Cal Club Autocross Forums

As many of you probably already know, I recently competed on a ‘reality’ TV show called GT Academy. Basically, the contest takes the top 16 gamers from a Gran Turismo online time trial, flys them to Silverstone Circuit in England, and puts them in real cars in a variety of driving and racing challenges. The 16 are narrowed down over the course of a week, and at the end of the show a winner is crowned. The winner then goes through a rigorous 4 month driver development program before ultimately competing in a 24 endurance sports car race in Dubai. This is the competition that Bryan Heitkotter won last year.

This year I was one of the 16 Silverstone finalists, and now it’s finally time for the show to air. It will be airing on SpikeTV on Thursday nights for 6 consecutive weeks starting at 11:30pm eastern, 10:30pm central, November 1st. For west coasters, depending on your cable provider, it will either be on at 8:30 or 11:30. For those without cable or that don’t want to stay up that late, the full episodes will also be available on YouTube shortly after they air.

DVR set. Thanks for reminder.

Eric Clements wrote:DVR set. Thanks for reminder.

Me too. Surprised the show is only 1/2 hour, seems like there would be more material than that.

Rick Brown wrote:

Eric Clements wrote:DVR set. Thanks for reminder.

Me too. Surprised the show is only 1/2 hour, seems like there would be more material than that.

Hopefully, Jeff's experience is not lying on the cutting room floor.

Jeff: Is it old news, or are you contractually sworn to secresy? Did you win, huh? Did you? Did you? I promise I won't tell...other than Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

Rick Brown wrote:

Eric Clements wrote:DVR set. Thanks for reminder.

Me too. Surprised the show is only 1/2 hour, seems like there would be more material than that.

While I agree that it is disappointing that it's only 30 minutes, it's actually 6 episodes over the next 6 weeks, and I think the last one is an hour, so in total it's 3.5 hours. For comparison, last year's GT Academy was 5 1-hour episodes on Speed. This year they're also having the extra "Pit Pass" experience, so there's going to be a lot more content available online that isn't on TV. That will go live when the show airs tonight, here: http://www.gtacademy.us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ed Holley wrote: Hopefully, Jeff's experience is not lying on the cutting room floor.

Jeff: Is it old news, or are you contractually sworn to secresy? Did you win, huh? Did you? Did you? I promise I won't tell...other than Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

I signed an NDA, so I can't talk about anything that hasn't aired yet.

Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll get plenty of air time ;)

Jeff Stuart wrote:Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll get plenty of air time ;)

I hope for good things rather than bad (like maybe you blew something up or balled up a GTR into the wall or something)!

Jeff Stuart wrote:

Rick Brown wrote:

Eric Clements wrote:DVR set. Thanks for reminder.

Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll get plenty of air time ;)

Cool, we'll check it out tonight.

Looks like they're going to be pretty snappy posting the episodes online, the first one is already available on Spike's website streaming: http://www.spike.com/full-episodes/jlkx ... n-1-ep-101" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow, Jeff! I missed the airing last night, but just finsihed watching it on Spike TV's website. I would not have expected anything less than you clocking the fastest lap in the 370Z. The rest of the show and the contests kept me at the "edge of my seat" (Where's Jeff? Where's Jeff?) even though I had faith you were going to make it through to the next round! Can't wait for next week's installment of your great adventure!

It was kind of surreal seeing you on TV. Can't wait to see the rest of the series!

Sharon and I watched it last night. No surprise that you were fast in the one-lapper. It was thrilling. Can't believe all that got packed into just a 30 minute broadcast.
Now...what's up with you falling back in the physical stuff, particularly the bicycle part. From that point on, you got little face time and, at one point I thought you were near elimination.

Please tell me you're in future episodes. Notice I used the plural tense. ;)

Ed Holley wrote: Please tell me you're in future episodes. Notice I used the plural tense. ;)

Tough to say, I haven't seen them

One doesn't want to be too "featured" in the early shows. ;)

Bryan H was nearly invisible into quite a way into last years show.

Can't believe that with all of the time and money and effort spent in the actual event, that it's only a half hour show ?!?!

Can't this be moved to the Event section ... so more people will see this ... ? Obviously Jeff is being too modest ...

Mako Koiwai wrote:
Can't this be moved to the Event section ... so more people will see this ... ? Obviously Jeff is being too modest ...

...the same number of people can see it here as they can in the events section.

I forwarded the link to my car buddies at work and say, I knew this guy when...

Even I forget to check Off Topic for periods of time ...

That was too close Jeff !!!

If you missed Episode 2, or your DVR cut off the last 3 minutes:

http://www.spike.com/full-episodes/hzow ... n-1-ep-102" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: Now commercial free on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fakRt2DqV4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jeff Stuart wrote:If you missed Episode 2, or your DVR cut off the last 3 minutes:

http://www.spike.com/full-episodes/hzow ... n-1-ep-102" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: Now commercial free on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fakRt2DqV4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, I lost the last 3 minutes. Guess I'll add 5 minutes to TiVo for the future episodes to be safe.

Episode 3 now available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKkoMMIiXvQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFiQyp61Sg4&feature=plcp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like you needed a clean pair of shorts at the end there! Whew!

BTW, there seems to be a replay of the previous week's episod on Thur morning on MTV2.

Also, in case anyone else had buffering problems trying to stream the videos over WiFi. I plugged my laptop with a traditional eithernet to my router and it snapped right up to speed with no buffering pauses, picture was MUCH improved as well.

Jay W

Just watching episode 3, question for Brian... did you do a single timed lap, or were you given the opportunity to go out and practice prior to your timed lap?

Craig Naylor wrote:Just watching episode 3, question for Brian... did you do a single timed lap, or were you given the opportunity to go out and practice prior to your timed lap?

Not sure how frequently Bryan hangs around our forums. I can tell you from our perspective, we never saw him do any laps. They filmed the bit with him getting in the car, then said "cut" and he got back out and we went straight into doing our own laps.