{"id":4766,"date":"2010-02-03T20:04:05","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T10:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/power-up.space\/?p=4766"},"modified":"2010-02-03T20:04:05","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T10:04:05","slug":"virtual-to-real-race-dream-comes-true-for-one-australian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/?p=4766","title":{"rendered":"Virtual to real race dream comes true for one Australian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Virtual to real race dream comes true for one Australian<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>25 year old, Melbourne student, Daniel Holland to represent Australia in Nissan GT Academy International stage<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trip of a life time to Silverstone, UK, to complete race driver boot camp GT Academy <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Potential to win season-long drive in a full race-spec Nissan 370Z in the European GT4 Cup racing series<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MELBOURNE, 6.00pm EST, 3 February 2010<\/strong> \u2013 Sony Computer Entertainment Australia has announced 25 year old student, <em>Daniel Holland <\/em>as the Australian winner of Nissan GT Academy 2010. This is the first time an Australian will be represented in the competition which will see him go head-to-head against other finalists across 17 countries.<\/p>\n<p>From the 16 Australian finalists flown in from around the nation today, only <em>Daniel Holland<\/em> will take his PlayStation\u00ae3 (PS3<sup>TM<\/sup>) lounge room racing dream literally to the race track. He will now be participating in the international stage of Nissan GT Academy at Silverstone, UK, undergoing a rigorous training program against other competitors for the chance to become a real world race car driver.<\/p>\n<p>After recording the best results today, the culmination of a series of challenges on Gran Turismo for PS3, <em>Daniel <\/em>will travel to Silverstone at the end of February 2010, with the chance to live his race car driving dream.<\/p>\n<p>Australia holds promise to be a tough competitor in the next stage.\u00a0 <em>Daniel Holland<\/em> consistently recorded top ranking lap times on the international leader board during the online round of the competition, to secure his place in today\u2019s national final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m stoked! I can\u2019t believe that my passion for Gran Turismo has provided me with this opportunity. The fact that I\u2019m now going Silverstone at the end of this month as the first Australian to take part in Nissan GT Academy, blows my mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a phenomenal day with some worthy challengers, but right now, I just can\u2019t wait to get to the UK to compete internationally!\u201d said Holland.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel <\/em>will join other finalists from competing countries1 at the world famous Silverstone circuit for the Nissan GT Academy &#8211; a five-day, comprehensive race driver \u2018boot camp\u2019. Participants will have the chance to develop new driving skills through a series of online and off-line challenges that will include handling of Nissan cars and will also be judged on physical fitness and mental aptitude.<\/p>\n<p>The two finalists that display the talent, fitness, aptitude, drive and determination to succeed in motor sport, will undergo a UK-based intensive driving and racing programme to prepare them to qualify for an international racing license. Finally, the driver with the most potential will compete on an international stage, racing a full season in the European GT4 Cup in a Nissan 370Z prepared by RJN Motorsport in May, 2010.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel <\/em>follows in the footsteps of Spanish student Lucas Ordo\u00f1ez, who graduated from his PlayStation 3 console to become a full-time racing driver via Nissan GT Academy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGT Academy epitomises the Sony make.believe spirit, the power of turning dreams into reality\u201d said Raoul Bedford, Senior Director Marketing, SCE Australia. \u201cFrom enjoying Gran Turismo on PlayStation in your living room, to perfecting the ultimate simulator game and aspiring to become a real life race car driver, PlayStation and Nissan have given <em>Daniel Holland <\/em>the opportunity to fulfil his dream through GT Academy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team at PlayStation share <em>Daniel Holland\u2019s<\/em> excitement and anticipation as he heads to the UK. With 2010 being the inaugural year of Australia\u2019s involvement in Nissan GT Academy, we wish him well and will be supporting him all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virtual to real race dream comes true for one Australian 25 year old, Melbourne student, Daniel Holland to represent Australia in Nissan GT Academy International stage Trip of a life time to Silverstone, UK, to complete race driver boot camp GT Academy Potential to win season-long drive in a full race-spec Nissan 370Z in the<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/?p=4766\">Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4767,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions\/4767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}