Wait, I think I'm missing something...
Who said GT Academy is coming to Australia? I've never really looked into it, but always known it wasn't open here - which while we're on the subject, is just a silly thing; Australia has a larger motorsports interest / contingent percentage wise than the US (in my opinion only). The talent that comes from Australia is immense, and far greater than our talent for winter sports if I may add. =P Generally, the Aussies are the fastest drivers on GT6.
As for quoting how I personally qualified for Div1, I can easily explain that. Spending a solid hour (which is how much I did, and I didn't go any further than that) refining the best way to get around the circuit because of 1) ghost cars, 2) trial and error, 3) constant variables, is completely different to my qualifying and timed-lap pace. Ghost cars are especially helpful for identifying locations to make up time, and rectify them. It teaches you that you might be fast in the first sector, but your third sector is severely lacking, and hence evens out your time. Working the track and maximising my sectors (more realistically: corners and precisely how much I could give them and the routines I would go through to maximise them) over an hour with the help of a ghost car was easy.
Secondly, trial and error also inflated my talents. The fact that it's a time trial scenario with unlimited opportunities meant that I could take risks for two reasons: 1) there is no safety concern for either the car or my life, 2) there is no pressure that would be present under a single timed or race scenario. Failure did not matter; I could push the boundaries. If it didn't work out, I just put that information into my bank and did it differently next time. That cannot happen in real-life racing, qualifying or sim racing.
Thridly, the constant variables that a Time Trial offers means that I know I don't have to conserve tyres or the like. I can learn through trial and error how much the car gives and how much grip the tyres have in them. I can learn how much I can clip the grass. This is because the variables like tyre grip through different Gs is programmed, and the grip you lose on the grass is programmed. It won't change, and neither will the fuel levels, tyre life or car acceleration and characteristics. The track won't alter its characteristics either. The racing line won't 'come to' with more laps or cars. The temperature and lighting won't change.
For these reasons, I can tell you that my Time Trial performance was quite possibly inflated. My qualifying sessions are usually terrible, as getting just the perfect lap right (because of no ghost cars of previous laps / lack of specifics corners that I went slow on, the increased pressure and zero further chances, and changing variables all around) is very difficult for me to do. Practising and rehearsing routines (that you will do in qualifying - more relevant to other sims | not really GT6) without a doubt helps IMMENSELY, but it's important to know that you will never achieve your best, maximum time possible in qualifying EVER. The cases where you do go faster than you have when practising (which actually happens quite a bit) is down to different track and car conditions as well as different atmospheric / psychological conditions that ensure you need to do well.
Only when variables are constant as in TT can anyone push to test the ABSOLUTE limits of speed, versus your CONDITIONAL limits of speed.
Hence, time trials are a very different test to qualifying situations - which I might add are 99% of timed racing situations. Drivers in the real world have to attempt to replicate (as in, get as close to) their best performance over a single lap. Even 'time trials' are nowadays more qualifying like: one lap worth of tread before the best grip is lost in the tyres, for example (of course there are many more reasons, that could be as subjective as 'we've only paid for access at the track for an hour more', ie. money and time), or that Pikes Peak record run. He only gets one attempt.
I don't need to go into why racing is different from qualifying... So anyway, I don't pretend to be superior in knowledge to anyone, but I just got really caught up in analysing the differences of time trials and qualifying! =)
To end, my qualifying is generally bad, and quite often I never get close to the time I'd go into qualifying wanting to set. I rely upon my racing to get results, and it generally works because that's just my style, and I actually suspect is a lot of people's styles on GT because of its 'driving simulator' status - it's better to not crash out than push for those tenths of a second. Other racing games out there (like F1 2013), I can't say the same for. That's a game you need to really push.
EDIT: And I only refer to F1 2013 because that actually is a game that I contest with everyone to be among the best in Australia at. Perhaps there is also truth in my different perceptions of style in that I feel I need to push in F1, but can't say the same for GT because I haven't gotten close to mastering it. I would put money on the very best drivers on GT feeling they have to push to be at the pinnacle.
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