Nissan GT Academy crowns season two winner

Nissan and Sony kicked off the second season of GT Academy back in October. Nissan GT Academy North America is a TV series that starts with some the fastest virtual racers on the Sony game Gran Turismo. The season started with 16 of the top drivers and then whittled those down from a huge number of drivers who accepted the GT Academy challenge on the video game.

Once the top 16 drivers floated to the top after a series of on and off track challenges, the top drivers fought it out to win a seat in a real Nissan racing car. The track challenges were held at the Silverstone circuit in England over six weeks and aired on the GT Academy television series. Interestingly, this year's winner, Steve Doherty, was in the competition last year.

He missed the final 16 in the 2011 series by only 6/10 of a second. This year Doherty came back and took it all. The first official race for Doherty in a Nissan racing car will be on January 10 when he and three other GT Academy champions from Europe will team up to race a Nissan 370 Z at the Dubai 24 hour race.

Last year the GT Academy team took a third-place finish in the event in their class. If you missed this season's episodes of GT Academy, you can watch them all on the Spike TV website. The series spanned six episodes this season.