Time for a recap
Last year my biggest achievements during the official season were finally scoring 1k points in a race and reaching DR A for the first time. I was getting ready to start using manual transmission too.
My aims
this year were broadly similar, since I'd switched to a wheel last December and was still learning. My only targets were to score 100 points in at least the races that counted towards my score, and get back to my old DR high. I eventually got bored of the liveries I'd made for this year and went back to last season's.
Since the point system has changed since last year there's not much comparing I can do (or at least that I can be bothered trying to work out), but here goes:
Nations Cup
77th in the UK, 521st in EMEA with 1206 points. Last year I was 93rd in the UK and 575th in EMEA with 10293 points.
Race highlights here were:
- 162 points at Monza for a win in the Gr.4 Huracan. I had three goes at this race. The first two were a shambles, I got pole and a win in the last one.
- 163 at Dragon Trail in Gr.3. I might be mixing these up because this combo came up in Manu a few times. I got pole in this race with the sort of qualifying lap I can usually only dream about. I double-stinted whatever the softest tyre was for an extra stop that almost paid off, but I couldn't get past an AMG on the last lap, finished second by half a tenth.
- 145 points in the Fugu at Tokyo - I don't remember this one at all tbh, but still a good score.
- 161 points for finishing 3rd at Streets of Willow Springs in Gr.4. I qualified 3rd and stayed there. If ever you needed a lesson in the importance of qualifying, it was this race.
- 179 points for a win at St. Croix in the F1500T-A. What can I say about this? My best ever score at my favourite track layout in the game. I put in practice for this and it paid off, big.
- SSRX. I had 7 goes and they were all ****. I still want to race again here.
- 129 points for the X2019 at Sardegna. I had hoped to get a good result on the last day of the season, then my DR got reset midweek. I only improved on my lowest score by about four points but the physical effort of driving that thing for 35 minutes was amazing. I'm still sore this morning.
Manufacturer Series
36th for Nissan, 667th in EMEA with 1164 points. Last year I was 28th for Nissan, 563rd in EMEA with 5353 points. I'm going to attribute this dip to two things - lots of bad rounds for Nissan, and the Gr.3 car getting nerfed twice because aliens were moaning about its top speed.
Highlights here were:
- Le Mans, back at the 111% power days. I ended up with 173 points for 3rd in the final slot I did. I liked driving a fast car here on mediums tyres, and a few good performances made up for last year where I got robbed of a win (or a chance at one) by Le Mans' awful track limits.
- Gr.4 at St. Croix A was one of the most miserable experiences I've had in this game. I came out of it with 124 points, I should have done much, much better.
- 149 points at short Red Bull Ring in Gr.4. The Moses effect in a race. I ended up 5th as an assortment of Spaniards spent the race killing each other. Also notable because I was following a Mazda who pitted and put the wrong tyres on. When I saw the indictor on the relative I thought I'd misread the tyre requirements and, while driving, had to turn my monitor on, turn my wifi back on and go through the terrible Gran Turismo website to find the race details. Great fun.
- 146 points at Nurb 24. Same weekend as the 179 pointer from Nations, I put lots of practice in here. I finished 5th as a bunch of small niggly things went wrong. Worst part was, the guy who won was in a GT-R and was someone I'd beaten in the F1500 race. I never thought I'd be frustrated by 5th and 146 points at this track, but this felt like a missed opportunity.
- 146 points at Red Bull Ring. I did a Fraga on the first corner after qualifying 4th. Brought it back to 5th, but this should have been a win.
It's a shame the season ended the way it did with my DR. I have no idea what's going to happen in the upcoming off-seasons but I guess it's more of the same for me. Keep going, keep trying to maximise what I can get from good combinations for me and Nissan, keep trying to improve with the wheel. My DR only got as high as mid 37k rather than 41, but this allowed me to score record points totals. I think my highest under the new system before this season was 150 or so.
My only hope for future seasons left in GT Sport is for Gr.4 to be fixed. The GT-R is a lost cause at this point that's only ever going to be good at tracks with lots of straights and no corners where you have to carry any speed, but that's not the worst part. It's not that the GT-R is bad, it's that everything else is so much better.
Last thing to say is thanks to
@Tidgney for so many streams (and getting the GT-R nerfed twice),
@OutlawQuadrnt for doing so well with Nissan and the videos showing me how to drive them (and the memes),
@Rangeraus for Oceania recon I can look at to see what to do,
@Mistah_MCA for strategies when I couldn't be bothered practicing and
@Adam Barber for liveries for the more esoteric Nations combos. I hope everyone else achieved everything they wanted to this season, and I hope your future racing is even better.