GT Academy 2012 to start on May 1

Sony's announced it'll beginning GT Academy 2012 on May 1, kicking off with the release of a special Gran Turismo demo just for the event.

The online qualification event, created specifically for the competition by Polyphony Digital and Kazunori Yamauchi, won't need a copy of Gran Turismo 5 to play it and is free to download.

The taster will come with "a set of exclusive challenges that should be a lot of fun whether you’ve played Gran Turismo before or whether you are coming to the game as a complete newbie."

Once that portion of the competition is done, the national finals await, before heading straight into Racecamp at Silverstone. Winner there will get to progress to aim towards a drive in the Dubai 24 hour race next January.

Countries taking part this year can be found on the EU PS Blog.

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