On December 17th, Sony and Polyphony Digital will release a Time Trial demo of Gran Turismo 5. Its purpose? To launch the GT Academy 2010.

The GT Academy 2010 Time Trial will be released onto the PlayStation Store on December 17th, and will be the only way to enter next year’s GT Academy.

Last year’s Academy discovered Lucas Ordenes, who, after winning the competition, went onto drive for the Nissan PlayStation team taking an immense second place position in the GT4 Championship.

The 2010 Academy will be your first chance to get your hands on Gran Turismo 5 in its current form, featuring a specially created section of a new GT5 circuit and the Nissan 370Z in two guises:  race-tuned and non-tuned versions.

Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo series commented:

This has been a very rewarding partnership. The whole GT Academy concept is very close to my heart. Our target with the Gran Turismo series has always been to come as close as possible to a real driving experience.

To witness the level of driving achieved by GT players after a relatively short space of time at the GT Academy was very satisfying for me and I look forward to seeing the 2010 finalists in action.

I am also very happy to have the opportunity for our GT community to have a preview of the Gran Turismo 5 game.

If you qualify in the top twenty in your country, you’ll be invited to a national event to battle against the rest. If you make it out of there alive you’ll join the elite twenty in the GT Academy – a five-day test of nerve and skill.

Only two drivers will make it out of this test, with an intensive driver training schedule used to pick the GT Academy winner.

The Academy will run in the following countries:  UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand.

However, if you’re not in the above listed countries, you’ll still be able to download the GT5 Time Trial demo.

Find out more about the GT Academy in the video below and on the Official PlayStation Blog. Also enjoy browsing our Gran Turismo 5 screenshot gallery here.

[UPDATE] – Sony and Polyphony Digital have revealed that the US and Canada will each run their own contest, with seperate winners from each country.

The winners with the best combined times will win a round trip for two to attend the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 30th 2010 with VIP access. Five runner-ups in the US and five in Canada will receive a voucher to download Gran Turismo for the PSP.