GT Academy 2012 (EU) General Discussion

  • Thread starter Manuelos
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I'm too tired to write a full post on my site but here's a brief recap of today.

In race camp at 7.20 followed by breakfast.
Met some of our crew, had a chat with Rob Barff, our team leader
Got picked up a helicopter in groups of 3, did a loop of the circuit, then landed in Stowe and met Johnny and Rob on the track
Lots of TV stuff then for a while

First challenge was benchmark in the 370z around Stowe
10 minutes of practice each, then everyone came in and went back out for one timed flying lap. Times were not revealed
Next we were brought to the International circuit to drive a semi race spec 370z. 15 - 20 mins in groups of 3. No TV for this, just instructors giving us driving tips and advice. Very hot in the cockpit for this.

Back to Race Camp - lunch. 30 min to digest, then brought to get our fitness gear and then brought to the Wing to do some fitness.
No TV for this either. Just head of fitness and Rob analyzing us.
27 degree heat. 5 minutes warm up, then Bleep test, small break, push ups, leg strength test and plank.
Everyone had their strengths in weaknesses with this. Quite even in the end. Just after eating and hot weather made it very tough.

Brought back to our snooze boxes to pick back up our racing gear and grab a quick shower all within 10 minutes.
Back to Race Camp for almost an hour of just relaxing while doing lots of TV and media stuff.
Then in the van, weren't told anything, brought to Daytona Karting.
Signed up, got briefing.
By this stage we hadn't had food in a while and tiredness was just starting to kick in.
We were using brand new pro karts.
France, UK & Ireland, Spain and Portugal went first for a 20 min practice/qually session, all on track together.
Top 3 UK guys were in Top 5 overall. Grid for us was Jack, Thomas, David, Des, Dan and Istvan with 4 seconds covering us.
8 lap race from standing start. 2nd and 3rd swapped, other than that the order remained the same.
Some TV Stuff for the podium.
Then back on the bus. No more food despite starving. Up at 6am for assault course or some form of fitness.

Just in bed now, super warm here. Really tired, the morning will be tough but looking forward to it.

My overall impressions from Day 1 are positive. Maybe one place higher in karting would have been nice but it just wasn't my day in that.

Finally I should say, Johnny and Rob are great mentors. Really laid back and easy to talk to. Delighted to have them for the week. Hopefully tomorrow they will tell us where we stand.

I'll try post something tomorrow when I get a chance. Night guys 👍
 
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Can't wait to see this on TV. Thanks for the update Des! I'm an Irishman myself (ex-Kerry) so I'm rooting for ya bud. Go get 'em.
 
So guys. Recap of today.

Up at 6am. Personally I could only manage 5 hours sleep despite being wrecked.
At 7am we began fitness with guys who have trained Mark Webber. A warm up jog of Stowe, a 1 minute break and then a race around Stowe. It was pure pain by the end. I was running on an empty tank and gave it my all. Thomas finished first. I was about 20 seconds behind pipped at the line for 3rd.

We then did circuit training which is 8 sets of exercises back to back. you do each for 40 seconds giving it everything you have, then 20 second break as you change over to the next one. We did this twice. Afterwards we were all pretty beat but looking forward to food and doing some driving.
We were also reminded that it was our determination within our level of fitness that was being evaluated, not the times or results etc, although finishing well always helps when the cameras are rolling, which they were for this activity.

After getting some food we returned to the International Track. This time we took out the stock 370z that we ran on Stowe yesterday. Approx 10 laps. The judges were told what we needed to improve on and tried to help us in these areas.

After this we then watched a 30 minute video followed by the ARDS written exam. This is required to gain a National B License. We then did the practical element which is 4 - 5 laps with an instructor, driving 70 - 80% our maximum, just showing that we understand lines, breakpoints and use vision etc. We did this in the left hand drive race prepped 370z. Personally I found an improvement in my driving in both cars which I was very happy with.

Yet again non of this stuff was filmed.

We then returned for lunch, we did the usual TV stuff, more interviews and just hung around and chilled. There was a long period of waiting for the next challenge which was the wheel hold with lasers. Without going into too much detail this did not go well for over half of us. Basically a few of us screwed up and have only ourselves to blame. The room was insanely hot though and we spent the best part of 20 minutes standing there in our suits sweating intensely waiting for Rob and Johnny to record all the lines they needed, as well as getting all the lasers to work. Like I said, not too much detail about this, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but the guy who needed a good result based on a poor result earlier won.

That was pretty much it for the day. Most of us spent it in a lot of pain so relaxing time was crucial. We had no time to recover from Day 1 and had a tough workout at the start of today, so there's a lot of sore body parts in each team. Luckily, tomorrow is all about driving (apparently). I suspect GT-R's and Single Seaters. Maybe some work in the 370's as well.

I left the camp just 30 mins ago. Italians and another group still had to do the wheel hold test. Everyone was sitting around eating dinner and watching moto GP, and amongst us we have F1 drivers Sebastein Buemi and Vitantoni Luizzi hanging out. Sebastein actually spent quite a bit of time playing GT5 today during the downtime. Jordan set a lap of Suzuka in a Calsonic for him to beat and he chased the ghost for a while. This kind of stuff is always going on, its not filmed, its just the guys hanging out and relaxing trying to pass time until something important happens.

Right, now its almost 9. Im gonna shower and get some sleep asap. Really need to be on top form tomorrow and aiming for a good day all round to secure a place in the final.
 
Is there going to be any eliminations tomorrow then for each region like 6 down to 4?

Good luck for tomorrow 👍.


Edit: Just saw this video, that was quick of them to get a video up so soon:

 
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We haven't been told ANYTHING about eliminations. Anytime anyone asks they are told not to worry about that and just focus day by day. Our group seems to be quite close though, definitely no obvious or outstanding leader yet, but I think tomorrow is the day that we will find that out. It's possible that an elimination might happen to tomorrow night but we don't know. Since they haven't told us where we stand and what we really need to improve on yet then I cant see how we can go straight into that phase.

Baring in mind that the assault course hasn't happened yet I suspect that we'll have that on Day 4 with the eliminations at the end of that day. It could be 6 down to 4,3,2 or 1. We really have no idea.
 
Thanks for clarifying. Going by GTPlanet news article, I'm assuming on the 23rd top 1 from each territory group will be picked for the final two days. Long way to go yet, best of luck 👍.
 
PAPPACLART
Just curious as dsouza and his friend KnuckleDuster both qualified for GTA. I sometimes race with them. Looks like dsouza went out, shame for him
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Dsouza is Diogo Sousa, he is in Silverstone as well he just didn´t make it to the final. Duster was in the Portuguese final but didn´t make it to the top 3.
 
Qualify Results

scaled.php
 
wow, the race was exciting.
Reip taking the win and Cosaro coming from 6th to 2nd.

Decision tonight I think.

Fingers crossed for fellow Irishman Des Foley.
 
Looks like wolfgang has won the overall EU competition, congratulations! (The BeNeLux racer :), he's from Belgium I believe?)
 
Tidgney
Looks like wolfgang has won the overall EU competition, congratulations! (The BeNeLux racer :), he's from Belgium I believe?)
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Any source ??

If its true , i feel really bad for Hugo , he was the top driver during all week , the race result today was terrible unfortunately .
 

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