2014 New Zealand / Australia General Discussion
- Thread starter Louie_Schumii
- 776 comments
- 61,604 views
I'm feeling very bitter about the results. Australia won all events bar the buggy one which resulted in Josh having to start in last place in the final race. Josh than finishes the final race in second and sets the fastest lap of the race while challenging the lead. However a spilt vote from the judges hands the win to Mexico. If they wanted the best race car driver the event should have been a tally of points from all events over the course of the week. all things considered Josh was the best all round race car driver. The comments in the article below by Todd Kelly add to my feelings of bitterness.
http://www.carsales.com.au/news/201...ustralia-narrowly-misses-gt-academy-win-45387
http://www.carsales.com.au/news/201...ustralia-narrowly-misses-gt-academy-win-45387
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- 1,406
- New Zealand
Wow...just got caught up with everything that's happened at the race camp... commiserations but also congratulations to all the Australian finalists. You're all part of an elite group of sim racers that got to experience an opportunity of a life-time and yours will definitely be a hard act to follow if they were to hold another International GT Academy in the near future.
Reading about what's happened it feels as though you guys were hard done by the very strange qualifying format. IIRC every race camp that's had a final race have always had a proper qualifying instead of using results from a challenge in completely different cars from the day before.
In any case it's definitely not over for any of you who wish to keep pursuing an involvement with motorsport. Keep pushing and we look forward to hearing what your thoughts and recollection of the whole experience at Silverstone was like
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Reading about what's happened it feels as though you guys were hard done by the very strange qualifying format. IIRC every race camp that's had a final race have always had a proper qualifying instead of using results from a challenge in completely different cars from the day before.
In any case it's definitely not over for any of you who wish to keep pursuing an involvement with motorsport. Keep pushing and we look forward to hearing what your thoughts and recollection of the whole experience at Silverstone was like
.
- 9
- Melbourne
- Mister_Bond_747
What the...!!!!!!!!!!! Losin' interest fast in this GT Academy. Clearly they are looking for the 'right' person for the job with the result here.
Muggo would be by far the best overall driver. Are they looking for a team or an individual? According to their results they handicapped him based on someone elses driving performance!
The decision is wrong and should be rectified.
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- 11
- Melbourne, Australia
- SpeedyReadie94
Ok so having been here at Race Camp all week, I didn't get to see much of either Mexico or Australia running in the challenges as I was 2nd to be eliminated. But from who I spoke to, it was ridiculously close in the scores, even one of the driving instructors left the room in anger when they were deciding for Ricardo. There was a long wait after the race had finished. We were speaking to Rob Barff who had to make the decision because of the 50/50 split between the judges and if anyone seen the final corner, Rob said that if Muggo kept the boot in when he made contact on the last corner he would have been side by side to the line which would have made the difference. I spoke to our group mentor and he knew before the podium ceremony, and said that Ricardo was ahead in a couple of challenges that also made a small favour his way.
End of the day GT Academy is about selling Nissans and Mexico has a huge market. But having said that Australia already have a very strong Nissan program in V8 Supercars. So it really just came down to whomever won that final race. And that happened to be Ricardo. There was a huge amount of pressure surrounding the whole day. Muggo did a fantastic job. He represented our country so brilliantly.
Muggo was the favourite since the start of the competition. We were all relatively close in Team Aus but he stood out from us. I couldn't imagine what he's feeling right now, we all know he's bloody good and I hope opportunities come his way. I really do.
End of the day GT Academy is about selling Nissans and Mexico has a huge market. But having said that Australia already have a very strong Nissan program in V8 Supercars. So it really just came down to whomever won that final race. And that happened to be Ricardo. There was a huge amount of pressure surrounding the whole day. Muggo did a fantastic job. He represented our country so brilliantly.
Muggo was the favourite since the start of the competition. We were all relatively close in Team Aus but he stood out from us. I couldn't imagine what he's feeling right now, we all know he's bloody good and I hope opportunities come his way. I really do.
- 86,809
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Obviously I was only there for the final day but the word I was getting from Race Camp was that Australia were the best group overall but the pre-race favourite was Ricardo (described by one mentor as ":censored:ing fast") from Josh. In fact all that anyone I spoke to would talk about was Ricardo and Josh - it was between the two of them.
The pre-race warm-up results which had Thanaroj (Thailand) ahead of Bikkani (India), with Sanchez third and Muggleton fifth were somewhat of a surprise to a few, even though it was only a 0.6s spread across the five drivers (only 0.1s between the top three) and there was a thunderstorm at the end of the session.
After the race I was chatting to some faces (as I do) and it seemed to be the case this pre-race session rather than the qualifying position from the buggies was what was counting against Josh, even though in the race itself he passed three of his competitors (nearly four!) and set the fastest lap. In fact I think the situation is almost identical to @Aderrrm 's at the European race camp in 2013 - a straight split for the judges and mentors between the guy who qualified well and won the race and the guy who didn't but passed everyone else and in one more lap would have had him. That one took three hours
I hope Josh has grabbed Rick Kelly's contact details and keeps in touch. There's no way he should walk away from Race Camp feeling like anything other than a winner and he should be able to find something to race with Rick's help.
The pre-race warm-up results which had Thanaroj (Thailand) ahead of Bikkani (India), with Sanchez third and Muggleton fifth were somewhat of a surprise to a few, even though it was only a 0.6s spread across the five drivers (only 0.1s between the top three) and there was a thunderstorm at the end of the session.
After the race I was chatting to some faces (as I do) and it seemed to be the case this pre-race session rather than the qualifying position from the buggies was what was counting against Josh, even though in the race itself he passed three of his competitors (nearly four!) and set the fastest lap. In fact I think the situation is almost identical to @Aderrrm 's at the European race camp in 2013 - a straight split for the judges and mentors between the guy who qualified well and won the race and the guy who didn't but passed everyone else and in one more lap would have had him. That one took three hours
I hope Josh has grabbed Rick Kelly's contact details and keeps in touch. There's no way he should walk away from Race Camp feeling like anything other than a winner and he should be able to find something to race with Rick's help.
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- 6,911
- United Kingdom
I think the big difference is Adam got to qualify himself for the race, Josh must feel very hard done by given his qualifying position was affected by someone elses mistake which was an event they were leading like all the other events, just happened to be that was the one used to decide qualifying positions. I wonder if age played a factor in the end as Josh seemed to do as much as he possibly could to win that if they were to go to go against the norm of race winner getting the prize, maybe that might have swayed it. Well done to Ricardo Sanchez on the win though and he showed he had speed in the race going by the fastest laps of the top two and managed to respond when he needed to. Hope Josh manages to get to make the step also to become a racing driver, I wonder if Nissan Australia will help out.
- 2,977
- England
- WilliamsJIM_Adam
Reading about the race it did seem strangely familiar. Congrats to Ricardo. Unlucky for Josh but hopefully he gets something out of it.
That's true but I was still in the qualifying group with 2 others who were the only ones who were denied the chance of setting a lap in the dry because they only had 4 cars. Granted I came last out of that group but still. There can be a huge amount of luck - good and bad - that comes into play at Race Camp.
Congrats to Ricardo. Unlucky for Josh but hopefully he gets something out of it.That's true but I was still in the qualifying group with 2 others who were the only ones who were denied the chance of setting a lap in the dry because they only had 4 cars. Granted I came last out of that group but still. There can be a huge amount of luck - good and bad - that comes into play at Race Camp.
- 1,406
- New Zealand
The question that begs to be asked in light of this is how will judges decide winners on years where someone charges through the field and does a banzai move on the final corner of the final lap; makes contact with the leader and ends up crossing the line in 1st (assuming both 1st and 2nd place drivers are equal in every other aspect during the week)?
Haven't really seen any footage or photos of how light or severe the contact with Muggo and Ricardo was...interesting to note that every single Academy from 2011 had the winner from the final race get crowned GT Academy champion if memory serves me correctly...There will undoubtedly be a year when the scenario I mentioned above happens and based on the precedent the race winner must also be the overall winner unless the organisers wanted to pad the results in favour of a commercial reason?
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- 86,809
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Looked quite light, right rear three quarter to front left wheel. Josh said Ricardo just didn't see him on the inside.
- 1,406
- New Zealand
- 184
- Toowoomba, Qld
- fastboysmith
I hope they do too a good old NZ vs Aus battle would make awesome viewing
- 1,406
- New Zealand
Yeah it would. Not sure if New Zealand and Australia are big enough markets for Nissan/PlayStation NZ/AU to run a stand-alone GT Academy for these parts. However, the optimist in me would like to see NZ added to the international Academy final along with more new countries.
I can already see the kiwis get designated the black 370Z/kit and any new countries the remaining colours that haven't been used yet (so long as those cars don't suffer the technical issues that a couple came across during the European final
).
- 338
- Sydney
- joshmuggo
- joshmuggo
Ricardo didn't see me and came across my nose. He got sideways and I had to lift otherwise when he straightened it could have had me or both of us off. Would have been wheel to wheel also.
Was comforting to hear from all the instructors and all the judges that there was nothing else I could have done in that race and that they all would have done the same thing.
- 1,406
- New Zealand
- 338
- Sydney
- joshmuggo
- joshmuggo
T
Too early to say mate, but will keep you guys posted of any updates.
- 5
- zubsta
@joshmuggo
was going to say, time to change that signature picture, then thought, thats what you were probably thinking after the buggy roll so best leave it.
was going to say, time to change that signature picture, then thought, thats what you were probably thinking after the buggy roll so best leave it.
- 338
- Sydney
- joshmuggo
- joshmuggo
Hey guys, go and check out my thread to read about my experience at GT Academy.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/my-international-gt-academy-experience-and-life-after.316371/
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/my-international-gt-academy-experience-and-life-after.316371/
- 50,839
- Australia
- SpacedustDaddy
http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/releases/alex-buncombe-nissan-s-secret-weapon?mode=print
Now I see where he came from. Good stuff.
Now I see where he came from. Good stuff.
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- 50,839
- Australia
- SpacedustDaddy
True, but any word from Aussie/NZ GTA finalists being called for V8 testing? I know Europe is the best outlet in terms of exposure for up and coming racers for international racing. Might be best having a local in that seat and then driver exchange again for the Enduros next year.
- 9,401
- Western Sydney
- mustafur
I very much doubt a GT Academy driver would take that seat, without a year in Fujitsu or similar.
Considering Nissan didn't bring any of it's drivers into the series when they started I would say its a possibility with one of its Super GT drivers.
but most likely it would probably go to a driver already in the series, maybe even a top driver if they want to be serious.
Not sure if Nismo took josh or not maybe he could clarify that a bit more.
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