rec.autos.simulators

I will advise, when the problem is resolved and our regular schedule of
qualifying races can be resumed.

Jack Rambo

As a software developer, a mechanical engineer, a former president of a
chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers, a former sports car racer,
and a guy who had a four-foot poster of Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari 312
plastered to his bedroom wall as a ***ager around 1970, you might guess
that I would fall head over heels in love with this thing we call GPL. And I
did indeed!

I saw the unbridled enthusiasm for the product on RAS, and, with perhaps my
newly-acquired passion getting the best of me, I decided that GPL and other
quality road-racing sims to follow needed a structured, scheduled body of
races and racing organization/sanctioning body that would form a nice
complement to fabulous VROC. I envisioned an organization that would offer
an extensive schedule of organized races, far beyond just the popular NTT
World Championship series...races that would eventually be segregated by
driver category so that everyone would have an opportunity to race with
drivers of comparable skill level...everyone would have a chance to win or
at least finish near the front! And it was clear that unless someone
somewhere was willing to commit to developing such a beast, it just wouldn't
happen and online racing would not realize its full potential. In short, I
saw a small business opportunity in an activity for which I had generous
amounts of enthusiasm.

And so the NTT series began, as a test bed for what I hoped would become the
RaceLive! network. My wife thought I was nuts. I tried to explain to her
that the world was full of enthusiastic people like me who had invested
hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in the perfect sim racing setup who
would not hesitate to pay a nominal licensing fee and perhaps a small
monthly activity fee to be part of a truly professionally-executed
structured racing program. I pointed out the level of activity that NROS
enjoyed and argued that the road-racing community needed something
comparable.

Well, it appears that perhaps my wife was right. My conclusion at this point
is that there are just too few online road racing enthusiasts out there to
sustain even the smallest of businesses. Even granddaddy VROC, with it's
roughly 500 drivers who have joined the Paddock, appears to lack sufficient
volume to sustain a small business. So it's with great sadness that I
announce the conclusion of the NTT series. While it's been incredibly
demanding, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I'll certainly miss
the sense of camaraderie that I saw develop in a short period of time
amongst the NTT drivers. It seems a shame that we can't sustain that, but
I'm afraid it's time for me to get back on with my life and reintroduce
myself to my wife! Warmest regards to all of you and keep "nailing those
tracks"!

Jack Rambo

Jack,

Many thanks for the races and excellent hosting you have given these
past few weeks, its been VERY enjoyable!
Hope to see you on VROC

--
Mike Buckley    
Cotswold Pig Development Co Ltd
Tel: 44 (0)1472 371591  Fax: 44 (0)1472 371208

Where? I'd do it in a heartbeat.  However, I think that perhaps GPL is
perhaps the wrong sim to do it with.  Its very demanding and unless you have
lots of time to kill you won't be able to race and have fun even against
less skilled folks.  A sim that scales better from amuteur up to "pro" would
work better.  Not to mention, to really do it you would need help from Papy
to be able to set up dedicated servers, be able to scale the physics for
different level of racing groups (brings more people into the community) and
modern cars.  Perhaps an F1 or CART sim would generate more enthusiasm world
wide than an older GP sim.   NROS would fold in an instant if it wasn't for
the totally large and fanatical NASCAR fan base. :)

I want to add my thanks here for all your considerable efforts.  NTT
has been tons of fun.  An excellent host, top-notch crowd, and great
racing; certainly far above the norm.  I wish my pitiful phone lines
had allowed me to enjoy more of it.  I hope to see your name on the
VROC race list, as it's been great racing with you.

We sim racers have lost a good thing; it's too bad there aren't more
of us.........

Well done, Jack!

Steve B.
Remove "edy" from address for email

Mitch Alatorre

It's a great shame. I'll miss those races and especially the nice
people who raced in the NTT series. Anyway, I can understand your
decision, Jack. You've done a great job and thanks for hosting great
races! I hope I can see you and the other NTT racers at VROC or maybe
in some other leagues. Thanks!
(I'll miss those race reports also ;-))

--
Greger Huttu

You are just green with envy that nobody cares enough to make a CART sim and
CART hasnt created a CARTOS (CART Online Series) !!  ;)

ROFLMAO

Scott
PA-Scott
G.T.S. Racing - http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted/GTS/gts.html

Btw, what sim did Papy make FIRST? :)  Yes, you guessed it INDYCARS.  ;)

The NTT schedule was a bit too demanding - 2 hours
a night, 6 nights a week?  That's just too much racing, even
for me :)  For those who have been running GPL for a while,
running the same track night after night can get stale.
Sometimes I just want to do something else.

I think that something like the NTT series, racing 2
official qualifying races a week and one final, would be
easier to manage, and wouldn't burn out the participants.
Races could be held the other nights of the week, but
they should be practice races and not point events.

The big thing that is missing from online racing is a
tangible reward for effort.  There is no reason why
sim-related companies shouldn't be handing out prizes
for an event like NTT.  I've never understood why
more of that didn't happen with all the league racing
on NROS.  Only a few series have ever awarded prizes.

--
Pat Dotson
IMPACT Motorsports
http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

Thank you for your efforts organizing the NTT series. You've contributed greatly
to the brave new world of online racing.

Perhaps I should also thank you for ending. Anyone know of a GPL anonymous
self-help program?

Marty

Well at least we know they learned from their mistakes!!   LOL  ;)

Besides.. you have CART Precision Racing dont you ???  ;)    OK - that was
just cruel.  Im sorry.  ;)  Thats like having NASCAR Revolting, I mean
Revolution.

Scott
PA-Scott
G.T.S. Racing - http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted/GTS/gts.html
--
Scott B. Husted
ICQ# 4395450

In the G.T.S. Division of SCORL... there was sponsors for 3 of the 14 races.

It is just remarkeably hard to get sponsors to donate prizes =(

The development of the "centralized" online racing community is just not
materializing.

Scott
PA-Scott
G.T.S. Racing - http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted/GTS/gts.html

Mmms...no, because CARTOS would be the next generation OS. ;)

<points you to Nascar Revultion>  Heck, CPR was better than that.