Hello everyone and welcome to our second installment of the Interviewooz! Our first interview received an amazing reaction, so it's our pleasure to bring you a second! And what a driver we have here today! Many know him as Warrior2167, others know him as the most dominant alien in Raceonoz.com history, others don't know him at all because he's usually too far up the road! Debuting in Season 9 of the Gran Turismo 5 League, Warrior has amassed a current total of 55 race wins, all of which have occurred in the Premiere Division, Warrior recently took out his fourteenth consecutive title in outstanding fashion and is apart of the highly sought after Raceonoz SUPERROOZ members list. In Season 13 of Gran Turismo 5, he even managed to win EVERY single race.... Warrior, pleasure to talk to you today.
Beau_Albert: Your list of accolades you've achieved here at ROOZ is outstanding, you've just about achieved everything there is to be done here! What keeps you around on the site week after week?
Warrior2167: Thanks Beau. The Sunday league is a big part of that. I do like like to think of it as an unofficial Australian Gran Turismo championship. Overall though it's just a really nice little community we have here.
Beau_Albert: It could just about qualify as an Official GT Championship! We're hardly short on talent here with drivers such as Mint_GTR, Aussie_Nicko, ROTOR-AU86 and Dan Holland, we've had a major number of top line drivers, but out of them all, who have you gained the most satisfaction from beating? Who is that one driver that when you beat, you know you've done a great job?
Warrior2167: I would say it was Dan, he's had the upper hand in a lot of time trials we've done together going back to the GT5 prologue days and through each of the GT Academy competitions. The drive that stands out the most was in the Subaru at Bathurst a couple seasons ago. To say I was more than pleased with that result would be an understatement.
Beau_Albert: I think we all heard about that one particular race that season! What would you say is your stand-out season though? You've had so many championships, but which was your favourite, either for the car or a tight championship fight?
Warrior2167: I'm much more interested in the championship fight and head to head racing than the car I'm driving. Therefore my favourite season has been in the Mazda roadster, the car was pretty tame but I was racing head to head with Matt, Scott and Dan. Each of us had a win that season and with all of us being so close, trying to figure out the best strategy on the fly was really enjoyable.
Beau_Albert: That was of course Season 3 of Gran Turismo 6, a fantastic season across all the divisions! Your PSN has become synonymous with the top few positions of any ROOZ event or GTAcademy time trial, but is there a story behind why your PSN is Warrior, and why yourself and your brother share the 2167?
Warrior2167: Yes there is, it goes all the way back to when I was a young lad. I was a supporter and still am of the Auckland Warriors rugby league team, so when we were connected to the internet for the first time I had to create an email address and naturally I chose warriors@. That was taken so I then chose warriors_2167@, maybe I was naive and thought you needed a postcode on there but I liked it.
I used the same warriors_2167 user name too and over time I thought it was weird to be referred to as a plural so I changed it to my current name. I guess my little brother just did what ever I did as they tend to do. Over the years having my postcode has had people recognising it and has led to people telling me they've been, lived or are live near there so I like it for that reason.
Beau_Albert: Neat little back-story! Very different to what i was perhaps expecting! We all know how good you are on a Gran Turismo game, but other than the GT Franchise, what other games are you into, and overall, what would you call your favourite game?
Warrior2167: Alongside the GT games and a lot of other racing games, I've always like the Grand Theft Auto franchise, since the PS1 right up until now, mucking about in an open sandbox game is always good for some **** and giggles. Also when venturing into the world of multiplayer gaming for the first time I was also into FPS shooters through the Call of Duty games of Modern Warfare 1 & 2. Overall though my favourite would be Gran Turismo 1 because it introduced me into the world of cars and motorsports.
Beau_Albert: Whilst you've brought up the world of cars and motorsports, what would your dream car be to have on the real world road one day and what kind of cars do you tend to prefer?
Warrior2167: My dream car would be a Maserati Gran Turismo, I just love the look of it and it has a very nice naturally aspirated engine to accompany it. To be honest I would much much rather own a race car and at the top of that list would be a 997 Porsche GT3 cup car.
Beau_Albert: Interesting choice! And to finish off my remark before, what is your favourite type of motorsport that you follow?
Warrior2167: V8 Supercars of course for a very simple reason that it's 'real' motorsport, no nonsense and just motorsport, how many seasons it remains like that is anyone's guess but as of right now it's number 1 in my book.
Beau_Albert: I hope you go for Nissan in V8 Supercars after all the success you've had in GT Academy! Your one of the masters at managing to be one of the top Australians in each and every Time Trial, however when it comes to the main show you've always narrowly missed out. Have you been taking any extra steps this year to make it all the way to Matt Simmons' position?
Warrior2167: I actually have a different focus, I'm happy to live vicariously through Matt considering how well he's been doing. Since I mentioned the Porsche earlier I can explain why that is. Instead of go karting and track days over a 30 year period I would like to condense that into a much shorter space of time because to me capable isn't good enough, I really have to know if I'm properly quick.
Beau_Albert: So when do you think you will feel that you will be properly quick enough in the real world? Is it something personally you feel you are close to achieving, or do you still have a road ahead of you and have you already begun making strides towards that goal?
Warrior2167: Yeah there's are long road ahead that's largely dependent on the ability to fund such a venture.
Beau_Albert: Of course, sadly such a huge factor in all forms of motorsport, even our awesome Sim Racing community. So now, if you wouldn't mind, I'm sure a few out there are curious to find this out, before you take to the grid every Sunday for a Division One race, what kind of practice do you put in during the week?
Warrior2167: I usually do a couple hours mid week. What I usually do is to try a build a lap together. I like to start conservative and gradually improve the time each lap, for me it helps to understand what the car needs in terms of balance each corner. Then I do a qualifying simulation followed by a long run on the same tyres, that that gives me a minimum lap distance on the softest tyre. Nothing really that special, once that's in my head it stays there.
Beau_Albert: I'm sure a few Div 2-3 drivers might begin having a look at that schedule to find some improvements! Finally as the GT franchise and most of the console side of ROOZ looks forward to what GT Sport can offer, what is the one feature you would love to be implemented or improved on that could make it your favourite GT yet?
Warrior2167: I wouldn't say it was a feature but online stability needs to be solid. The rest of the game is coming together nicely from what we know so far.
Beau_Albert: Something i think we all hope happens! Could be make or break for the game! Well, i want to say thank you Warrior for coming along today!!
Warrior2167: Thanks for the interview, was a pleasure.
Beau_Albert: Well guys, hopefully you have all enjoyed learning a bit more about the most successful driver in the sites history. If there's any other questions that you would love to ask Warrior, a thread is up in the Off Topic section of the site (link below) and if he has a spare moment I'm sure he'd be glad to answer them. This has been the second Interviewooz, be sure to leave feedback to help us continually improve the new addition to the sites homepage!
Until next time......
