Chennai: Continuing their push to find budding drivers from across the country, Nissan on Wednesday identified six finalists following a two-day GT Academy national finals at the Madras Motor Sports Club racetrack here. As many as 10,000 contestants took part in this year’s competition, through online and live events held across four cities. Abhishek Dwarknath, Anush Chakravarthi, Askhay Gupta, Dhruv Dayal, Jaideep Chahal and Shantanu Kallianpukar were among the winners from the 20 finalists, and will now compete at a Silverstone race in August. The six youngsters will vie for top honours along with finalists from Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The winner will get a chance to compete for Nissan at the Dubai 24 Hours Endurance Race, and will also undergo a driver development programme. Former Formula One racer Karun Chandhok mentored the youngsters, who were tested on a number of paremeters, including real and virtual racing, fitness and psychology. Said Chandhok, “I think this is a very fair and meticulous way of picking youngsters and that is why I chose to be associated with the programme.
“It is good to talk to them and explain them small, little things. One thing that I always tell everyone is not to focus on what the others are doing, and rather try and focus on what you are good at.”
The Nissan GT Academy began the driver hunt in June this year, in association with Sony Playstation.
The qualifying rounds were held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, and the top 20 winners were picked up on the basis of best time clocked on race simulators. The 11 winners from the live events joined nine from the online game, who competed with their Playstation 3 and Gran Turismo 6 on the Sony Entertainment Network. Said Nissan Operations India president Guillaume Sicard, “In just a month’s time, over 10,000 participants competed in GT Academy 2015.”
