Nat./Regional Finals training - Updates from finals around the world!

[ShaneUK]

Was everything on racing hards?

Yeah, every gaming round we faced was on racing hard tires no matter which car it was.

Yeah, that was me. As I said before didn't mean to offend anyone by it, I actually wish I could have done that part for you just for the hell of it.

By the sounds of it, it's not like you guys had a substantial rest between, and the way they placed the anaerobic stuff in first, it puts things in perspective a lot better than I had first thought. I even tried doing to plank test myself just now.... I followed the YT video someone posted earlier for until it hit two minutes, which is when things started to get tough for me.

Yeah that's cool I thought I would address the results in more detail so people can understand the challenges you face better, and also to big up the UK guys who overall were far fitter than last year. 5 minute plank required to get equal 1st, you serious bro!? Haha!

How did everyone adjust to the TS500 was it easy (assuming you hadn't used it till the final)

The wheel was the centre of some interesting conversations actually. We believe the force feedback setting was 4 at the finals, and as I race with 10 on my G25, I could tell that the T500 wheel on equal FF settings to a G25/27, is heavier, as 4 on the G25 feels much lighter. Some people were more sensitive to change than others, I attended last years nationals so I have used the wheel previously, and I still have no significant issues with it. I would definitely say that the feel through the wheel isn't as detailed as my G25 though. That could be personal preference, but a few people commented on having a lack of feel and confidence with the wheel. More realistic? It may well be, but for the ultimate lap time I'd take a DFGT or G25/27 everytime.

Spurgy might be able to give more detail on this, I don't think he was a huge fan of the wheel.

Hope that helps in any kind of way, any more questions you have I'll be happy to answer.

 

[BanditKarter22]

Yeah that's cool I thought I would address the results in more detail so people can understand the challenges you face better, and also to big up the UK guys who overall were far fitter than last year. 5 minute plank required to get equal 1st, you serious bro!? Haha!

That 5 minute plank was tough! My abs are pretty sore today! I've only ever done it for 4 minutes once before, most of the time I only went up to 2-3 minutes for training! I think what they're looking for on the fitness tests, as well as overall fitness is the determination. If you're determined it shows that you really want to win! 👍

I also think they must've put quite a lot of weighting on the Real driving/Media/Fitness tests, because Neil was only placed 12th after the gaming in the morning but managed to put in a solid performance and qualify in 6th! 👍

 

[GTPGhost]

Good Morning All

Congratulations to all top 6 finalists , may you do the UK proud and i wish every last one of you the best of luck at achieving your dream.

Well my 2 days at GTAcademy where awesome up until the point the results where announced and i was told that i missed the cut by 0.5 of a point my heart fell to the floor and it felt as if my world had been taken from underneath me .

I felt really dissapointed especially after all the hard work over the past year , These are the numbers embarrassing but true..

2012 Finals - 18.5 Stone that was my true weight , 2013 - 15.3 Stone , 2012 Plank - I could not even manage 1min , 2013 - 4Min ( I was astounded , 2012 Pushups : 24 , 2013 - 43 and this proved to be rather tough after the plank , 2012 Bleep - level 4.5 and 2013 - 7.5 ( I just could not breathe anymore ) .

I still have allot of work to do both in fitness and perfecting my driving skills in both the Sim and real life , I now know what i need to do more than ever and will be working flat out day in and day out for the next year .

The positives are i met some really great people and made some life long friends i'm sure . The good thing is they mentioned if you have not made it through this year you can try again next year , and i will be doing everything in my power to Achieve my goal. I will strive to to be the best in every aspect of GTAcademy 2014 as i have realized dreams are made of blood , swet , tears , hard work and persistence .

Bad luck for Shane green missing out by half a point, next year will be his year I'm sure,

Ghost will be there next year for sure, as he's awesome and really wants it bad and I'd keep an eye out for him! Much kudos to Ghost!

I feel for Ghost, he was very unlucky not to get through

GhostDriver actually set something of an example for me in the final week leading up to the competition when he told me just how much work he has put in to get fit. Therefore, missing out by half a point was gutting for him and I absolutely felt that pain when I looked in his eyes.


Just know that you have made a positive step, and as painful as this year has turned out, know that you absolutely have the talent to achieve your dream. Turn that pain into motivation my friend, I look forward to racing you again soon Shane :-).

Thank - you for the words of encouragement guys , it just shows what a great bunch of guys you are . My apologies for the teary eye moment i had , it just all came out and was a really hard pill to swallow .

All the best lads .... Go team UK !!

 

[xszabikax]

Good job by everyone and congrats to the UK winners. Hope to see you guys soon
I'm trying to get to Silverstone through the CEE qualification, that takes place in august 28-29 in Krakow. I'm struggling to get some spare time as im working in regular working hours, so its not so much fun to get into the seat as i get home..
What made me register to this site is that i dont know whether the TTs will be held in Arcade mode/GT Mode&Practice/or in a private lobby? Only ABS on or other aids allowed? I assume no SRF.
From what i know so far, our hosting will not be so professional - basically new infos arrive every week including changes in this&that...

Also a bit of shame to our region that some top 4 pilots have failed to qualify - lack of satisfying language skills

 

[Wardez]

Speaking English is a requirement then ey?

Sorry to hear about those fast guys losing out.

Very heartfelt speech Ghostdriver. I hope God smiles upon you in lead up to next year, who knows, maybe the UK will have its own independent event too, that'll make things more interesting

 

[BanditKarter22]

Article in The Independent this morning! http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...or-the-real-thing-at-silverstone-8760184.html

 

[Adam41]

Nice! I'm sure I only said I was in with a good chance at winning the gaming but hey ho.

 

[Spurgy 777]

Article in The Independent this morning! http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/its-more-than-a-game-gran-turismo-champs-compete-for-the-real-thing-at-silverstone-8760184.html

Wow, they really did get their facts wrong and that's just based on what they said about me, let alone everything else

 

[BanditKarter22]

Wow, they really did get their facts horribly wrong and that's just based on what they said about me, let alone everything else

Haha! Well I guess that's newspapers for you! At least they got an article in the paper! 👍 It's all good publicity!

 

[Spurgy 777]

Haha! Well I guess that's newspapers for you! At least they got an article in the paper! 👍 It's all good publicity!

Yeh, and at least some of the things were exaggerated in a good way, apparently I'm aiming for 2 A*s now

 

[BanditKarter22]

Yeh, and at least some of the things were exaggerated in a good way, apparently I'm aiming for 2 A*s now

Hahaha! Nice one! 👍

 

[Famine]

Hurr. I like the "secret" to good Gran Turismo performances that they mention. It seems to have come from one of them noticing I took my shoes off before whumping them in the media race

It wasn't because I raced in socks, but because I play Gran Turismo more than most other members of the media... The secret seems to actually be practice - which is a lot less interesting.

Incidentally, I've got individual portrait shots of the six finalists with their trophies if any of you want them.

 

[Klouczech]

Good job by everyone and congrats to the UK winners. Hope to see you guys soon
I'm trying to get to Silverstone through the CEE qualification, that takes place in august 28-29 in Krakow. I'm struggling to get some spare time as im working in regular working hours, so its not so much fun to get into the seat as i get home..
What made me register to this site is that i dont know whether the TTs will be held in Arcade mode/GT Mode&Practice/or in a private lobby? Only ABS on or other aids allowed? I assume no SRF.
From what i know so far, our hosting will not be so professional - basically new infos arrive every week including changes in this&that...

Also a bit of shame to our region that some top 4 pilots have failed to qualify - lack of satisfying language skills

I have same problems like you and same question about TTs.

I think I should play GT5 more often, because I play it only once a year, when GTA starts :-D

I will also have problem with fluent english but I will try to do my best.
GL


Congrats UK Finalists!

 

[Famine]

[some rubbish I wrote]

[alternatively, just read Synwraith's post for the right answer]

 

[Wardez]

This part of the article's real interesting:

event director Laurence Wiltshire has designs on Japan, Brazil and other countries.

One could assume they probably have plans drawn up for every country, but can then only go forward to actually executing them once the country's Nissan HQ and government agrees to organizing it. Kinda like how the US has plans on invading Canada just as contingencies xD

 

[hillracing]

I guess I'll need access to the practice room when I get home tomorrow. Wish I knew I was going sooner so I could have been practicing. So excited to get to go to finals!! Can't wait to meet everyone.

 

[BanditKarter22]

It wasn't because I raced in socks, but because I play Gran Turismo more than most other members of the media... The secret seems to actually be practice - which is a lot less interesting.

Actually I think that bit came from when the journalist that wrote that was talking to me and Ben as we were having a bit of practice on the downstairs pods! 👍

 

[ShaneUK]

Great that there is an article in a big paper! They said I came 8th last year yet I came 9th, no doubt that will be from my Dad making a mistake haha!

 

[BanditKarter22]

Great that there is an article in a big paper! They said I came 8th last year yet I came 9th, no doubt that will be from my Dad making a mistake haha!

Haha! There's lots of mistakes but at least it's still a good article about GT Academy 👍 And in a big paper too, so it should be great publicity for the event!

 

[Famine]

Actually I think that bit came from when the journalist that wrote that was talking to me and Ben as we were having a bit of practice on the downstairs pods! 👍

Hah - I guess they noticed a theme, because when I took my shoes off the guy behind me said "Ohh, that's the secret is it?"

 

[Synwraith]

The time trials were done online in a private lobby with no aids except ABS 1. The format had the players set off at 10 second intervals to do one warm up lap and then one timed lap.

Hey Andrew, was good to see you again at the event!

The only events we did in an online lobby were the races. Those 10 sec intervals were to keep the competitors apart during their 1 qualifying lap for the handful of race rounds we had. We asked any competitor who spun off during their quali to wait until all drivers had passed before resuming.

All time trials and superpole rounds/heats were done in arcade mode time trial using cars placed in favourites 👍

We definitely had the highest quality of gamers this time around. Some of those lap times really had me awestruck.

All the best
Maz

 

[perrolocomcquee]

That was a very good article indeed. Hope that when they said other countries includes Chile for god sake . Maybe then i'll stop drinking once and for all. Lol

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Hah - I guess they noticed a theme, because when I took my shoes off the guy behind me said "Ohh, that's the secret is it?"

You need to put some boots on next time, that will have them confused .

 

[xszabikax]

All time trials and superpole rounds/heats were done in arcade mode time trial using cars placed in favourites 👍

All the best
Maz

Thank you, thats what i've assumed as well - no point having a single person in an online lobby.
But it's a vital info as there's a difference in physics..

 

[Louie_Schumii]

Winners are in picture order:

Neil Williams - Wild Card
John Foster - BanditKarter-22
Mark Ridout - markyboy92
Martin Hefferon - GTP_Tidgney
Adam Suswillo - GT_ADAM
Shane Ward - GT5_Shane_UK

Surprised that Ben didn't make the cut.

Quick question, did the UK have a wild card event that takes a wildcard directly to Race Camp?

I think I've only seen the Netherlands mention something about a "super-wildcard" but I'm not 100% on my facts atm.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Quick question, did the UK have a wild card event that takes a wildcard directly to Race Camp?

I think I've only seen the Netherlands mention something about a "super-wildcard" but I'm not 100% on my facts atm.

No but had 8 wildcard entries, down from 16 last year for the territory finals.

 

[Famine]

Hey Andrew, was good to see you again at the event!

The only events we did in an online lobby were the races. Those 10 sec intervals were to keep the competitors apart during their 1 qualifying lap for the handful of race rounds we had. We asked any competitor who spun off during their quali to wait until all drivers had passed before resuming.

All time trials and superpole rounds/heats were done in arcade mode time trial using cars placed in favourites 👍

Oh right, day 1... forgot about that

*smacks self*

 

[Dessy182]

Congrats to the final 6, especially those who were trying for a second or third time. It took me 3 years to make it to the final and I know how much of a relief it is to get the monkey off your back!

 

[martin20az]

I got the email yesterday and would like to run with you guys

 

[KingBestJr]

I got the email yesterday and would like to run with you guys

👍