With the gt academy over, I'll tell you guys about my experience with it. It's going to be a long read so grab some coffee, beer or tea or whatever you like.
Once we arrived at a hotel in Northampton we were immediately assigned with race suits, helmets, etc. we met the other teams very briefly, and then they showed us this big rockstar tour bus where we were going to be staying in. The beds were kind of small so you had to bend your knees a little to fit in, but it was alright. Once in the bed box I felt like I was sleeping in a coffin.
The next day we went to Bedford to test almost all the palmer Motorsport cars, the place is beautiful, even the grass is perfect. It was very early in the morning so the track was wet. I never driven cars this powerful, not even close, so I was excited and nervous at the same time. The first one we did was the caterham 7, I went first on track with other two from the group and I couldn't find myself comfortable in the car, I spun once at low speed and then I just couldn't find the grip and the semi slicks tires didn't helped me either. The second group of three came in, the track dried and with the session over I was last and 5 seconds slower than the first place Johnny.
The mentor and judge Ricardo, came to speak to me and told me to up my game or I was going to be out sooner than later.
With the pressure up, for me specially, we went to next time trial, the Ariel atom 3,
when I was in the car, ricardo came again to speak to me and do the tv show thing, and push me to do better. I went out, the car felt great in comparison to the more tail happy caterham, ended up with the second fastest time of the group just behind, the once again fastest Johnny, so that felt good. This time the group was within 1.5 seconds of each other.
Then we did the palmer Jp lm car, if one of you guys come here to Bedford, you have to try this car, it's just amazing. It feels like it can do anything, and it doesn't even resembles the one in project cars, it feels completely different, so with everyone's confidence up and with the sun shining, the lap times came even closer with everyone within 1 second, with me in 4th place, with Johnny once again dominating in first, I was feeling good.
Then came the test that was the most important for the day and I totally failed at it. At the time it didn't even cross my mind that this test would define your whole gt academy profile. So it was 6 timed laps in the 370z used for the final race, in a completely new track, with a gt academy instructor in the passenger seat, telling you absolutely nothing at all, just watching everything you do, starting with how you jump into the car and finishing with how you get out of it. I get in the car and started slowly to learn the track, at the same time trying to familiarize myself with the weird racing clutch, the gears, finding breaking points, etc. And I just couldn't do everything at the same time, it was a lot to take in a very short amount of time, I couldn't even heel and toe properly, and I could do it just fine before. So I meesed up big time this challenge and ended up being the slowest of the six. With Johnny once again being the fastest of the group followed closely by Gonzalo (this two where always the fastest of the group and they stayed very close in lap times the whole week).
Then we did a short gymkhana course in the caterham once again, I ended up fourth in the standings on this one.
At this point I knew that if I didn't focus on the job, I was going to be out first...
The next day we went to silverstone, do some tv show stuff and do the test for the racing license, here we used once again the final race 370z's, this time I felt much more comfortable in the car, did everything good to pass the test, but wouldn't make a difference in the competition... so with that we went to the mud mayhem challenge, with the very cold weather and the autumn winds, it felt like hell was freezing, in México you never get this type of weather, I felt confident for this one, the course was kind of short and I prepared for any fitness test they could possible throw at us, so, two teams, slowest guys in one team, fastest guys in the other. I was in the slowest team and Ness was in the fastest team. With the bang of a firecracker, the challenge began and we took the lead immediately, we pulled a big tire, crossed a small pond through suspended cables, went under a wet and heavy net, climbed some rope escalators, went through a fire, cross underneath a mini bridge holding our bread under freezing cold water, went through the classic electrified cables, and back to under the net and pulling the tire again to the finish line, the only thing that was torture was going under a wet and muddy military net, underneath that thing it feels like it weighs a ton, plus the mud and you are just sliding your knees and elbows against rocks and mud. Once out of that thing, our team took a huge lead and the others never catch us. The other team were very selfish and left Ness behind under the net, so that slowed them down. The slow guys team won the challenge, with that, Ness being the slowest of the fast group, he was eliminated. I felt very sad for him, he deserved to stay for longer. Johnny finished the course but he was in such a bad physical condition that he was vomiting all over the place. Everyone was bleeding from their knees because of that under the net thing, the whole obstacle course was a beating.
Cleaning ourselves was the worst, we had to take showers in the race track facilities, and with the adrenaline down, everyone wet from the mud, we had to undress our dirty clothes outside the showers, the cold wind started to hurt the wounds and I realized I hurt my knee badly and could barely walk, I had to put ice on my knee so I could be better in the morning.
The next day we did once again tv stuff, then a gymkhana challenge in a airfield, the surprise was that just the two slowest guys would face each other in a race of champions type of race. The loser is terminated, so it was me against Enrique, we used right side drive jukes rs, it always feels weird to drive on the right side, they had to have every assist on, and the track had very slow corners and to turn you had to turn the steering a lot, the thing was that if you floor the gas and with almost full lock, the juke assists just wouldn't give you any power at all, you would be going very slow even if you drove them like a maniac. I was feeling confident for this one, Enrique was slower than me in almost all the tests in the days before, but then we started, I gave everything I had, I felt I made a couple of mistakes but nothing serious, I saw that Enrique was faster after the first lap, I pushed even harder, caught him up a bit but in the end it wasn't enough and he won the race. And that was it for me, eliminated. He performed well when it matter the most.
When I lost I felt terrible to be honest, but I was still happy to be there so, very mixed feelings. I must say, sometimes I'm a terrible person with myself, if I talked to people the way I talk to myself I wouldn't have any friends.
That night I joined Ness at the hotel and gave him the bad news, we agreed to sneak out the next day and go visit London, he has never been to London and I was there one time before so I showed him around a bit. Fun day.
Then we just followed the competition and ask our teammates how their days went, they went to a beach in wales, to do a drag race, the two losers from the four, would have to face each other in another gymkhana, Johnny once again dominating and with a surprising win from the underrated Enrique, that meant the very fast Gonzalo would face the fast and experienced Enzo. The gymkhana was with the Nissan GT-R this time and Gonzalo made more mistakes and lost to Enzo.
The next day the remaining three did some testing again in the race 370z in silverstone, and finished the day with the stock cars which would decide the starting grid for the final race. Mexico's race went almost without a problem, the African team was close behind but with the fastest guys in team mexico, they secured the pole position. Australia had very bad luck with some mechanical problems, they finished last.
Next day the elimination challenge was once again a gymkhana race of champions style, the judges chose Johnny to not do the challenge, so he was safe from elimination, Enrique and Enzo would face each other, this time Enzo lost against a surprising Enrique. On the other hand, all of us eliminated drivers went to drive the silverstone single seater at Stowe, those cars are very fun to drive but once again, there was me trying to get off the pit lane, fighting with the racing clutch and stalling the car like ten times, even Jann mardenborough helped push my car so I could get going, that was embarrassing... lol.
The day of the final race the judges told us that it was going to be an endurance type of race with driver changes, so the whole team needed to help in the pit stop and all that, that was a nice change to get everyone in the teams involved, with his experience from racing, Enzo did the belts for Johnny and Enrique, I help Enzo on the other side with the belts, Ness was the lollipop man, and Gonzalo was the pit board man, we discussed strategies with the judges and decided as a team to place Enrique for a few laps first as he was slower than Johnny and then switch to Johnny to finish strong as he was the fastest. The race started and Enrique lost a few places, he said that he didn't know he had the traction control on, so he was losing time and ended up going back to fourth place, he turn it off and gain a place back, right away he set the fastest lap of the race and he was catching up the others, the judges decided to let him race a couple more laps before coming in as he was doing really well, he came into the pits when following the leaders closely, it was mandatory for all the teams to pit for 1 minute, we did the driver change perfectly with plenty of time to spare, we even gave Johnny a cup of tea
, 1 minute over and we sent Johnny for the charge, Africa was in the lead when they came in to the pits and switched to their slowest driver, they came out of the pits leading the race with Johnny close behind, he was faster so he overtook Africa almost right away, he took the lead and won the race. With the Indonesian driver doing the fastest lap of the race.
Finally after two hours of waiting the judges chose Johnny to be the winner for this year. He was always on the top the whole week, so well deserved, he just needs to work a ton on his physical condition, you can't go fast when you are throwing up inside a race car
Overall it was an amazing experience, we met amazing people. Being there with Lucas Ordóñez, Jann Mardenborough, florian Strauss, Etc. was very surreal and they were always open and good to us. From the moment we arrived at the hotel, I was enchanted with the hotel receptionist, she was super cute, deep blue eyes, I was just making up excuses to go and talk to her
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Also, losing very early was like a wake up call for me, sometimes it's hard for me to really let peoples advice sink in and understand why the real reason for the advice is there, so I need to experience the real thing before I can fully understand the wisdom of the advice, if that makes any sense.
Looking back, I'm just happy with the way things went, everyone in the team was very fast, I did the best I could with my limited experience and I never had so much fun in my life.
Thanks so much to everyone in snail for their support and special thanks to
@TRL_Importlife for his advice and words of encouragement, without his tips I wouldn't have make it all the way.
I decided to stay for a few more days here in uk, so if any snails are in Edinburgh we can meet and go karting or something.
And many thanks for taking the time for reading this.
.So I guess if the rule were to switch to allow it, be aware that the lane doesn't narrow ....it ends
