Top South African racer aims higher
FORMER Vorna Valley resident Ashley Oldfield has emerged as the overall winner of the Nissan and PlayStation® GT Academy in South Africa.
Oldfield out-performed thousands of South African hopefuls as he embarks on a professional racing career.
GT Academy, which saw the country’s top eight virtual racers travel to Silverstone in England for Race Camp, singled Oldfield out as the best of the bunch.
Having recently celebrated his 29th birthday, Oldfield is now involved in a host of motorsport events in England, in order to rack up enough credibility to earn his international racing licence, which is the key to his future as a professional racing driver.
Residing near the Silverstone race track in the United Kingdom, Oldfield now shares a house with other winners of various GT Academy events, including winners from Germany, Belgium, Qatar, Russia and the United States.
Past winners of GT Academy have gone on to race at Le Mans and Oldfield said there were high hopes for the future.
“Le Mans is the ultimate for any racing driver and I hope to one day find myself on the grid. I visited the 2013, 24 Hours of Le Mans event and to see it all in real life was exceptional. It’s the halo event of international motorsport,” said Oldfield.
A former motoring journalist, Oldfield said he entered GT Academy to win it from the very beginning.
“I remember racing Lucas Ordoñez, a past GT Academy winner who has finished on the podium at Le Mans, and I thought if I could beat him in karting I might be able to win GT Academy, and join him on the international stage if I put my mind to it,” he said. “GT Academy is an incredible concept and brings an entirely new angle to motorsport.”
