The three finalists representing Jeddah, Riyadh and Alkhobar in the Middle East PlayStation2 GT4 Challenge will fly down to Dubai this weekend and battle against each other and nine other finalists from across the GCC at the Grand Final of the Middle East Gran Turismo 4 Challenge. Set to take place in Dubai at the Ibn Batuta Mall on Friday, the event is the first and biggest of its kind and has already created a lot of excitement for gaming and car racing enthusiasts in the region. More than 7,000 PlayStation fans participated in the initial heats that took place in nine GCC cities last month.
The winner of the GT4 Challenge Grand Final will become the owner of a Nissan 350Z sports car and will represent the Middle East at the GT4 World Championship this June in Le Mans, France.
Hussein Al-Tarouti, a 23-year old Saudi diploma graduate, won the GT4 Challenge heat in Alkhobar and is very excited about his final battle in Dubai. “I’ve been a fan of the PlayStation2 GT series for many years now,” he claimed. “Today, I spend four hours a day practicing and I’m really looking forward to going to Dubai. My objective is to win and represent the Middle East in the GT4 World Championship.”
Nineteen-year-old Aseel Muhammad Al-Safyani from Yemen is an avid GT4 fan and won the heat in Jeddah. “I love the game because each car performs, handles, sounds and behaves exactly as you’d expect it to in real life — the thrill is amazing. I’m hoping with a lot of practice, I will be able to come in first place at the final event in Dubai.”
Seventeen-year-old Saudi Abdul Razak Abdul Malik, who won the heat in Riyadh, is unable to attend the finals in Dubai and will be replaced by the first-runner up Ahmad Siddique, a 22-year old from the UK. “I spend about a couple of hours a day playing on the GT4 game,” Siddique said. “It is a great experience and I have high hopes of winning the grand final and representing the Middle East at the world championship in France.”
The 12 finalists in Dubai will be divided into four groups and will compete against each other in five different rounds on different tracks and using different cars. Unlike the format used during the heats, the competitors will now race head to head in some rounds and race against time in other rounds. At the end of five rounds the driver with the highest score from each group qualifies for the semi-final round, after which the two top drivers will then battle it out in a “winner takes all” final.
The Gran Turismo series has sold over 38 million copies across the world and is now one of the highest selling software series in the history of gaming. Fueled by game designer Kazunori Yamauchi’s passion for cars, GT4 has taken producers Polyphony Digital four years to develop and is the largest video game ever made. It would take more than 120 days of playing 24-hours non-stop just to sample each car on every track for just five minutes.
