Nissan GT Academy India 2015

With the aim to go better than last year, the twenty finalists for this year’s Nissan GT Academy India were whittled down to six winners at Chennai.

Mingling with last year’s finalists and six winners of Nissan’s GT Academy India invariably led to discussion on one topic, the group obstacle course at last year’s GT Academy Final in Silverstone. Those present recalled how a lack of fitness, and more importantly cohesiveness, led to the Indian contingent not classified as finishers of the military designed course. Sure there were individuals fit enough to complete the course on their own, but that was not the point of the exercise.

“We really messed things up last year,” Prakash Nair told autoX. “The obstacle course was a total disaster and we foolishly decided to just let everyone go hell for leather on their own thinking that it would push us to the finish.”

TALKING TEAMWORK

Abhinav Bhatt was also one of the six Indian participants last year and concurred that aside from making sure that this year’s batch of winners were better prepared physically a basic understanding of teamwork also needed to be driven home.

“A team is only as strong as its weakest member,” said Bhatt. “And we totally forgot that and it reflected really badly on us. We are making sure that we help out this year’s winners as much as possible and make them understand the importance of working together.”

Of course the whole point of the GT Academy at the global level is to win the competition as the winner chosen will get the pick of what Nissan’s motorsport division (NISMO) has to offer. It has been so since its inaugural edition in 2008 while the 2011 winner Jann Mardenborough remains the poster boy for the programme. Quite literally, as there were posters of him plastered all over the building at the Madras Motorsport Race Track near Sriperumbudur where this year’s finalists from India were put through driving and fitness challenges to whittle the number down to six.

EYE ON THE PRIZE

For the stages of the GT Academy where it would come down to every man for himself, the Indian contingent’s mentor, Karun Chandhok, had some advice to give.

“Don’t be concerned with what the guys around you are doing,” Chandhok told the finalists. “Just make sure you are giving it your best.”

Fresh from competing in the inaugural season of Formula E and having finished the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class, Chandhok spent an extra day with the six Silverstone bound winners, including Akshay Gupta.

Gupta was also selected to go to Silverstone last year, but was unable to do so as he had to tend to his mother who was battling cancer. Gupta was back this year, following the good news of his mother being free of the disease and on the mend and visibly more determined.

Gupta was able to hold a plank – a test of core strength – for over six minutes, longer than any of the finalists and went deep into the other fitness tests too that included the sargent jump, pushup challenge and the multi-stage fitness test.

He will be joined by Abhishek Dwarknath, Anush Chakravarthi, Dhruv Dayal, Jaideep Chahal and Shantanu Kallianpukar, who will advance to Silverstone to compete against other winners from the Asian region.

The prize that awaits the winner of the GT Academy Asia is a drive at next year’s 24 Hours of Dubai in January.

Abhinay Bikkani, who finished third in last year’s world final at Silverstone, has been racing this year in the North American based Micra Cup. Bikkani is currently fifth in the standings after four races of the 12-race series that concludes in late September and has included racing as a support series to this year’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.

Compared to Bikkani’s foray into global motorsport courtesy of Nissan, the lure of a drive in a 24 hour race is a step up. But it all depends on this year’s Indian contingent working as a team as they need to hold their nerve against other winners from around the world when it really counts. And to think this all started with playing a video game!