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

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Hey Guys

My first post but after yesterdays Aus finals I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

First of all - Congrats Dan - in the end he crossed the line first, regardless of the dramas throughout the day. If it’s meant to be then it’s meant to be...

Secondly - I too am strongly disappointed with the event and the way it was organised, simple things like having headphone etc would have made such a huge difference. The judging itself was inconsistent which was my biggest issue. Fair enough they can be harsh or turn a face to decisions but this must be consistent throughout the day.

Besides all that it was an absolute pleasure meeting the finalist, devie, osrg, manic (first time flyer), wheelstand, muggo etc!!! A great group of guys with a passion for pushing any car and each other to the limit.

My view on my racing - well I only got a steering wheel for xmas (6 weeks ago) and wasn’t familiar with any other track besides indy so to miss out by 1 point (thanks osrg) to the semis was fine by me - watch out guys in a few years!!! My biggest enjoyment of the day was racing with osrg and carbonfibre where I must admit racing room and fairness was utmost sensational, to be racing side by side for the majority of the laps with no bumps was ideal and to me that is racing. Our group did not have any issues bumping or spinning so two thumbs up there.

The final itself was great to watch, a real great battle between, Holland, devie and josh – well done guys. As soon as the incident occurred it was Dans to loose.

The driver of the day for me was joshmuggo and the unluckiest was Sfeigel, anyway as they say that is racing.

I wish everyone the very best in there future racing events and hope to see you online shortly

Cheers
Marty - aka – zubsta
P.S looks like the new Zealanders got more of a goodie bag than we did – what a rip!!!
 
Damn, as I read more and more through all this, all I can say is that here in Australia we got ripped compared to New Zealand!

Limited practice time, one of the steering wheels was actually half broken, speakers with too much bass and all we got was a hat and shirt!!!
Oh and we were allowed to look at the cars in the auction house, but don't touch. Including the promo Nissans they brought in.


Yep and as the others said the controversey. I was in the Semi Final with Devie and Dan that had most alot of that. Didn't realise it was fair to overtake some one by shoving in from 3 car lengths back at the big left hander on Indy! Then I was litterally on Dans tail when Devie was tagged so saw it all. And the judge behind me didn't even seem to notice.

Oh and get this, they actually have 5 PS3's running. One is the server and datalogger etc, but it doesn't do replays!!! Or so they say, chances are they didn't know how to view the replays. That would have settled alot of arguments.


And I will have to agree with Devie about the plane landing in Sydney. I had a window seat and could see the plane was coming in to fast and shore eneough we hit the ground pretty hard. My head hit :ouch: the window lol.
The cloudy weather probably didn't help us there.


Edit: Just watched the video that mad posted. You can see why a lot of controvesy was created at 28s.
This was in the Semi after race 1.
Dan actually lost it by himself at turn 3 in race 1 so fell way behnid. So yeah after that he had to basically go for a win to win.
 
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Well done TIZZLAA
And a big thanks to all the racers for making it a day to remember !!
Reasonably happy in the end,I made the semi's,I got Uncharted 2 in my goodies bag and the free copy of GT5 when released helps ease the pain of my (and the judges) shocking semi final performance.
Good luck at Silverstone TIZZLAA
 
noshog
.......... Uncharted 2 in my goodies bag...........
Click to expand...
ohh?. Would you like to swap that for a mint copy of Ratchet and Clank? 👍 :)
I didn't realise there were different games in the bags! what did everyone else get ?
 
ripping_silk
ohh?. Would you like to swap that for a mint copy of Ratchet and Clank? 👍 :)
I didn't realise there were different games in the bags! what did everyone else get ?
Click to expand...
I got Infamous, I gave my copy of gt psp to David from Visionracer on the way to airport( i already have the game).
 
snausages
if you look closely at 00:42, you can see the new replay GUI.
Click to expand...

No thats not the reply GUI, moreso a race direction screen.
It had details of Laptimes, Cars, Track, Tempreture and Weather, a live video screen of the race, chat and talk buttons to send messages to the participants etc.

It looks professional, and from when I talked to the dude running it, it may be a taste of what a host PS3 could do in a LAN or Online game in GT5.
VERY exciting stuff.
 
Well done to Tony and Dan, big wins for you both.:):cheers: Congratulations to everyone else for even making it there.
Oh, and since nobody else will say it, I will, we're all jealous.:sly:
 
I was chasing you ghost for a fair while there Paulie, you set some awesome times very early on!

Here is a better snapshot of the race direction screen:

Bigpond_GameArena_Weekly_February_0.jpg


As you can see, Settings, Weather, Date, Time, Download Progress?, Chat, SAVE REPLAY! (Yes it obviously could have been done....), and View among a few others.
 
Thanks ManicVJ, I guess I should be fairly honoured.:) I actually didn't put in any further effort after the first week once I found out I wasn't elligible due to not having my open licence until March. Next year as they say.:) I was probably close to my limit already though, maybe if they were driving Camaros I would have done better :lol:, ask around, I mysteriously get faster in muscle cars.:lol:
 
I only did the academy time trial for the first two days and was doing ok but like Paulie with the thought I probably wouldn't be eligable I didn't bother putting any more time into bettering my times (GTP_VIPERGTSR01). Only played it a few more times for fun.
 
supra_luva209
Nice work man, I couldnt belive how tense that final was. I might have caught you had I not of binned it, but I think getting past you would of been a different story.
How was all the media today?
Click to expand...

Thanks man, you were the only person i had raced all day who was fast in a race situation 👍

I'll finish my day's story:

After i won the race we did the podium presentation (i had trouble opening my champange :lol:) me and Jhonny Reid hop in the 370z and head to the track.

This was my first experience of being in a car with a pro, and after one lap i was terrified! He was braking so late and so hard i started to feel sick.

Then it was my turn, 250kw feels pretty damn fast and with Jhonny telling me to go faster i had the tyres schreeching and the back end trying to step out :D

Then it was just media media media, all day actually we were being interviewed and photographed. But yea after i won everybody was my best friend :lol:(typical)

On the way back to town with the head of Sony NZ we see Jhonny pulled up by the 5-0 on the side of the road!!! :lol: We go to a mexiacan restaurant with the other sony guys (and that hot sony chick pictured next to the tyres) Then Jhonny Reid shows up and joins us :)

After that i get dropped off at my hotel and i jump in the shower and get into the minibar.

Today i was filmed by a company contracted by a UK firm for the reality tv series.

The whole experience was unbeleivable and i was glad how genuine these people were. Jhonny Reid is a really nice guy and it just a big kid really :lol:

Wayne and Gary, i wish i could have drawn your names from that hat for the hotlap with Jhonny :) was great meeting you guys finally.
 
TiZzla
Thanks man, you were the only person i had raced all day who was fast in a race situation 👍

I'll finish my day's story:

After i won the race we did the podium presentation (i had trouble opening my champange :lol:) me and Jhonny Reid hop in the 370z and head to the track.

This was my first experience of being in a car with a pro, and after one lap i was terrified! He was braking so late and so hard i started to feel sick.

Then it was my turn, 250kw feels pretty damn fast and with Jhonny telling me to go faster i had the tyres schreeching and the back end trying to step out :D

Then it was just media media media, all day actually we were being interviewed and photographed. But yea after i won everybody was my best friend :lol:(typical)

On the way back to town with the head of Sony NZ we see Jhonny pulled up by the 5-0 on the side of the road!!! :lol: We go to a mexiacan restaurant with the other sony guys (and that hot sony chick pictured next to the tyres) Then Jhonny Reid shows up and joins us :)

After that i get dropped off at my hotel and i jump in the shower and get into the minibar.

Today i was filmed by a company contracted by a UK firm for the reality tv series.

The whole experience was unbeleivable and i was glad how genuine these people were. Jhonny Reid is a really nice guy and it just a big kid really :lol:

Wayne and Gary, i wish i could have drawn your names from that hat for the hotlap with Jhonny :) was great meeting you guys finally.
Click to expand...

Random question, does the tires screeching actually sound like GT? :sly:

Congrats man! Wish I coulda done it, but I'm only 16 and a US citizan (DOUBLE WHAMMY!)
 
TiZzla
Wayne and Gary, i wish i could have drawn your names from that hat for the hotlap with Jhonny :) was great meeting you guys finally.
Click to expand...
Was great to see you out there giving the 370 some. You did look quick on only your second lap.
Was a pleasure meeting you too (indeed everyone that competed), shame that we didn't get more time to talk given that we were in different groups, and always had something to do in the next 5 minutes. And once you had found all your new best friends ( :D ) I never really got to see you after the presentation, save for a quick handshake. All the best dude, keep in touch.

@CarbonFibre - thanks for posting the photos !!
 
ripping_silk
Was great to see you out there giving the 370 some. You did look quick on only your second lap.
Was a pleasure meeting you too (indeed everyone that competed), shame that we didn't get more time to talk given that we were in different groups, and always had something to do in the next 5 minutes. And once you had found all your new best friends ( :D ) I never really got to see you after the presentation, save for a quick handshake. All the best dude, keep in touch.

@CarbonFibre - thanks for posting the photos !!
Click to expand...

Yea me and Jhonny didn't leave track until everyone had left! Except for Wayne who stuck around to pinch one of those big GT ACADEMY banners :lol:

I'm not sure if you heard but the 370z was not happy with the abuse we were giving it thats why we weren't going very fast down the straight. It wouldn't go over 200kph for some reason, i tried to take some speed into turn one for you guys :lol: and i can hear some tyre schreeching from that video so im happy with that :D
 
TiZzla
Yea me and Jhonny didn't leave track until everyone had left! Except for Wayne who stuck around to pinch one of those big GT ACADEMY banners :lol:

I'm not sure if you heard but the 370z was not happy with the abuse we were giving it thats why we weren't going very fast down the straight. It wouldn't go over 200kph for some reason, i tried to take some speed into turn one for you guys :lol: and i can hear some tyre schreeching from that video so im happy with that :D
Click to expand...
yeah we hung around for what seemed likes hours, waiting for you to close the f'in boot or something ? And it looks like you got maybe two decent laps in, then it went slow on you. That Nissan guy was trying to sell us the cars earlier in the day, but not a great advertisment of his product.!
The car did look good though I thought, the attitude of it, minimal body roll, looking quite planted. We were giving plenty of woo hoo's from the balconies 👍 Could you feel ANY correlation between the real car and the game car in the short time you had in it ?
 
TiZzla
Then it was just media media media, all day actually we were being interviewed and photographed. But yea after i won everybody was my best friend :lol:(typical)
Click to expand...

I know what you´re talking about i had the same procedure 2 years ago :D
Gratulation TiZzla and Dan , now it´s time to do some physical exercises to prepare for Silverstone :sly:
Good Luck!
 
Not to big at all (bigger the better) thats great, thanks 👍
 

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