Jose Gerard-Policarpio from the Philippines becomes the first-ever Nissan PlayStation GT Academy Asia champion. The 26-year-old fought off competition from 28 of the best Gran Turismo gamers from across Asia, winning a place on the Nissan Driver Development Programme and a race seat in the 2016 Dubai 24 Hours.
The final race of Race Camp was held at Silverstone’s International Circuit in Nissan 370Z NISMO race cars for ten laps, with Andika Rama from Indonesia holding the lead for four laps straight, ahead of Policarpio. Patiently waiting for his opportunity, Policarpio then made his move on the fifth lap to incisively take the lead of the race. Till the end of the final lap, Policarpio held on and crossed the line just two-tenths clear of his rival, with Indian contestant Akshay Gupta finishing third.
Jose Gerard Policarpio, Philippines competitor and 2015 GT Academy Asia Winner: “I can’t even believe I won, it’s amazing, I feel so good. Never in my life did I think I’d be here. The race was so nerve-racking, when I got past Andika at Abbey I just kept looking back because he was starting to gain on me. I didn’t even notice the checkered flag, it just sunk in when I got back in the pitlane that I won. It’s just amazing!”
Policarpio earned his place at Race Camp from the hundreds of thousands of Gran Turismo gamers that entered the competition across Asia. Having won through the Philippines National Final, he arrived at Silverstone as one of six to represent the Philippines, alongside 28 Asia competitors overall, split into five territory groups. Each group formed a close bond with their territory judge, who acted as a mentor, but then had to make the difficult decisions when it came to eliminations from the competition.
The on-track action got underway in the United Kingdom on Saturday, with six finalists from Thailand, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and five from India making up the 29-strong line-up. For Japan, Philippines and Indonesia, this was the first year that a GT Academy competition had been run in their territory, with both Thailand and India debuting as part of GT Academy International in 2014. While Mexico’s Ricardo Sanchez was the 2014 winner, the opportunity provided a springboard for the racing careers of territory winners Thanaroj Thanasitnitiket (Thailand) and Abhinay Bikkani (India) who have both picked up wins in this year’s Nissan Micra Cup, based in Canada.
Throughout their time at Asia Race Camp, a series of both racing and physical challenges whittled the gamers down to a final ten this morning that were still in contention of being GT Academy Asia champion. Each judge then had to decide between their two best drivers for who would take the wheel of the 370Z NISMO race cars for a ten-lap race of Silverstone’s International Circuit.
Rob Barff, 2015 Nissan PlayStation GT Academy Asia Head Judge said: “Jose Gerard has had pace all week, he’s been right at the top of our score sheets and he was second in the race up until the point when Indonesia made one mistake, bang, through clinically and he never made an error. I’m really really proud of him. We’ve had our eye on him since Bedford earlier on in the week, he’s been in our top three to watch and I look forward to working with him in the future.”
Darren Cox, Nissan Head of Motorsport: “Congratulations to Jose Gerard on becoming our first-ever GT Academy Asia champion. The global expansion of GT Academy has been fantastic this year and we’re delighted to have been able to host the first-ever Asia Race Camp. I can’t stress enough how much enthusiasm the new markets have had for the competition and how they’ve embraced it with open arms. They only have to look at the instant rewards and opportunities that drivers from new markets have been given as a result of GT Academy and it’s great that we’re able to provide them this unique route into the world of motorsport.”
Policarpio will receive world-class racing tuition and physical training from Nissan to prepare him for his endurance race debut in Dubai next January, where he will be part of the same driver line-up as International Race Camp winner Matthew Simmons.