The Australian representatives Chris McIvor and Bradley Packham suffered a severe blow during the stock car challenge where the team’s car lost power due to a fuel module failure. The pair had put up a strong performance and were leading the stock car race challenge until it all went wrong. Both drivers had already put in a strong performance throughout the entire Race Camp which featured a range of challenges including simulator racing, gymkhana eliminations, SAS assault courses and beach racing in Nissan GT-Rs.
Placing last in the challenge determined qualifying positions for the final challenge seeing the Australians start from dead last. A strong start had the team make up positions into third place until time was lost in an incident and were eliminated after the driver change had occurred when another on-track incident occurred.
For the past three successive years Australians have made a strong showing in the competition, Josh Muggleton finished second in the 2014 season and Matt Simmons took first prize last year. Simmons continued on to compete in the 2016 Blancpain GT Endurance Cup driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 and this weekend he’ll be competing with Nissan superstar Michael Caruso in the Hampton Downs 101 GT Race in New Zealand.
It was Mexican Johny Guindi Hamui who took first place in the final challenge backed by his fellow countryman Enrique Rodriguez Manjarrez for the two-driver final. Johnny was chosen overall as this year’s 2016 Nissan PlayStation GT Academy winner for his display of speed and consistency over the 8 day Race Camp. His victory grants access to the Nissan Driver Development Program and a race seat in the 2017 24 Hours of Dubai with team mate and former GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough in January.
“I can’t believe it, what I’ve just achieved is going to take a while to sink in!” said Hamui.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience with some seriously tough competitors and I’ve had the best time of my life.”
“In the race I was just so concentrated on doing a good job that my 11 laps in the car flew by. I was alone for five laps and I was just looking for consistent lap times and then on my sixth lap I saw the North Africa car coming out of the pits. I was in a great rhythm and overtook him on the outside. After that it was all about holding it together and luckily I did that, I can’t describe the feeling when Jann read out my name as the winner!”
Nissan Motorsport Director Mike Carcamo stated “The final race was just phenomenal, hats off to all the teams who did a great job with the new format with the two drivers, it made for a really exciting race“.
“Johnny did a great job in his second stint, having to come from behind and also overtaking guys and pushing hard, this was a real-life racing scenario and another great year for GT Academy!“
