I like this Driver Profile idea
Real Name: Andy
Age: 22
Lives: Kent, England
Lives with: Le parents, spending too much on racing to be able to afford to move out just yet!
Status: Single
Children / Pets: 3 Cats
School: University of Derby (woo)
Major: Motorsport Engineering (Dropped out after 2 months, didn't want to study any more
)
Work: Online Marketing Manager (Also have a small online business of my own)
1 interesting fact: Once had the left front stub axle shear off the kart 22.5 hours into the Le Mans 24hr kart race, while leading class. We finished 7th.
Favorite motor-sport and why: GT Racing, generally. Used to go to British GT races, my Dad's boss raced a
Porsche 911 GT3 (car in the link is actually racing in "Britcar" at Brands Hatch, not British GT) in the series so I used to get a lot of free VIP tickets and to sit in the car a few times, good fun
- Would watch FIA/Super/British GT if it was better televised, usually only watch F1 and British Touring Cars as they are the only regularly-televised series in the UK really.
When and how did you get into Gran Turismo: Stumbled across it round a friend's house when I was barely into console gaming at all. Was hooked from that moment.
Real Life Racing Background: Kart racing, have raced Prokarts, Rotax and TKMs for the last 5-6 years. Won a couple of 6hr endurance championships and momentarily held the lap record (lasted about a month, sigh..
) at Buckmore Park. Racing this year in the European Prokart Endurance Championship.
Car History:
- Little Suzuki Ignis (blah) was my first car. Had a Citroen AX go into the back of it, wrote off the Citroen, but my car was fine. Then someone shed a tyre at 80mph in front of me, which went through the front of the car. Quite scary, but only dented the radiator and broke the front bumper and the car marched on. Lesson learned here was to not follow a car which smells of burning rubber. I finally killed it in the rain by aquaplaning under (heavy) braking into a telegraph pole - Well, it still runs actually, only it will cost a lot to repair the (mostly) cosmetic damage. Solid car!
- Running a Lexus IS200 now, which is a lot more fun. But very expensive to run, seriously. Took it round the Nurburgring in October. Got totally owned by guys on semi-slick tyres in the dry, but in the rain it was so much fun. Really big smile when you see a VW Racing Scirocco only marginally catching you in the wet.