Well put everyone.
It was an amazing experience and It's amazing I could finally put names to faces!!!
. After a bit of a long travel (Not as long as others though) and nearly missing a train hehe (London St Pancras has 3 floors and is rather confusing) finally made it to the hotel
. Excellent greeting, nice to meet Maz as well. Hats of to you for all your work you had put in!
It was great to meet you, Martin. Your clean driving was a pleasure to watch, you chose to throw yourself off at Spoon 1 on day 2 to avoid hitting the driver in front who was on the brakes a tad early. You did great for someone with such limited wheel and pedal experience, should be proud 👍
Looking at the guy who came second 'James Hudsen', a search on the net comes up he is already a highly experienced drift racer as you can see here
http://vimeo.com/1366620. I thought the whole point of this competition was to find gamers at home who play the game who have little or no experience at real racing, and convert them to a real life racing driver. If this is allowed??? this opens the door to any semi proffesional to use the gt academy which is designed to find people from the game to the track, not from the track to the game to the track. Also looking at the circuits used, it seems to favour the suzuka track which was the wildcard combo which James qualified on so obviously had much more practise at that.
Welcome to GTPlanet
Regarding James, I understand he did do some drift racing some time ago and does work with a drift racing organisation on a part-time basis. However, the view of the Academy organisers is that drifting is not an officially recognised form of racing and he has never held any form of race licence (which is the main point in the T&C), and so remains eligible to stay in GT Academy. They've also said that their expert instructors from Silverstone do not feel that his drifting experience will give him any significant advantage over the other GT Academy international finalists when it comes to real circuit driving. Don't forget that Lucas and Jordan had considerable karting experience before entering the Academy, but no official racing licence. The devil is in the exact details of the T&C I guess.
James was also stellar in the media interviews and showed his class on day 2 of the knockout gaming. He qualified for day 2 on Suzuka, but not at the top or even top 3 and his only loss in head to head gaming was at...Suzuka. In the final. So I really don't think it's afforded him the advantage you may believe
Well we had another great event didn't we ! There's some really nice people involved in these competitions I must say. Great hospitality and I love the respect we get from the people from the motorsport fraternity.
Its easy to see why people appreciate the running of this event, to be treated so well.
It was really good to see you again David and have the time to talk to you this year. I'm really glad you enjoyed yourself again this time around 👍
Negatives:
The wildcard combo should not have been mirrored in round 1.
I know it's a small detail, but the car wasn't exactly the same as the wildcard combo [Nissan GT-R SpecV (GTACADEMY version) vs GT-R '07), and don't forget the other wildcard combo was at Indy, not Suzuka. You have to try and understand that the wildcard winners were not really expected to be as well-prepared for the finals as the time-triallers and so the first combo was close to the wildcard combo in order to facilitate accessibility to the competition and give them a chance to be competitive. But that wasn't the reasoning behind the choice for Round 1.
You have to keep in mind that Suzuka was:
a) A highly difficult and technical track ideal for seeding competitors
b) Laptime-wise it was suitable for the timeslot allowed for Round 1 qualifying
c) A real life track with probably the fewest possibilities of cheating or corner cutting
d) A very well known and well trodden circuit for GT gamers
You must also keep in mind that our car choices were limited to relevant Nissan vehicles, and this was a great opportunity to slot in the AWD GT-R considering what all the subsequent combos were going to be. I wanted to shake things up and have rounds were driver versatility and adaptability would be tested. I hoped that I had achieved this when all was said and done 👍
Also Tim kept avoiding eye contact with me after my split screen race with Anzel, I personally think it would be a good idea for Tim to experience what its like playing this game when you build a lead only to see it wiped away by an unrealistic slipstream. Driving up the banking on purpose then taking the pitlane line and slowly moving to the racing line could save someone having their race win stolen in such important circumstances like making day 2. Also Anzel tried to block me because I was following up fast in his slipstream also, what else is he gonna do ? Give it to me on a plate ??
You can't just think 'they wouldn't do that in real life' having a little better empathy for what it must be like for the players in that critical position helps.
(Positive suggestion) If Tim did a load of races in the game with someone like Maz beforehand and really got into the race game state who better then to bring judgement from both perspectives ?
I can understand where you're coming from and of course I respect your opinion and feelings on the above. I must admit though I see this a little differently. Last year in my first race of the finals I was up against the eventual champion John Moorby. I was leading at Indy in the 370Z tuned on the last lap with a decent lead, but John used the slipstream to catch me by the line, eventually taking the win by 0.000s, and he was awarded the points for the win despite my screen showing me as the winner. I didn't block him, weave, hit or push him into a wall. I would never have been able to live with doing anything of that sort had I won by such tactics. John played a tactical masterstroke and was justly rewarded with the points that saw him into round 2, where I was out in Round 1. Sometimes that's just the way it goes and the circumstances are the same for all of us.
I also believe Tim was suitably informed of all the pitfalls of the various tracks and any racing to be done there. I produced a clean driving guide with pictures for all the adjudicators and spoke to Tim giving him ample insight into what to expect during events. I think the fact that he was a motorsports man and a non-gamer provided a very valuable perspective on events and I agree with all his decisions. 👍
I do hope you don't have any hard feelings about the gaming section of the tournament. I had hoped that when all was said and done it would be seen as a series of combos that suited the nature of the competition and brought out the best in the drivers' adaptability, versatility and consistency as well as natural speed.
For example, the split screen view is actually closer to the front of the car that's why everyone was rear ending everyone else.
In all honesty I thought the driving was of a very high standard and I really didn't see that much contact going on throughout the two days. That one race between you and Anzel was the only one that provided any notable controversy and rest assured the decision regarding that race was widely discussed with appropriate input from all the relevant people 👍
Good luck to the UK finalists !
Too right!!
Finally, to all the contestants I got a chance to talk to, some more than others unfortunately, you were all a great bunch of guys and I wouldn't have a bad word to say about anyone. And to Maz as well, really enjoyed chatting to you when I got the chance and of course our friendly race on the Ring at the end of the day
It was for sure a highlight meeting and chatting with you Des, I'm thrilled you did yourself so proud in all the disciplines 👍 And it really is very kind of you to call that a "race", I was all over the shop and you were showing me around most of the time
I'll prob be a bit distant on the forums for a while,
I certainly hope this will not be the case, and I hope when PSN is up you remember to add me
I'm not so sure Des. If I'm right after day 1 me and Jaan were first and second and on day 2 Jaan won shootout with me 3rd. So I'd say we would of been pretty equal on points. Unless first day points didn't carry over??
That's correct Thomas, the day 1 gaming points did not carry over, they were there strictly to determine the top 8 and subsequent 9th/10th place playoffs for day 1. The day 2 gaming was determined by the 370Z Suzuka qualifier.
David was a awesome on the fitness and looked good in the car so he must of got a good point haul on that. James looked good in the car. Both beat me in fitness tests. So I think the fitness and media were my downfall.
I wouldn't beat yourself up about any of the above mate, your gaming performance was stellar, deeply impressive and marked you out as one of the very top GT gamers in the UK and Ireland. It demonstrated just how much your consistent racing from GT5 Prologue to GT5 after the last finals had aided your performance. I like to think our battles in the NSX and 512 at Suzuka over the last 12 months had some part to play in your glittering showing
Yes, just thinking about that i dont know if the wildcard combo should have been aloud in the finals as that was how the two wildcards made it in to start with, an advantage i guess, both james and anzel were as to be expected very strong, with james coming second? from memory, ultimatly single handly being enough for top 8 and day 2 with 2 other 0 point finishes i believe? and anzel also about 4th being enough for a 9th-10th place play off with also 0 point finishes, which he later got pipped on the line by the outrageous slipstream which played a big factor in alot of races.
I think James was very unlucky to not get points at Laguna Seca where a very weird glitch in the invalidation cost him and another driver a 5 second penalty for that particular round. As I said above, he proved himself very strong in the gaming aspect by winning all his races (apart from the final against the magnificent Jann) on day 2 against some excellent competition. The format I thought was a big improvement on last year because there were opportunities for people to haul back points in later rounds, and competitors were involved for much longer than last time. As for slipstream, come on buddy, if I'm not bitter about what happened to me, who else has the right to be
It was great to be back amongst so many friends from last year. David (Davissi) has already mentioned the hospitality and respect from everyone involved in the competition and it’s great that this continues long after the competition is over. Huge thanks to Maz, Glen, Charlotte and everyone at Jardine for inviting me back.
You and Alex were absolutely great sports for taking a day off work to be there and help out, be part of the experience and accept your roles with such humility and enthusiasm. I really enjoyed chatting with you both again without the pressure of competition 👍
Thanks to Jordan for the passenger laps. Brands Hatch was much busier than last year as there was an open pit lane track day and the circuit was full of a variety of cars and drivers of differing ability. We then had time for a quick “Ex Silverstone finalists + Maz” GT5 TT competition in which I was soundly beaten by Maz and Alex on the Cape Ring track in the Calsonic Skyline.
Well it wasn't entirely fair was it? Charlotte asked me what car we should use and I picked the Calsonic, so a little biased
You lucky bugger though, I didn;t get a chance to see any other part of the event being glued to the pods from first thing Monday til pack up on Tuesday
I wanted a passenger lap!
All the best to Jann and James at Silverstone and give it your all. There’s a twist in proceedings this time but as I found out about it from an unofficial source I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I can say with confidence that you will have the time of your lives. If you want to ask me any questions about my experience last year please PM me and I’ll try my best to help. There’s a lot you can do beforehand to prepare and gain an advantage from that I didn’t learn or think about until it was too late.
Jann and James, as impressive as they were, would do very well to take you up on such a kind and gracious offer. You really are a credit to the community, the UK and GT Academy Johnny boy, I look forward to seeing you again soon.
A massive thank you and well done again to all the UK and Ireland competitors for being such a seriously fine group of drivers, competitors, sportsmen and most importantly, such a good group of people. In addition to the above, I very much appreciated the opportunity to meet and talk to Dan, Davey, Nismo Dave and all the rest of you. You all did your territory extremely proud, and GTP extremely proud
Finally, a word for our champion, the boy wonder Jann Mardenborough. Not a bead of sweat or stress, not a wheel wrong in 2 days of high pressure gaming, a clean driver, a fast driver from the first corner of any track, superb car control, a polite, humble and very likeable young man. His performance in all areas of the competition and his relative anonimity in the GT community all added to the huge surprise we all felt at this superstar who just showed up and showed us all how it should be done. We're all behind you mate, I hope you enjoy yourself thoroughly at Silverstone where I look forward to seeing you and James again, and be sure to make the most of this excellent opportunity. Congratulations
All the best
Maz
