Wolfgang Reip and Florian Strauss won the Bathurst 12 Hour race in New South Wales. Both are graduates of the Gran Turismo Academy, created in 2008 by Sony, GT developer Polyphony Digital, and Nissan.
The program culls the best drivers online down to those with real world potential, puts them through a race driving course, and then finds a spot for them in a real event.
Reip and Strauss worked with a third driver, Katsumasa Chiyo, who was not a GT Academy graduate and had the best time of the three on the team. The three drove an RJN Motorsport Nissan GTR-35. Eurogamer notes that Chiyo passed two cars on the next-to-last lap to take the lead and victory.