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Gran Turismo Gamer Takes Second In Class In World-Renowned Race
dotarray writes "If your parents tell you that playing video games will never get you anywhere, point them in the direction of Lucas Ordoñez. Three years ago, Lucas heard about a competition for racing game fans – the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy. Inspired, Lucas picked up a PlayStation 3 and a copy of Gran Turismo and practiced and practiced and practiced. This week, along with his teammates Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari, Lucas could not stop smiling as he stood on the Le Mans 24 Hours podium after taking second in class."
Finishing a Le Mans is impressive enough.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Yes, of 56 Teams, only 28 finished. The Signatech Nissan team came in 2nd of 11 in class, seems 9th overall.
Umm... actually some flight sims at one time DID qualify as flight hours for pilots...
Worms Armageddon... I'm an expert at throwing sheep. It's only a matter of time until I need that in real life... I just know it.
Considering the differences in power, weight, and aerodynamics of LMP1 and LMP2 cars, you have to separate by class. Finishing second in his class is finishing second; only chance a LMP2 car has of finishing second out of the entire course would be mechanical failures on each LMP1 car.
they seem to have gotten 9th overall (out of 56 who started) , which is even more impressive... according to http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h-du-mans/live-2011/live-timing.html here
I wrecked my first model airplane.
Then I bought a simulator and practiced for several days. I haven't wrecked a model airplane since. So YES simulators (videogames) can train you for the real thing, as any soldier can attest. It all started back when ATARI was asked by the army to adapt their "Battlezone" game to army tank training.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Unfortunately a lot of people will read this and not understand how grueling Le Mans is. Its a 24 hour endurance race. Its designed to be hard just to compete in, never mind winning.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Be born rich, don't be poor. How do you make a small fortune in auto racing? Start with a large one.
And, with there being multiple classes on the track... nasty incidents (usually between the prototypes (LMP1 and LMP2) and the GT Endurance cars) can and do occur.
There were three Audis at the start of the race, after 1 hour, one was completely DESTROYED.
At the halfway point, another was even worse off.
Both drivers got out of their own cars, and one even returned to the track the next day after being checked out at the hospital.
I suppose I should have picked a game besides frogger to get good at.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
Even finishing the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a huge achievement.
(Completing any 24 hour sports car race is, for that matter, even if it's 3rd out of 5 in the class.)
But, this was 2nd out of 11 in class, 8 classified as completing in class.
And, it was 9th overall out of 56, with 28 classified as completing. All of the first seven places were taken by the faster LMP1 class (and all of the first five places were taken by the remaining diesel cars).
Still do actually. The FAA and many others allow use of approved flight training devices to replace some of the hours for flight training.
Of these, X-Plane is about the only commercially available flight sim software that wasn't specifically made for training that's been approved for use with training. Earlier it required a special build of it, but I think the later ones are the same now - you need a special USB unlock key that puts it into "approved' mode though.
Except Sony ran a promotion with Nissan, for Gran Turismo players who did exceptionally well to get a spot in a Nissan 350Z GT4 car. Papyrus couldn't offer that, their last game having been NASCAR Racing 2003, iRacing didn't offer that, and Microsoft didn't offer that, either.
So, if you wanted to win a chance to be a real racing driver based purely on your skill, Gran Turismo was the way to go. And, in this case, it paid off for Nissan extremely well - Ordonez was good enough for them to put him in a customer's LMP2 car.
Spoken like someone who's never raced.
The short version: Opportunity cost. If you're working 9-5, it's very hard to sit down on the console for hours on end to play racing games. It's very hard to take several days a month off to go drive real cars at your local track. If someone else is paying for your track time, meals, and roof, you have a huge edge over the guys who fund their racing budget with a 9-5 job.
I say this as a person who's done it. My first exposure to Infineon raceway was playing Tourist Trophy on a PS2. I learned the layout of the track thanks to the game. I took a few days away from work to ride the track. I raced 3 events there, finally taking a 3rd place trophy home with me.
Holding a job and racing is very very very difficult. Even if you can afford the track time, do you have a job that permits you to take a day off every few weeks to practice? Will your job tolerate you missing work to recover from injury? Do you really think you can compete with the people who spend their lives trackside, or who have been driving/riding since they were 5?