Australian GT Academy winner Matt Simmons to race in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2016

[Express]

Australian GT Academy winner Matt Simmons to race in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2016





From postie to racing in once of the fastest motorsport categories in the world.


Harry Tucker,
news.com.au
4 December, 2015


AUSTRALIA’S international GT Academy winner Matt Simmons has scored himself a seat in Nissan’s GT-R NISMO GT3 car in the 2016 Blancpain Endurance series in 2016.

Simmons was the winner of the 2015 GT Academy competition, where the ex-postie and video gamer beat tens of thousands worldwide to win the chance to become a professional race driver for Nissan.

He has spent the last few months in the Nissan Driver Development program in the UK where he has worked with Nissan’s driving pros to turn him from a PlayStation gamer to a serious racing driver in real life.

Simmons progressed so well through the program that Nissan and NISMO have already offered him a seat in their Blancpain GT-R for 2016. Previous winners typically had to prove themselves by racing at the Dubai 24 Hour in the slower Nissan 370Z GT4 cars, but with Simmons impressing the team so much he will skip this step.

“I can’t believe how much my life has changed since winning at GT Academy Race Camp in August,” said Simmons.

“Six months ago I was driving an Australia Post courier van in Brisbane ... nothing could have prepared me for that moment when I was told I’d be racing a GT-R NISMO GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series next year.”



The monster of a car Matt Simmons will be racing in next year.


The Aussie racer has been in the UK since September where he has been working with some of the best minds in motorsport to turn him from a gamer into a pro-driver. His days have been filled with getting lessons at race tracks, improving his fitness, playing on simulators and of course racing cars.

In just his first week in the UK, Simmons won his second race in a GT4 car at the Castle Combe track.

His training and testing has just tied up and he is now in Australia before relocating to Europe ahead of next year’s Blancpain series.

Locally, there’s possibility of even taking the track for Nissan Motorsport at the fabled Bathurst 12 Hour or as a co-driver in one of their V8 Supercars. While Nissan also announced today they would be returning to reclaim their crown at the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2016, we won’t see Simmons tackling the Mount until at least 2017.



GT Academy posterboy Jann Mardenborough has been a mentor for Simmons.


Nissan’s GT Academy has taken the motor racing world by storm in recent years.

The innovative competition has seen some of their graduates winning races against some of the best drivers in the world at famous tracks such as Bathurst and LeMans.

The competition turns gamers into real racing drivers through the PlayStation game Gran Turismo.

From there, the fastest virtual drivers are tested to see who has the best potential to become a real professional driver.

Simmons now joins a stable of elite racing graduates that are dominating the motorsport world.

Inaugural winner Lucas Ordonez has become a formidable force in international motorsport for Nissan, winning some of the most coveted races in the world at tracks like LeMans, Spa and Germany’s Nurburgring.

The 30-year-old is currently racing in the highest tier of Japanese motorsport in the Super GT.

GT Academy graduates are even dominating Australian motorsport, with 2012 winner Wolfgang Reip and 2013 winner Florian Strauss combining to win this year’s Bathurst 12 hour against some of the best GT drivers in the world.

At the rate Simmons is going, it looks like he’s going to be just as good.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/in...ddc0b5ac120520