GT Academy 2014 starts in Gran Turismo 6 next week

Sony has announced that GT Academy 2014 will begin within Gran Turismo 6 on 21 April.

The competition has attracted 4 million entries since it launched in 2008, with this year's gamers battling it out for the chance to undertake an intensive three-month Driver Development Programme.

They can then go on to qualify as a Nissan driver in the Dubai 24 hour race in January next year.

"It's hard not to feel really proud of what GT Academy has achieved since it started in 2008," said European brand manager Penrose Tackie, "podiums in the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race; championship wins, multiple race wins; and this year we have one of our winners, Jann Mardenborough, racing in the GP3 single-seater series on the F1 calender.

"Our first ever winner, Lucas Ordoñez, is racing Super GTs in Japan as his day job in 2014 and will also team up with 2012 European winner Wolfgang Reip at Le Mans this year to race Nissan's fascinating ZEOD RC experimental car.

"Meanwhile, last year's band of GT Academy winners from Europe, the USA and Germany were all in action last weekend at Monza in the Blancpain Endurance Series in a 500-plus BHP NIssan GT-R NISMO GT3."