GT Academy National Finals - Venues, Dates, Drivers & Discussion Thread

As promised:

The venue list will be updated as and when the venue details are released. Please post here if you have any information relating to any GTAcademy National Final venue.

I have also included a drivers list for those drivers who have accepted their invite and will therefore be attending stage two of GT Academy. Please post or PM me to confirm your attendance so I can add you to the list.

This thread is open for discussing all things relating to GT Academy National Finals.

Australia

Date: Wednesday 3rd February 2010
Time: 09:30am – 5:00pm
Venue: Shannon’s Car Auction Rooms, 321 Warrigal Road, Cheltenham, Melbourne, Victoria

I've conforimed my attendance, cheers Sphinx.

Germany and Austria.

Date: Saturday 6th February 2010
Venue: ring°werk Erlebniswelt Nürburgring
http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/ringwerk.html

Good job ! Thanks

Reading through the "What's Next" document I was sent yesterday it seems all UK participants will get a passenger ride around the Brands circuit with a mystery driver.

Quote:
"The day will be spent competing for a place in the International Final at Silverstone through a series of GT time trials and head to head races. Participants will also be invited to accompany a special guest driver in a real race car around Brands Hatch track!"

Any speculation as to who this might be? Will he be wearing a Stig outfit?

I hope it's the full GP circuit so the car can stretch it's legs a bit.

MarkWebber

Australia

Date: Wednesday 3rd February 2010
Time: 09:30am – 5:00pm
Venue: Shannon’s Car Auction Rooms, 321 Warrigal Road, Cheltenham, Melbourne, Victoria

I've conforimed my attendance, cheers Sphinx.

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Australia. I also have confirmed my attendance. 👍

Belgium:

Date: Saturday 20th February 2010
Time: 11:00am – 3:30pm
Venue: Radisson Blu Palace Hotel – Place Royale 39 – 4900 Spa

Confirmed drivers:
- GTP_Racer_LP
- GTP_Dustdriver
- GTP_Manuelos

Just confirmed my attendance for the New Zealand final! Can't wait.

PrudentBear

Reading through the "What's Next" document I was sent yesterday it seems all UK participants will get a passenger ride around the Brands circuit with a mystery driver.

Quote:
"The day will be spent competing for a place in the International Final at Silverstone through a series of GT time trials and head to head races. Participants will also be invited to accompany a special guest driver in a real race car around Brands Hatch track!"

Any speculation as to who this might be? Will he be wearing a Stig outfit?

I hope it's the full GP circuit so the car can stretch it's legs a bit.

Click to expand...

You jammy git, do you need a lift there

Good luck mate 👍

The Netherlands:

Date: Thursday 11th February 2010
Venue: Nissan car dealer Amsterdam

More information will probably follow from others. Wasn't bother to ask any further since I cannot attend anyway.

NATIONAL FINAL DETAILS
When: Saturday, February 13th, 2pm - 6pm.
Where: Dublin city centre (Venue TBC).

Ireland

Portugal:

Date: Saturday, 6th February, 2pm
Venue: Congress Center, Lisbon

I think its safe to say that all those from NZ on the 'GTPlanet National Final Qualifiers List' list will be attending, including myself.

New Zealand - Drivers that i know are attending:

TIZZLAA
ripping_silk
GTP_joeninety

Nordics:

Date: Friday 12th February (11:00 - 18:00)
Venue: SpeedClub - Vattuniemenkatu 5, 00210 HELSINKI [FI]

Message from FAK about the Italian event:

Date: Saturday 13th February
Venue: Rome (he hasnt got the address yet)

All the best
Maz

It's a big shame that South Africa is not on the list of countries for the GT Academy, because now our fastest GTP driver of all - kartno38/David Perel, will not be able to further his racing career 👎

(sorry not to mention the other fast SA drivers from out Planet).

Its a shame Ireland wasn't merged with the UK like Austria and Germany. I can't believe one of the Ireland guys is guaranteed a place at Silverstone when the fastest in Ireland would've been 35th in the UK ! I mean if it was a worldwide combined I would've been on the bubble myself but in terms of finding the fastest 22 its not really very effective.

davissi

Its a shame Ireland wasn't merged with the UK like Austria and Germany. I can't believe one of the Ireland guys is guaranteed a place at Silverstone when the fastest in Ireland would've been 35th in the UK ! I mean if it was a worldwide combined I would've been on the bubble myself but in terms of finding the fastest 22 its not really very effective.

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Ireland has about one tenth the population of the UK (off the top of my head). Sony want to have all countries represented so this event gets more press. If Ireland was thrown in with the UK again it is likely that no one from there would be represented at all. If there is an Irish entrant, way more people from there are likely to tune into Dave and watch it when it's on TV.


Also i would like to confirm that I am attending the event.
It says TBC but it most likely will be at the Tripod/button factory, a club in Dublin City

Dessy182

Germany and Austria aren't merged, they're just sharing the location of the finals. 👍

Besides, being fast in time trial does not necessarily indicate a good race driver, certainly not in the opinion of the academy jury - witness the results of the 2008 proceedings.

zabeu

Germany and Austria aren't merged, they're just sharing the location of the finals. 👍

Besides, being fast in time trial does not necessarily indicate a good race driver, certainly not in the opinion of the academy jury - witness the results of the 2008 proceedings.

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link please!!?

zabeu

Germany and Austria aren't merged, they're just sharing the location of the finals. 👍

Besides, being fast in time trial does not necessarily indicate a good race driver, certainly not in the opinion of the academy jury - witness the results of the 2008 proceedings.

Click to expand...

Oh right I saw that and assumed it was merged, OK cool.👍
In terms of being fast in the TT and being fast in a real car that's the whole point of the competition so of course the organisers think that. The fastest guys in the TT will always generally do much better than the slowest guys otherwise they'd ask us all to play darts ! The other elements that can affect the performance in a real race car that aren't covered in the game are certainly present but they're generally used to cover the backs of those who aren't upto scratch in the game who regard themselves as good 'real' drivers.
I have no interest in gaming whatsoever I'm just a worldwide motorsport fan who wanted to investigate the elements of real racing that were present in the game. Since I can't find a fairground ride in the world that can raise my pulse above 53 it would be a huge relief to actually drive a real racing car.

Unfortunately I don't have a link to the 2008 Eiger TT results ready, May, but Lucas' results for example were far from extraordinary at that stage, if I'm not gravely mistaken. As far as I remember, this year's French winner also made the trip to Silverstone, yet did not emerge victorious.

I certainly agree that a good TT result is likely to be a strong indicator that you'll do well in a real race car. However, I maintain that to be a good race driver, it takes a few traits that TT lap times will not reflect. But luckily that's for the academy jury and not for me to decide.

Anyway, I think that the ultimate goal of this event is to sell more Nissan cars, and to do that, it can't hurt to do the smaller countries a bit of extra good. 👍

davissi

Oh right I saw that and assumed it was merged, OK cool.👍
In terms of being fast in the TT and being fast in a real car that's the whole point of the competition so of course the organisers think that. The fastest guys in the TT will always generally do much better than the slowest guys otherwise they'd ask us all to play darts ! The other elements that can affect the performance in a real race car that aren't covered in the game are certainly present but they're generally used to cover the backs of those who aren't upto scratch in the game who regard themselves as good 'real' drivers.
I have no interest in gaming whatsoever I'm just a worldwide motorsport fan who wanted to investigate the elements of real racing that were present in the game. Since I can't find a fairground ride in the world that can raise my pulse above 53 it would be a huge relief to actually drive a real racing car.

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There is a slight correlation between a drivers speed on GT and a racing track, but it's not a bullet proof way of finding out I'm sure you understand.

Also, with such a small population of a country, is a benefit to making the top 20 but not to improving your speed. Unless those guys downloaded ghosts from other nations to follow/learn from then they have less people to learn from. I for example did not feel the need to download a foreigners ghost, as EDDSKILL's and your laps were beyond me.

If you merged the Irish players with the Brits, I think you'd be looking at people like Theewar much higher up the global records than you'd expect.

You've made a few comments about being a thrill seeker now. Would be fascinating to see you in a fast car on a circuit at the world finals and also, can we put a heart-rate monitor on you for the UK finals because I know mine will be ranging between 150-160bpm. This can impair judgement and concentration somewhat

davissi

Its a shame Ireland wasn't merged with the UK like Austria and Germany. I can't believe one of the Ireland guys is guaranteed a place at Silverstone when the fastest in Ireland would've been 35th in the UK ! I mean if it was a worldwide combined I would've been on the bubble myself but in terms of finding the fastest 22 its not really very effective.

Click to expand...

Unfair thing to say. You really can't say that. There was a region predermined and they didn't have to compete against the other players around the world.. end of story. The point in stage 1 was to get to the national final, not to get the best possible world ranking.

You only could compare 100% the times across the global board if all the areas would be combined and there would only be one winner. That would ensure that no one has a reason not to try to get every .001 off their time - so no settling for 2nd. For sure there is a lot of cases now, when the top 20 spot was sealed from the first laps and therefore there was no need to give your all. This distorts the table a bit now.. there was so many different goals (individually), that to use the overall global board to see who should be in the national finals is impossible.

I'm not a thrill seeker Ian I'm just not one to get overly flustered or overexcited with things that are supposed to be scary.

I was 7:th in Sweden but only 47:th in the combined nordic leaderboard due to the alien nation of Finland. I am a bit disappointed at Sony for combining the nordic countries and no other. If you combine one area you really should combine others, like Ireland and UK, Portugal and Spain, Austria and Switzerland, New Zealand and Austrailia, or no countries at all.

That said, I am fairly certain that I was quicker now than I would have had the nordic countries not been combined. I was pushed much harder by the finns than I would have otherwise.

Don't take this wrong, I'm not complaining, but surely it would have been fair to give the combined nordics more spots to Silverstone than just one..

But life isn't fair, is it.

edit,

I have to add that surely it would have been even more fair to give all the countries a place.. US, South Africa, etc.. 👍

zabeu

Besides, being fast in time trial does not necessarily indicate a good race driver, certainly not in the opinion of the academy jury - witness the results of the 2008 proceedings.

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1st place Silverstone 2008: Lucas (TT 1.20,336; 11th)
2nd place Silverstone 2008: Lars (TT 1.20,128; 2nd)
3rd (inofficiel) place Silverstone 2008: Arnaud (TT 1.20,197; 3rd)

But the leader for 4 days Chris only had a 1.21,267 in the Timetrial.

Real experience is the main thing in Silverstone which is more important than 1 second in GT.

zocker_16

1st place Silverstone 2008: Lucas (TT 1.20,336; 11th)
2nd place Silverstone 2008: Lars (TT 1.20,128; 2nd)
3rd (inofficiel) place Silverstone 2008: Arnaud (TT 1.20,197; 3rd)

But the leader for 4 days Chris only had a 1.21,267 in the Timetrial.

Real experience is the main thing in Silverstone which is more important than 1 second in GT.

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That time was not posted by Arnaud mate. DriverR1 is the the one who achieved 1st place (3rd overall) in the 2008 GT Academy Eiger TT (France qualifier), with the 1.20.197 you mentioned.

Arnaud had already qualified for GTAcademy in a previous competition (not sure which one to be exact), so he did not officially take part in the Eiger Qualifier. However he did run the Eiger qualifier for fun and managed an incredible 1.20.024

Translated text taken from GT5rs from a interview with Arnaud:

Q: You had not taken part officially in Against the Watch on Eiger, considering which you had already gained your ticket of qualification at the time of the 24 Hours of Mans. I believe that you nevertheless turned on the combo, for the fun?

Arnaud: Yes I rolled on it against the watch. I rolled under pseudo Thedoctor812 on the Dutch leaderboard. My time was into 1.20.024 what gave the 1st time of the competition.

For reference:

1 - 1 ' 20.197 DriverR1
2 - 1 ' 20.230 PoSiTiOnOnePole
3 - 1 ' 20.241 LiLFaF