In line with the SEMA (Speciality Equipment Market Association) show held in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 5th, 2011, the final judging for the Gran Turismo Awards SEMA took place, and Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi selected a 1973 Custom Chevrolet Camaro for the "Best in Show" award.

The SEMA show is a festival for custom cars with participants from all over America. The ninth annual Gran Turismo Awards SEMA starts off by picking five gems from the hundreds of beautiful cars on the show floor, in five different categories. This year's category winners selected by motor journalists from top American media are as follows:

- Best Truck/SUV: CGS Performance Ford F150 (Owner: Casey Scranton)
- Best Domestic: 1966 Widebody Ford Mustang (Owner: Filip Trojanek)
- Best Asian Import: Custom Nissan 370Z (Owner: Mike Mixon)
- Best European Import: Custom Porsche 911 C4 (Owner: Mark Arcenal)
- Best Hot Rod: Custom Chevrolet Camaro (Owner: Mary Pozzi)

On the evening of November 5th the final awards ceremony were held at the Marquee nightclub of the Cosmopolitan hotel, and the Best in Show was selected from these five category winners. Kazunori Yamauchi, after going to the SEMA show floor himself to carefully examine each car personally, selected a stunning orange metallic car that had an aura of its own: the 1971 Custom Chevrolet Camaro.

Although this Camaro has all the looks of the 2nd generation Camaro from the good old days, it is a proper racing car that is still being raced today. The owner Mary Pozzi is a racer herself, and has been participating in autocross racing in this car since around 2005. The front section and boot lid are all carbon, and many other components have been trimmed down to reduce weight. The engine is Chevrolet's legendary LS2 small block V8, tuned to 620bhp, and the transmission and rear axle have been beefed up in order to transfer the power to the ground.

This was the first female owner to win the Gran Turismo Awards, and we can look forward to another beautiful machine being added to Gran Turismo in the future.