WOW, what an event the UK/IRL finals were! It's now a couple of weeks since the results were announced and it's really starting to sink in. I’ve earned myplace at the Silverstone/LeMans Race Camp!
I had qualified for the Finals on a Wildcard after winning a Time-Trial event at the O2 back in March and knew that this would lead to me being someone who wasn't expected to do well even though at the time, I was in 12th place overall in the time trial with a much faster laptime in sight. This, to an extent, gave me some huge advantages.
The first big advantage was that there was really no pressure on me. As a 'non-top 20' driver in the time trial, even coming last at the finals would be nothing to be ashamed of against the drivers I was facing. The second advantage was that, because I knew back in March that I was already in the finals, I could completely abandon the time-trial and spend all my time practicing the race tracks I thought we might have to race on in the various Nissan's which we were likely to use. I had spent a lot of time on real circuits like Suzuka, Indy Road, Fuji, Tsukuba, Nur GP etc and this added practice would prove invaluable, as I managed to build a detailed knowledge of all the real world circuits.
Day 1
Myself and my girlfriend Kimi arrived at Brands Hatch at 1:30pm on Monday to be greeted by Charlotte, Calvin and the Jardine International Team. The atmosphere was great, with all the competitors chatting and getting to know one another, but you could tell there were nerves in the air. I was actually feeling pretty relaxed as, although I was going into the event with the aim of doing my best to win, I knew that my fitness was not up to par and I had the overall expectation that most of the other formidable opponents I was up against were capable of beating me.
We checked into our hotel room and I decided to try and continue the relaxation for a while and get my head in the right frame of mind before the competition started. There happened to be a bike trackday going on round the Indy Circuit, so I opened up the hotel windows and soaked in the sight, smell and sound of the action, all the while building motivation for the two days of challenges that lay ahead of me.
At just gone 3pm all the competitors met in the hotel lobby for our first photo call and to leave to go to the circuit for the day one gaming contest. My aprehension started to build almost immediately when I say how naturally at home some of the other contestants felt in front of a camera and I began to wonder which of these guys would be the two I was congratulating at the end of the event.
Once this was all done,we all made our way over to the Nigel Mansell Suite in the Media Centre at the circuit. Located in the offices above the pits, the start-finish straight passes directly under the windows one side of the building and the back straight passes the windows on the opposite side of the building, meaning you can always see the action and meaning we were all constantly reminded of why we had all spend so many hours and days doing our best to earn a place here.
We all sat down around the various tables and chatted for a few minutes before Tony Jardine of Jardine International took to the stage and began the proceedings by introducing us to some of the important people invloved such as David Wilson of Sony and Tim Bevins, who was to serve as the chief steward for the event and is MASSIVELY respected in the Motorsport world as a former driver and current driver manager. Anyone who hadn't already realised was suddenly very aware of how big of a deal this event actually is!
Once the formalities were out of the way it was announced that on the first day, due to the PSN outage, we would be competing in the most part on time-trials, with points being awarded for 1-10th positions. At this point I actually started to think I might have a chance of making day 2, I knew all the various Nissans intimately, and I had made a concerted effort to get my times on all the real world circuits down as low as possible over the weeks leading up to this. We'd have to wait and see...
The 22 of us were to be split into 4 groups. Each group contained 5 of the top 20 time-trial drivers, with two of the groups having the addition of a wild-card entrant, one of them being myself, the other being a friend of mine, Anzel Lai.
The first challenge was revealed as being Suzuka in the GT Academy GTR on Sports Hard tyres. This suited me down to the ground, I've been a Suzuka lover for a long time, and I've spent a lot of time perfecting my laps there even before the wild-card contest. We would be given four laps and the fastest lap counted. I was in the first group to run, so had no idea what target timeI should aim for and just had to push as hard as possible. After testing the limits on the first lap and having a stupid spin on my second, I went for a hot one on lap three and set a 2:14.7xx, seeing a few places where I could shave valuable time. On my final timed lap I started making up time from the first corner and was half a second faster by the end of the third sector, but I then made a crucial error in the 130R and only finished the lap on a 2:14.4xx. This was enough for provisional 1st, and I stayed there until Thomas Gibson (GTP_Rutter200) beat that with a 2:14.1xx in the final group. This gave me 12 points and obviouslyleft me second in the standings, pretty much assuring me of a place in day 2.
The second trial was to be Cape Ring in a 370Z GT Academy on Race Hard tyres. I immediately knew I wouldn't do well. I had foolishly assumed that the finals would be exclusively on real world circuits and hadn't lapped the circuit in months. To make things worse for me, rather than it being a case of your fastest lap counting like in the first trial, it was to be one practice lap, followed by three timed laps, with the total combined time of the three laps being your final time. I ran three consistant laps, but was around a second and a half a lap slower than needed and finished outside the points near a bottom of the timesheet.
The third and final trial to determine the leaderboard was to be Laguna Seca in the Calsonsic Impul GTR on Race Hard tyres. I know the track well, but I also know it can bite [I]hard[/I] when you push too hard. The format was to be the same as the previous one, with the total time of your three timed laps being the time that counted. My time was ruined before iteven started after I ran slightly wide out of the last right hander of the lap and the screen flashed up 'next lap invalidated' meaning I had 5 seconds added to my total time. I now knew I could not afford a single mistake and as a result, I was far too cautious, meaning that once again, I finished just outside the points in 12th place.
After a small amount of waiting, the top 8 was announced with me finishing day 1 in 6th place, and therefore through to day 2 without having to go through the trauma of the head-to-head playoffsWe had a few photos taken and it was now time to see which other two competitors would be joining us.
The playoffs began with We watched the playoffs with great interest as the second race was to be between a friend of mine from the Wild Card comp, Anzel Lai, and someone who I've done a fair amount of racing with online since chatting to him loads at last years finals, David Phillips (Davissi). I wanted both to go through to day two, so for me it was pretty harrowing to watch, especially as it wasn't the cleanest of races, but it's not my place to comment on that, it was great to watch, and Davissi finally took the win by a very small margin. I was pleased for David and I was gutted for Anzel, but he was very magnanimous about it and has vowed to return next year. :)
We returned to the hotel on a high and I reluctantly turned down drinks at the bar to get an early night in preparation for day two. That all went down the pan as I was still trying to get to sleep at 1am, lying there thinking about the challenge that lay ahead of me.
Day 2
I actually slept pretty well considering the enormity of the opportunity which we were about to be offered, and I was woken at about 7am by the sun beating in through the hotel window. After a brief shower and some mental preparation, we headed to the hotel lobby to meet the rest of the competitors and the GT Academy staff at just after 8:30. It sounds a little early, but rather than having breakfast at the hotel, the awesome guys at GT Academy had arranged for breakfast to be provided in the Nigel Mansell suite where we had been competing on GT5 the previous day.
After a particularly unhealthy but exceptionally tasty breakfast of bacon and sausage baguettes, Mr Jardine returned to the stage to brief us all on the format for the second day of competition. For those of us left in the competition, there was to be another 6 hours of physical and mental tests and pressure beginning with one final GT5 challenge, swiftly followed by auto tests in the 370Z, then a fitness assessment and finally the media interviews, before the judges would adjourn to deliberate on the results.
The first challenge, as mentioned above, was a final test on GT5. The format would begin with us all having to qualify in a stock Nissan 370Z Z34 on Sports Hard tyres around the Suzuka GP circuit. We would be given one ‘out’ lap and then just ONE qualifying lap in which to show what we could do. My out lap was reasonable, and as I crossed the line to start my flying lap, I had hopes deep down that I could make the top 3. After the sector three split, I was over half a second ahead of my ’out’ lap time, I realised it was not quite fast enough and decided to banzai the 130R, but I was a mile an hour to fast on entry, turned in too early, touched the kerb and the back end went, as a result, I had to stay off the throttle for way too long, losing me around 8 tenths of a second, with the final chicane safely negotiated I crossed the line in 6th place overall, just outside the top half of the order and giving myself a slightly uphill battle.
The results would see positions 9 and 10 relegated from this test with their points for the test now set. Positions 1-8 would now have to fight it out in a head-to-head top-8 knockout style tournament. My first race, therefore, would be against third place qualifier David Kelly, in the Nissan Calsonic IMPUL GTR ’08, on Race tyres, around Nurburgring GP. To be honest, this couldn’t have suited me much better. I love the GP circuits on GT5 and they are what I spend most of my time on. Obviously as the lower qualifier, I would be starting in second place, but I decided to risk the start and go for full throttle in second gear. It worked, I got a marginally better getaway than David and was closing in on him towards the mega-tight turn 1. I know my braking points pretty much exactly on this track and so knew it was just down to what he would do under braking. As it happened, he braked a metre or two early and gave me the perfect opportunity to slip up the inside. I took the apex and gently ran the car wide, giving him now way to re-attack me on the way into the two left handers. What followed was one of the closest races I have ever had in 10 years of playing GT games, with several big attacks from David to try and get past most notably on the last lap going into the final chacane where we were level (with me on the outside) on turn in and, somehow, slipped through the chicane together without touching (if we did touch, I didn’t feel it), being on the outside for the left, meant i was on the inside for the right and so with extreme care I was JUST able to squeeze on the power slightly cleaner and get the exit i needed to launch me towards the final corner of the final lap,sliding through the final bend Imade sure I got a good exit and steamed for the line, taking the win by less than half a second. HUGE respect to David, bearing in mind what was at stake, he showed true race craft in his attempts to get by, with not a single hint that he would ever ‘take me out’ with a tap or something. I really enjoyed this race so much I can’t put it into words. Now onto the semi-finals.
Next I was up against our very own David Cooney (DC-Z, Nismoe-Dave) in the Nissan 370Z GT Academy tuned version, against on Race Hard tyres, on Indianapolis Road course (another GP circuit) which we all know well from last year for it’s slipstreaming opportunities. This race would cause a little controversy as it had been stated in the briefing that the races would be two laps, but our system had been set for three. Stupidly, I did not question it and just assumed they’d changed their minds. After a trying race where we both held the lead, I exited the final turn of lap two less than half a second behind Dave. Knowing that if I passed him now with one lap remaining he would just pass me back on the final lap, I decided to stay out of the slipstream and stayed behind. Dave crossed the line first with me almost overlapping him. We approached the first corner and I braked as usual, but Dave had lifted off and went straight into the dirt (he hadn’t spotted it had been set for three laps) and after some deliberation from the judges, it was decided the only fair way was to re-run the race. We started again, this time correctly set for two laps. I took the lead again on lap one and pulled a gap of over half a second in the first half of the lap, only to let him close in again during the two hairpins at the end of the lap. David passed me on the main straight going into lap two, but misjudged his braking and gave me a chance to slip past cleanly in turn 1. I put the hammer down and knew I had to pull a gap to beat the slipstream. Little did I know David had made an error in turn one and at the first split, I was 1.3 seconds up. I pushed hard and kept the gap, getting to the line just over a second ahead of David and, against ALL my expectations, made it to the overall final of the GT5 portion of the competition.
For the final, I would be facing the absolutely ice cool Jann Mardenborough, who thus far hadn’t put a foot wrong, showing he could resist almost ANY pressure. Once again we were to be flung at Suzuka and once again in the Nissan 370Z GT Academy tuned version, but this time on Sports Soft tyres. Off the line, we were dead even, with his car length advantage staying all the way to turn one and giving him the lead at a vital moment. I kept within half a second all the way through sector one, but going into Degner 1, I carried a little too much speed, ran wide, hit the gravel, the rest is history. I continued, but by now was nearly 15 seconds down, so I continued pushed hard for the remainder of lap one and the first part of lap two, but half way through realised that the gapwas not dropping, so I resorted to enjoying myself and resorting to some oversteery antics. Jann took a well deserved win, but I had secured 2nd place, which, against the guys involved, I consider to be a HUGE honour.
At this point we were also informed that, from now on, we would not be told any of the results until the end of the day to keep the suspense and tension high. Ouch.
After just enough time to let the adrenalin subside, we were shuffled off to a mini bus which was waiting for us outside. We were then driven down to the outer paddock where a coned course and two 370Z’s sat in front of us, gleaming in the flawless mid-morning sunlight. It was explained to us by head-instructor Chris Ward that we would be doing 6 laps, 4 to learn and then 2 under the pressure of the stopwatch.
Although only two laps were to be timed, he did say that he would be observing us during the first four laps to see what our car control, observation, special awareness etc was like and all 6 laps would therefore count towards our final score. Having not driven a 350Z (a Nismo S-Tune) since 2005 and having never driven a 370Z, I was interested to see how quickly I would be able to pick up the handling of the car and drive it to suit my style. To be honest, with the tight nature of the course, the 275-width rear tyres, and the power delivery of the NA engine, the most obvious trait was turn-in understeer. I just figured ‘No matter, I know I can drive sideways, now it’s time to see if I’m any good when I’m NOT sideways’. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d done that well, I could feel mistakes all over the place and could probably have taken another second off my best time had I been given another lap or two, but 6 laps is what we had to work with, and it was the same for everyone, so I can’t exactly complain. Let’s face it, how often do you get the chance to test a new car in that kind of circumstance for free? Never (for most of us), so anyone who thinks they were hard done by for only getting six laps needs to have a long hard think about what Nissan and Sony did for us that day by including the real world tests. They could just have easily allocated the budget to the Race Camp, and I for one am HUGELY grateful that they gave us the opportunity.
Once the test was over we were shuttled back to the pits for half an hour or so, before being brought back to the outer paddock to do the fitness tests. This was the part I had been dreading. I have been in an office job for nearly ten years and done ZERO fitness up to the announcement a month before the finals that fitness tests etc would be included. I had been running etc for the last few weeks since the news, but let’s be honest, it was never going to make a huge difference when I was up against guys who were either in their prime (Jann) or were professional athletes (Ed), so I knew all I could do was push myself as hard as possible and hope it was enough. First up was the dreaded Bleep Test, something I haven’t had to attempt since trying to join the Royal Marines when I was 18 (and failing through injury). Back then I could get past level 10, but I knew that was a distant memory. After pushing myself to about 95%, I stopped second in my group at the end of level 6, knowing that if i carried on pushing, I would only hurt my chances in the other physical tests as I wouldn’t be able to recover fast enough. Next up was the press-ups, aimed to test upper body strength, this was also something I used to be able to nail, but now, 20 is all I can manage, this saw me third of five in my group. This was swiftly followed by a ’Sergeant Jump’, a test designed to measure our lower body strength and power, I did OK with this I think, but who knows. The final test we were to face was a measure of our endurance and pain thresholds – The Plank! This involves placing yourself in the press-up position but resting on your forearms and having to hold the position as long as possible. I managed just over a minute and a half, but the two Irish lads put us all to shame, with Dessy managing four and a half minutes and Dave Cooney managing to beat that by another 5 seconds! Epic.
Now that the part of the finals I had been dreading was over, I really started to feel relaxed, as I said before, I had no expectation of doing well overall against the calibre of competitor I was up against, and so wasn’t really feeling any pressure. We were bussed back to the Mansell Suite and informed how the media tests would work. We would be called into a media room in order and sat down in front of approximately 15 assembled journalists from various newspapers, radio shows, television production companies etc and asked two questions by one interviewer. To be honest this felt less like a test of skill and more like a test of personality and character, designed to give the team a clue as to whether we would be able to hold people’s attention and get them to listen to us. I felt this went OK for me, but as I found out in the final scores, I was still behind three others, including Jann.
As we sat down for a while to wait, I went and sat outside to watch the trackday going on around us and to remind myself of why I’d worked so hard not only while here, but also to prepare myself in the weeks leading up to it. As I watched the cars thundering past, I pondered all that had gone before us in the previous two days and was convinced that I had not done enough, going over it in my head and working out what I could do to improve my chances next year. It got to the point where I was starting to get annoyed at myself for not having enough to give in the physical testsand thinking of other answers I could have given in the media tests etc. It was hell waiting around to find out what the result would be. For so many of us who had put everything we had into this competition, it was make or break, the biggest opportunity we had ever had and now, it was decision time...
After a good hour of waiting (showing that the judges had clearly deliberated long and hard), we were once again assembled in the Mansell Suite for one final time. After a few words from the likes of Tony Jardine from Jardine International and David Wilson from SCEE along with other representatives from Nissan, it was down to Mr Jardine to announce the winners. First up was to be the reserve (3rd place), we were put out of our misery swiftly as it was announced that it would be Irishman David Cooney. At this point I was thinking that the two winners were going to be Jann and Dessy because, from my point of view, they had looked like good performers throughout, with Jann looking very smooth behind the wheel of the 370, I’d heard the same of Dessy’s performance so was getting ready to start clapping as one of them was announced as the first finalist.
‘In second place, James Hudson’.... Holy crap! Did he just say that? Am I hearing things? WOW! YES! There really are no eloquent words I can find to describe how I felt at that moment. It was like every birthday and Christmas I had ever had rolled into one. Jann was announced as winner and, I’m sure, felt all the same emotions I was feeling. We were then briefly interviewed by Tony on the stage and asked how we felt about the result and what lay ahead, I’m not sure I made any sense as it’s all still a bit of a blur, but I think it’s fairly safe to say that’s it’s obvious I was absolutely ecstatic.
After a few minutes to catch our breath and calm down, I sat down and had a chat/interview with David Croft of the BBC F1 team about my feelings and what the opportunity we had been given would mean to me, by this time I think I was making a little more sense, but who knows. He’s a really nice guy and it was an absolute pleasure to talk to him about the result after spending so much of the day discussing F1 with him, it was yet another amazing opportunity provide by GT Academy that I will not soon forget.
I’ve wanted to be a race driver since my dad used to drag me to race circuits as a ten year old to watch his friends racing, and I’ve never had the money to even attempt it (hence taking up drifting) and now I was going to see if I would have ever had what it took to make it. The opportunity to do this kind of thing only comes once in a lifetime, if at all, and it is not an opportunity I will be wasting. Not only will we have the opportunity to learn from legends like Johnny Herbert, but also incredibly successful GT drivers like Rob Barff and numerous others. Not only that, but to top it all off, the Academy itself starts at Le Sarthe at the start of the Le Mans 24hr race, an event which I have never attended and one which I have always wanted to witness. I just can’t thank all the people involved enough, Nissan Sports Cars GB, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Jardine International, Polyphony Digital etc as well as all the individual staff such as Charlotte Parham, Calvin De-Freitas, Glen Gibson, David Wilson, Tony Jardine, Tim Bevins, Chris Ward etc etc etc (I could go on for ages) who all played a part in giving us two of the most memorable days of our lives, whether it be behind the scenes or at the forefront of the competition, they all did their best for us and I for one will be eternally grateful.
Thank you all. Game on....
