Sim racing creates super fast drivers?

[Marco Bijl]

Nissan's GT Acadamy Team RJN is refused it's entry for both of their cars in the new British GT Championship. This decision is based on the anticipated speed of the drivers in their new Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. They are simply classified as "too fast" for the national Pro-AM catagory.

British GT Championship manager Benjamin Franassovici said: "I have a lot of admiration for GT Academy. It has shown itself to be a great way to source raw talent and turn that into real racing talent as we saw in British GT last year with Jann Mardenborough. However Nissan’s ability to find such amazing raw talent means that we cannot accept their full season entry for British GT in 2013. Their new recruits have very little racing experience so they have to be on the lowest performance grade. Their talent, going on Jann’s speed last year, doesn’t reflect this lack of experience so it is not fair to put them up against our Pro/Gentleman grid, the basis of British GT3. Hats off to Nissan though and I should point out that there are no closed doors here".

Nissan's Global Motorsports Director Darren Cox declared he is both disappointed by the choice of the British GT Championship, but at the same time feels flattered. "Being told you are too fast isn’t something that happens very often in any competitive sport. We’re working hard now to make sure our new graduates have a great race programme this year."

View the Post on the Blog

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Proves my point that in some domestic GT series the average driver is 50 plus, not fit and has a seat because they are rich and not very skilled.

Blunt I know, but come on, talent should always have the chance to grow their potential. Very bad move imo.

 

[Marco Bijl]

I agree there. It seems strange to disallow someone, because he is BELIEVED to be to quick.
I mean, Shumacher wasn't kicked from F1 when he won years in a row, so why would they do it in BritischGP.
Can almost only be a matter of money indeed Bram.

 

[Von Butters]

I agree there Bram, BUT, these fat old drivers bring money into the sport.
There has to be some middle ground though, surely?

 

[Block]

What an absolutely ridiculous decision. It is a series for rookie drivers and these guys are rookies in real racing. So RJN aren't breaking any rules. British GT should be looking to get the best available drivers of that standard available to bring the quality of the series up. Instead they are dumbing it down!

 

[BanjoMaster]

Bit harsh, I would counter. After all, the whole GT3 formula was created to cater for rich, gentlemen amateurs, some of whom have proved themselves to be not as slow as you'd expect, especially in British GT. Anyone who watched any of the British GT rounds in 2012 can see where SRO are coming from - Jann Mardenborough was an absolute revelation straight from the get go. You could hear the eyebrows popping off peoples' foreheads watching him hold off Allan Simonsen at Rockingham, and again keeping the GT-R on the track to win at Brands Hatch on banana skin-like rears with the Aston bearing down on him rapidly. In the past Lucas Ordonez and the other one whose name I can't remember have looked right at home and staright on the pace when they've been dropped into GTs and even LMP2s. The GT Academy scheme repeatedly rolls out extremely talented, well rounded pilots straight out of the box. The way the driver rating system works is obviously not compatible with the way GT Academy works - they've essentially stumbled upon a loophole in the system. It's obviously very disappointing that RJN have been KB'd from the championship this year, but understandable.

Also, I wouldn't dismiss BGT out of hand either. The drivers that raced in the series last year were world class - Westbrook, Simonsen, Tandy, Griffin, to name but a few. And this year looks like it's shifting to a whole new level of team participation as well. I'd urge you to give it a real chance.

Sadly, the gentleman driver is a necessary evil if you don't want series and formulas to wither and die, but it's always been like that in sportscars.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I agree there Bram, BUT, these fat old drivers bring money into the sport.
There has to be some middle ground though, surely?

I don't mind if somebody is 80 years old weighing 120kg and wants to be a paydriver but ill always root for real talent

Above all its motorSPORTS and in sports the best man or woman should win and the GT Academy has proved to deliver some proper racing drivers already. (of course also backed with a big budget )

If I were 30cm shorter, 30kg lighter and 300,000E richer I am convinced that I could be a frontrunner in any GT3 series as well

 

[RichardHessels]

The British GT's like most other national GT classes are mosty populated by aging rich drivers or their rich kids.
They don't want to be raced and beaten by poor people .

 

[Xosé Estrada]

The British GT's like most other national GT classes are mosty populated by aging rich drivers or their rich kids.
They don't want to be raced and beaten by poor people .

Liked your class-conflict aproach

 

[Randy Winston]

Just sign me up, I'll even it out.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

The British GT's like most other national GT classes are mosty populated by aging rich drivers or their rich kids.
They don't want to be raced and beaten by poor people .

Liked your class-conflict aproach

me too, let's do a "reds only" league, we might ask lada to provide the cars, lol.

 

[liquido]

Maybe the cars has more weigth than you thougth on that decision, as I know the Ascari KZ1 was banned from British GT for the same reason, they were too fast and they used to win most of races... but it is only an opinion... I played GT 3,4 and 5 a lot and it is not the best sim, in fact a lot of people call it as arcade not simulation.... I honestly do not think in GT as the real driving simulator.

There are a lot of ways to sell something and in my opinion that is a way to take advantage of a failure, because I think the plan was to enter and win.

And the guys how win that academy conquest they are not simply gammer, they also are real pilots, with experience in real competition like karts, they know the physics and they have resistance to end a full weekend of race

 

[Christopher Mattiuz]

Methinks Stéphane Ratel listeneth to Methods of Mayhem a little too much. ;P

http://www.last.fm/music/Methods+Of+Mayhem/_/Crash

 

[Shawdad]

Pathetic. That is like saying water is too wet to swim in!!!

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Sim Racing doesn´t create super fast drivers, it just sorts out the quick guys from the slower ones in a much cheaper and efficient way then any real life motorsport ever will.

 

[William Levesque]

I think it sorts out those who actually understand racing and the physics behind it all, and those who do not.

Of course, it'd be nice if the GT Academy had a proper challenge where they have to think racecraft aswell, and not just hotlapping.

 

[Ho3n3r]

If I were 30cm shorter, 30kg lighter and 300,000E richer I am convinced that I could be a frontrunner in any GT3 series as well

Sounds like we're twins

 

[Alberto Casado]

Nobody got rejected from a job for being 'overqualified'? (I have, I am currently 'enjoying' many answers like that).

Well, seems like drivers can also suffer from that!

 

[Alex V.]

If I were 30cm shorter, 30kg lighter and 300,000E richer I am convinced that I could be a frontrunner in any GT3 series as well

Sounds like we're twins

Awesome, I only need 300,000€!

 

[InsaneOzzie]

How the hell can you be "TO FAST" I thought thats what motorsport was all about, being consistantly the fastest on the day.
Sounds like some snobbery in the GT championship corner who are scared of some REAL competition. One would think the series organisers would welcome some HOT competition, would atleast liven up the series and might even put more bums in seats too, a win win situation for all really.