robin | Van Merch | Western Cape |
| Conrad | Volschenk | Gauteng |
| Steven | Pelser | Gauteng |
| David | Peetham | Gauteng |
| Jonathan | Mogotsi | Gauteng |
| Leon | Misselhorn | Gauteng |
| Teuns | Erasmus | Western Cape |
| Jagedesen (Deon) | Reddy | KZN |
| Ashley | Oldfield | Western Cape |
| Jade | Dafel | Western Cape –Knysna |
| Robert | Prytz | Gauteng |
| Gerhard | Rautenbach | Gauteng |
| Fergus | van Rooi | Western Cape |
| Nazeem | Edwards | Western Cape |
| Andrew | James | Western Cape |
| Francis | Aldrich | Gauteng |
| Mohammed Nasif | Dalvie | Western Cape |
| Driaan | Nel | Gauteng |
| Jonathan | Bentz | Gauteng |
| Michael | Bredenhand | Western Cape |
| Hercules | Du Preez | Gauteng |
| Wesley | Robb | KZN |
| Louis | Aylward | Eastern Cape |
| Werner | Misselhorn | Gauteng |
It’s not a game anymore
With thousands of entrants coming from all over South Africa, never before has a competition of this nature seen such ferocious dedication to winning. From sibling rivalry and friends competing from different ends of the country, to the most die-hard virtual racing aficionados travelling hundreds of kilometres in order to set their best qualifying lap time, the GT Academy’s Live Activations and online entry portals have been inundated by well-practised, committed and enthusiastic PlayStation® racers.
Gavin Rheeder, Senior Manager: Product Communications and Marketing at Nissan South Africa, said there have been some stunning highlights in the months leading up to the announcement of the Top 25. “We have seen some amazing feats since October last year and with an extremely high level of affection for motorsport we are confident that the eventual Top 8 finalists will all be strong competitors and will do us proud in the UK.”
Rheeder goes on to highlight some of the competition’s greatest moments thus far, including how some online gamers who have been competing against each other online for years met for the first time at GT Academy; the nail-biting action between the top two qualifiers – and when the Volschenk brothers each found a place as top qualifiers at both the Durban event and one of the Gauteng events, having driven down from Johannesburg just to take part. On the other hand, the Misselhorn brothers from Pretoria both competed, and one was a winner at the Maponya live event and the other a finalist in the online competition.
Top 8 to face off at Silverstone
Following a gruelling elimination round at the end of January 2013, the Top 25 will be whittled down to the Top 8. This lucky group will then progress on to Race Camp at Silverstone where their Middle Eastern counterparts will join them in the fight for the ultimate prize of becoming a professional Nissan racing driver.
With the online and live competitions just being the tip of the iceberg, the Top 25 are in for a demanding time in the National Finals, where GT Academy representatives from Europe will be on hand for inspiration and advice. Including various challenge heats in GranTurismo®5 on the PlayStation® consoles, real driving tests which seek to determine driver control and precision, physical fitness tests and a media challenge, the virtual racers will finally be stepping out of the gaming world – some for the very first time.
The GT Academy, which is now entering its fifth year, seeks to make motorsport more accessible to millions of talented PlayStation® simulation fans all over the world – something which is traditionally difficult and expensive to pursue at international level.
The Top 8 finalists will be announced at the end of the South African finals on Sunday 27th January 2013 and GT Academy can be followed online at facebook.com/GTAcademy or twitter.com/GTAcademy.
