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

  • Thread starter Sphinx
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Timo fantastic post mate, good to see you had a great time despite your bad luck. A true sportsman đź‘Ť.

The reference of GT being a game (hense somthing to be enjoyed) really strikes a chord with me. I'll wont forget your simple gesture of kindness (even if you have). đź‘Ť

Take care Shaun...
 
With the winter olympics underway does anyone see the parallels of the snowboard cross with the GT Academy national finals :rolleyes:? (With a few differences of course)

 
Timo... A class post from a class person... You are a true 'gentleman racer' đź‘Ť
 
.pixr
Yes I was there and I thought we we're talking about you're decision to compete in the final, not if I complained about the format or not. I already made a post about that a couple of pages ago.
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A post.. Well thats what I mean we should ALL have complained on the day of the finals. But you know my story about why I competed in the finals, and if youre ok or not ok with it I dont bother I have explained what there is to explain.. See you on the next GT Academy:tup:

.pixr
Yeah and another/4th guy that would have been in the final race... oh sorry time trial.
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A 4th guy yes, but it would have been about the 30th place of the Time Trail and imho that guy doesnt deserve to drive in the finals anyway. I honour everyone who is in the top 100 but the top 20 is going to a final, if someone in the top 20 cant be there on the national final then you ARE LUCKY to take his place. I could be on the national final but not on Silverstone, the result would not have been something else because my brother is the 2nd fastest and otherwise Ralph would have won. So the guy who had competed in my place would have been there just to experience the whole thing, and if Im thinking right atm then it means that he would be there with the same purpose as I was there? Just to be there and have a fun day...

.pixr
Oh that's it... :rolleyes: But seriously just read my post.
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Well it is suspicious how youre making a big problem of it while I had a lot of people saying that it was great that I was there, it was a good show between me, my brother and Ralph.. Only the guy from Sony was dissapointed because "He had to phone the media the next day to say there is another winner"... For the rest only positive things that I was there...

Lets leave it to this, at least I wont be talking anymore about this subject.. Best of luck to my brother and hopefully he can show something there in Silverstone!:sly:
 
HTML: 
For the Irish finalists, was there any difference in physics and feel in this new build?
Better Force feedback?

Depends on the steering wheel your used to. I normally use a G25 and I found the force feedback in the new build more forgiving and softer in feel.

But that could have been the fact that we were using Driving force GT wheels.
 
mr_geez
Congratulations Warren for great 2nd place!!

And big props for your attitude, it was nice to read about positive experience and none of that typical "I'm looking for an excuse me/my friend lost" or "the organization was so poor" BS this thread is filled with..

cheers mate , you did fantastic job!! :)
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Yes, Timo and Warren are both true Gentlemen đź‘Ť but there are times when things need to be said in the hope of change, because after all, if things don't change then they stay the same, right?

Allow me to show you two examples why change is needed and please note, they are far from "BS":

Believe it or not, this openning footage is actually a first round race from the Spainish finals. Watching this footage is in my opinion like watching an Online race from a Saturday night lads race after a few beers, in my opinion.



Action taken: Zero.

Next Footage is the final race in Spain. This how Ramon lost his chance to go to Silverstone:



Action taken: Zero.

Please can you explain to me why you think it's "BS" and also explain to me why you must find this footage acceptable in the hightest level of racing in Gran Turismo?
 
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My 2 cents on the Dutch National final

First, congratulations to SolarSystem for a solid performance during the final đź‘Ť

My day started at 6.30 AM and I travelled to Amsterdam in anticipation of a great event. But when I arrived and got told that we had to time trial all day using Prologue, I was SHOCKED :drool: But, I tried to stay calm and focus on the task at hand.

In the first round I was grouped in poule 3. The first round consisted of 3 time trials: HSR, Daytona Road and Fuji F. All went well and I won all three time trials. On Daytona Road and Fuji I even managed to record the fastest time of all contestants.
I was amazed that everyone just used more than 3 car widths of runoff at Fuji:crazy: That's not real racing! So I protested with the race official, but he said: as long as the game tolerates it, the lap is clean :yuck: To not have a huge disadvantage, I started using them too but with dislike.

The half final was less fortunate. It was made up out of 3 time trials around Eiger Nordwand, Fuji F and London. I was placed in a tough poule with SolarSystem and his brother, who both picked up a great pace by then. I came third 3 times, so game over for me. :indiff:

.pixr
Yeah and another/4th guy that would have been in the final race... oh sorry time trial.
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That guy would have been me.

IRT_SolarSystem
A 4th guy yes, but it would have been about the 30th place of the Time Trail and imho that guy doesnt deserve to drive in the finals anyway. I honour everyone who is in the top 100 but the top 20 is going to a final, if someone in the top 20 cant be there on the national final then you ARE LUCKY to take his place. I could be on the national final but not on Silverstone, the result would not have been something else because my brother is the 2nd fastest and otherwise Ralph would have won. So the guy who had competed in my place would have been there just to experience the whole thing, and if Im thinking right atm then it means that he would be there with the same purpose as I was there? Just to be there and have a fun day...
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I don't think it is fair to say that someone does or does not deserve a place in the final. It is easy for me to say: If you weren't driving that day I would probably have been in the final and I would have had a chance to win the event. And it can't be considered to be impossible for that 4th guy to have won the final either.

I know it's not an easy position you are in, and Sony did contact us all rather late. So late in fact that they recieved my mail (with the documents we had to send in) only the day before the event, even though I sent them a week before that! I wonder if that was their fault or the mail company's.

Anyway, I wish you the best with your operation đź‘Ť and the best of luck to your brother in Silverstone.

:cheers:
Bart
 
Zimmerd
The special guest driver could be Lucas Ordonez?
As he will be there at Brands Hatch (saw on his twitter)
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Now I'm properly jealous, really wish I was going tomorrow and not sitting at my desk in work :ouch:


GTP_Hyperspeed
GTP_Ingram
GTP_rpm
GTP_PrudentBear
GTP_Sigma
GTP_Stotty
GTP_Synwraith
TwinturboCH
GTP_Pundershaw

Good luck to all the above for tomorrow. Get an early night, keep your cool and above all enjoy it...oh and get your guests to post photos, videos and updates ;)
 
Sphinx
Yes, Timo and Warren are both true Gentlemen đź‘Ť but there are times when things need to be said in the hope of change, because after all, if things don't change then they stay the same, right?

Allow me to show you two examples why change is needed and please note, they are far from "BS":

Believe it or not, this openning footage is actually a first round race from the Spainish finals. Watching this footage is in my opinion like watching an Online race from a Saturday night lads race after a few beers, in my opinion.



Action taken: Zero.

Next Footage is the final race in Spain. This how Ramon lost his chance to go to Silverstone:



Action taken: Zero.

Please can you explain to me why you think it's "BS" and also explain to me why you must find this footage acceptable in the hightest level of racing in Gran Turismo?
Click to expand...

The spanish final was just embarrassing. It wasn't just one guy either. The first video there are I think 2 or 3 people who caused careless accidents.
 
@sphinx: couldnt agree more with your post mate.. sometimes things must to be said... đź‘Ť

Sphinx
Watching this footage is in my opinion like watching an Online race from a Saturday night lads race after a few beers, in my opinion.
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just quoted that sentence because it describes well what happened in the Spanish final, or at least in those videos... there was no respect for the participants.. :drool: but it seams that neither the participants respected each others on track.. what a mess.. thats not racing... :ill:

change is definitely needed!!!
 
PASM
I don't think it is fair to say that someone does or does not deserve a place in the final. It is easy for me to say: If you weren't driving that day I would probably have been in the final and I would have had a chance to win the event. And it can't be considered to be impossible for that 4th guy to have won the final either.

I know it's not an easy position you are in, and Sony did contact us all rather late. So late in fact that they recieved my mail (with the documents we had to send in) only the day before the event, even though I sent them a week before that! I wonder if that was their fault or the mail company's.

Anyway, I wish you the best with your operation đź‘Ť and the best of luck to your brother in Silverstone.
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Sorry mate, I havent looked at it that way I was only looking at someone who had competed in my place outside of the top 20. Forgetting about you to be in the final if I wasnt there:yuck: All I can say is that Im not proud of that and it was not even worth it... But I cant change what happened and I should have listened to my feelings (which said I shouldnt compete). For the rest what has to be said about it has been said, and I hope we can fight soon in GT5 you were a good opponent:tup:

OT: Seeing those vids of the spanish finals all I can say is that I am amazed about it the more I see and read of the GT Academy 2010... Its a joke and people get slammed off the track for no reason and without giving penalties! There is too much at stakes in this competition so the drivers use everything to win, the organization should act hard to keep it fair but they dont... GT Academy 2010 has failed and finding the best GT drivers to go to Silverstone has failed aswell, but I think the marketing income has been good so thats the only thing what counts for both the companies right?
 
@Sphinx

About the videos you posted.
Both are from Spanish GTAcademy finals. And in both we can see some disgraceful driving. I can wholeheartedly agree with that. But was it against the rules they set in Spain? I don't know. Did the finalists receive any kind of disclaimer about fair racing in the papers before they went to the finals or during pre-competition briefing with stewards? If they didn't, they don't have any point to claim anything was "unfair" sensu stricto. Was is against the spirit of "fair play"? Of course it was ,but since I don't see any posts which would tell me that after the first race (1st video) the participants went to the organizers of the event and talk about the issue of "fair racing", I don't see how you can be surprised that things like that occurred in "the great final".

About the BS part of my post.
I think we (as hardcore Gran Turismo fans) should be thankful that Sony made such a great multi national PR stunt (or you can say competition if you like). I never heard about any other company in gaming industry which would made dreams of many of us possible (after all this is one of the factors why we race in GT, 90% of us wants/wanted to be some kind of racing drivers in one form or another, even if it was only for one race "in real life"). If I was high executive at Sony and read all those posts with gripes about this whole event I wouldn't bother to do next edition. Most of the issues people come here with don't have any legal merits. Again, I assume people received and had to sign some kind of legal agreement about participating in the finals. If something was not stated in that agreement you shouldn't have any merits to cry on internet forum that something was not like you thought it would be like. I think it is very tough (and very expensive) to coordinate such a big multi national event like this. And I'm pretty sure people at Sony took notes what went wrong and will make it even better next time. But some posts here basically say "Go f... yourself Sony, I'm mad because people in Sri Lanka received Omega Boost game in their goodies bag and had opportunity to go around track with pro driver and I only received 40$ voucher for PSStore". I don't know if you know this but it is very probable that Sony PR divisions in different countries had different budgets for that event. This attitude (as presented in a bit exaggerated form above ) is something which is very popular in "web society" nowadays. It is cool to say how something "sucked" or was "pathetic" and I'm just tired of reading it. Sony is not forced to do this, they do this because they want to give something back to the community of dedicated gamers (of course they get bit of PR stuff out of it but I think that the cost of making it happen is much bigger then the benefits they receive).

I would elaborate more on this topic but it is getting really late and I have long day at work tomorrow. Take care.

cheers.

p.s. sorry for any grammatical/punctuation mistakes, I'm not native English speaker.
 
IRT_SolarSystem
Sorry mate, I havent looked at it that way I was only looking at someone who had competed in my place outside of the top 20. Forgetting about you to be in the final if I wasnt there:yuck: All I can say is that Im not proud of that and it was not even worth it... But I cant change what happened and I should have listened to my feelings (which said I shouldnt compete). For the rest what has to be said about it has been said, and I hope we can fight soon in GT5 you were a good opponent:tup:
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:bowdown: Thanks! I hope to see you on the virtual track soon too đź‘Ť

:cheers:
Bart

Edit: mr_geez, I totally agree with you. Although I regret that there are a lot of aspects where this competition could have been organised better, we should be gratefull for the opportunity Sony and Nissan gave us all.
 
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Sphinx
Yes, Timo and Warren are both true Gentlemen đź‘Ť but there are times when things need to be said in the hope of change, because after all, if things don't change then they stay the same, right?

Allow me to show you two examples why change is needed and please note, they are far from "BS":

Believe it or not, this openning footage is actually a first round race from the Spainish finals. Watching this footage is in my opinion like watching an Online race from a Saturday night lads race after a few beers, in my opinion.

Click to expand...
 
Sphinx, thanks for posting some bites of the Spanish GTAcademy finals carnage, things like this must be seen in order not to be repeated, here's another video but this time in Tokyo ...






Replying to mr_geez, during the pre-competition briefing with the stewards, the speaker told us that if the cause of the accident was a slight maneuver he would give a warning, but if the accident was the result of unsporting behaviour, obviously the racer would be disqualified.

In this video you can hear in spanish what I have translated to you ...



... but of course, you can think whatever you want and have your own opinion.
 
IRT_SolarSystem
...the result would not have been something else because my brother is the 2nd fastest and otherwise Ralph would have won. So the guy who had competed in my place would have been there just to experience the whole thing...
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with this. As you know, winning races is not about just being fast. It's more than just being the best at time trials. When there's a race on with several competitors, anything can happen; mistakes can be made, unrealistic slipstream used strategically etc. It's actually a bit ludicrous to state that the potential replacement for your place in the finals would have not won.

My country was not the most competitive, and I finished 21st in the TT. Up until a few days before the deadline I was within the top 20. "One place off. That's terrible!" - not at all. I don't have a driving license, so I could not have gone to Silverstone. Almost without thinking about it, I naturally was never going to take part in the finals, as it was obvious to me that someone with a driving license should get the opportunity. So I never considered for a second to go to the finals if in the position to do so.
 
Alan_G
I have to disagree with this. As you know, winning races is not about just being fast. It's more than just being the best at time trials. When there's a race on with several competitors, anything can happen; mistakes can be made, unrealistic slipstream used strategically etc. It's actually a bit ludicrous to state that the potential replacement for your place in the finals would have not won.

My country was not the most competitive, and I finished 21st in the TT. Up until a few days before the deadline I was within the top 20. "One place off. That's terrible!" - not at all. I don't have a driving license, so I could not have gone to Silverstone. Almost without thinking about it, I naturally was never going to take part in the finals, as it was obvious to me that someone with a driving license should get the opportunity. So I never considered for a second to go to the finals if in the position to do so.
Click to expand...

I hope you do realise that the Dutch final was held in GT5 Prologue? Time Trails all day long, same stupid car for every run (Nissan GT-R Proto)? And the same stupid tracks from GT5 Prologue? So there was no racing, and tbh the Time Trail proofs to bring out the best of the drivers... So actually the more I see from other countries the more I think that the Time Trail still brings out the best driver... but that was not the reason why we drove GT5 Prologue no it was some stupid other reason that they choose to ride the easy way...

I totally agree on you, racing is completly different and although I consider myself a good racer the results could have been completely different... Actually at the beginning of the day I thought: Ah well a big chance that I will be punted anyway so I just gonna have fun and not winning... Considering all the punting in the other countries it wasnt really about 'racing' btw, some races have been very good that Ive seen but there are too much with too much controversary and thats a poor thing...
 
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IRT_SolarSystem
we should ALL have complained on the day of the finals.
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If we made an unified stance that maybe would have helped, seeing that we are now getting to know each other (in one way or another) it will be a lot easier if something like this will happen in the future.

IRT_SolarSystem
See you on the next GT Academy:tup:
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Let's hope they do another :sly:

IRT_SolarSystem
A 4th guy yes, but it would have been about the 30th place of the Time Trail and imho that guy doesnt deserve to drive in the finals anyway. I honour everyone who is in the top 100 but the top 20 is going to a final, if someone in the top 20 cant be there on the national final then you ARE LUCKY to take his place. I could be on the national final but not on Silverstone, the result would not have been something else because my brother is the 2nd fastest and otherwise Ralph would have won. So the guy who had competed in my place would have been there just to experience the whole thing, and if Im thinking right atm then it means that he would be there with the same purpose as I was there? Just to be there and have a fun day...
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This is the weirdest logic I have ever seen. First off you are in no place to judge who get's to drive in the final and secondly if the results are already "set in stone" like you're implying, why run a final then...

Maybe your brother was more relaxed (less pressure) because he knew that even if he was in 2nd place (and you were off course in first) he would still go to Silverstone. And as the announcer was giving real time comment) It's something that would be possible, I did not say it did happen but just giving you my thoughts.

The bottom line is there were 3 drivers really competing in the final timetrail and 2 of those 3 had inside knowledge that the fastest guy there (you) wasn't going to Silverstone even if you'd win (what you did).

IRT_SolarSystem
Well it is suspicious how youre making a big problem of it while I had a lot of people saying that it was great that I was there, it was a good show between me, my brother and Ralph..
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I only made a "problem" of it when you posted that you competed knowing that you weren't eligible. I posted in this topic and on the dutch forums that you we're indeed the fastest that day, so you did deserve to win. Don't know how I can be more clear then that.

Oh and people tend to give sort of leeway in there opinion if you're the fastest, and besides that I highly doubt if everybody knew that you weren't eligible. You said yourself only a few people (including your brother/Raffels) we're in the know.

I talked to at least one other contestant who suspected that you maybe wouldn't go because of your physical condition, and he was pretty pissed about it if that was the case.

IRT_SolarSystem
Lets leave it to this, at least I wont be talking anymore about this subject..
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Ok fair enough, we've both made our point and said what had to be said. We agree to disagree about your decision then.

Success with your operation and we'll see each other on the track.
 
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Are they running HSR at UK finals? It looks like T1, but the track layout on the screen doesn't look right...

That Spanish final is a farce, some decent punting going on there.
 
As far as I'm aware race 1 was Indy & race 2 was HSR, Jacks just tweeted a pic of Lucas Ordonez driving round the ring but I'm guessing this is just a demo run
 

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