1980's. I took an interest in F1 shortly before we lost Senna. Racing history,
on the other hand, particularly F1, I couldn't have cared less about. I had no
interest whatsoever in anything dealing with stuff that happened before I was
even born. Who cares. That stuff is ancient history. Eight months ago, I didn't
know who Jim Clark was, other than some racer who got killed along time ago. I
knew Graham Hill only as Damon's dad. That all changed when I finally got GPL.
I only bought GPL, I believe, in November 1999. I didn't buy it when it first
came out for two reasons. 1) I only had a P166 and knew the sim would run
terrible on it, and 2) every review I ever read about the sim said it was
incredibly difficult and far too frustrating for anyone to ever enjoy. So I put
off buying it. When I finally did, I was, of course, ***ed to it
immediately. My wife didn't understand how I could be enjoying myself. She
would see me sit at the computer for fif*** minutes or so, then in a furious
rage I would punch my steering wheel, slam my headphones down on the floor, and
say a few choice words as I stormed out of the house to smoke a cigarette. Five
minutes later, I would come back in and do it all over again. She would say,
understand, I HAD to play it.
At about the same time I bought GPL, my cable company finally added Speedvision
to the cable system. After driving GPL for a few weeks I became familiar with
the driver names, cars, and tracks of that era. I had an understanding of what
these men actually endured. I decided to check out this show called "Legends of
Motorsport", and for the first time I saw actual footage of The Ring, Spa,
Monza, Rouen, Zandvoort, and other tracks, my jaw dropped and the hair on my
arms stood up. I was seeing these places for the first time but I felt like I
already knew them. I had raced there. I had never seen these drivers before but
I knew them, I had raced against them. The present day photos of Rouen that
were posted on here the other day were absolutely fantastic. I could sit and
stare at them for hours. Before GPL, I never even heard of Rouen, now I have
this strong feeling that the ground there is somehow sacred, the same for Spa
and the rest. Before GPL, I never heard of Jochen Rindt and really didn't give
a ***who he was either. Now when I see the footage of him being killed, it
makes me sad. I wish Jim Clark and Graham Hill were still with us. I live in
Pennsylvania, USA, for God sakes, why should I care if they bulldoze some
rundown grandstands at some place called Rouen where guys once drove race cars.
Rouen is approximately eight million miles from my home for crying out loud.
Why do I care? All because of GPL my friend. GPL is amazing, simply amazing.
By the way, just out of curiousity, how many of you have ever experienced the
following;
You have spent an hour or more racing in a full length Grand Prix, you're in
the zone, real smooth consistent laps. Haven't made a single mistake in over an
hour. OK maybe you booted Surtees off the track a little earlier but we all
know it was completely his fault. You need to hit the pause button for some
stupid reason, maybe some moron is knocking on your front door or maybe your
wife needs to say something really unimportant to you. After ONE minute you get
back to GPL, you settle back in your seat, you take a deep breath, double check
to see where you are on the track, you picture the next corner in your mind,
get your peddles set just right, and get a good grip on the wheel. Then you
unpause the game and completely blow the next corner, thus ending your Grand
Prix after investing an hour and a half of your time. Am I the only one?
Thanx for listening.
Larry Haines