With the 4th season of GT Academy USA nearly underway, I got the opportunity to talk with a couple of the champions from previous years. One was Steve Doherty, who won GT Academy back in 2012. Prior to GT Academy, Steve was an unemployed mechanic with a dream, and now he has a full year of professional racing under his belt! You can see the exciting conclusion to the 2012 GT Academy below.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HycZnds6eTQ[/youtube]
Will: What were you doing before GT Academy?
Steve: I worked some factory jobs, and before that I was a mechanic. At the time when I started in GT Academy, I was unemployed, so I wasn’t really doing too much.
Will: You first tried out for GT Academy back in 2011, you barely missed out on a spot in the national finals?
Steve: Correct. I also participated in the time trial that GT Academy put out in 2008, but there was no USA GT Academy at the time, so it was just for fun. 2011 came along, and I spent some time on the time trials, but didn’t put 100% into it. I ended up missing out on the national finals by six-hundredths of a second. I was upset at myself for not trying my hardest and basically said that if I got another chance, I would not make the same mistake. 2012 came along, and I decided to focus on trying as hard as I could to make it.
Will: Did you have any real life experience to prepare for the Academy?
Steve: When I was 18, I decided to go racing at my local dirt track a half hour away. I got some friends together, got an old beat up car, and built it into a racer. At the time I was working for a construction company, so my boss sponsored us and let us use his truck and trailer. So every Friday night when we could, we’d go out to the track and just have a good time.
Will: How about sim racing outside of Gran Turismo?
Steve: Gran Turismo was basically the only sim racing I had done. I started playing with the original Gran Turismo and went through the titles all the way up to GT6.
Will: Did you do anything to help prepare yourself in between the national finals and your arrival at Silverstone?
Steve: First, I stopped drinking soda and started exercising. I knew that I wasn’t in the best of shape, and I knew that would need to change if I wanted to do well.
I also had talked to my grandfather, and he helped by giving me some money to go karting around once a week, to help get some more seat time. I also did one autocross event, where a local guy let me drive his Mazda Miata.
Will: When you arrived at Silverstone, and were sizing up the competition, did you think you had what it took to be the one who would be standing at the end?
Steve: At the National Finals, I was trying to get a feel for who had real car experience. I knew that Jeff Stuart and Nick Barbado would definitely be quick. I felt that with my oval experience, I may be able to get at least in the top 5. My goal was to make the final race, because if I made it there, anything could happen.
Will: Do you still keep in touch with some of the competitors after everything was said and done?
Steve: Yeah, I keep in touch with a few of them, some more so than others. We have a Facebook page where we all can keep in touch with each other. I likely talk with Eric Rivera the most out of all of them. But yeah, they were a good group of people to be around, none of them had a real big ego or anything like that.
Will: When would you say that it actually hit you, that you were the winner of the 2012 USA GT Academy?
Steve: I would likely say that it was on the plane ride home, with me realizing that I would only have a few days there, and then I would be coming back. The whole experience was just surreal. When I was on the podium celebrating, I was just thinking, “This has to be a dream, this can’t be real.” It took a couple days for it to sink in that my life as I knew it was going to radically change.
Will: What did you do in between GT Academy and the 24 Hours of Dubai?
Steve: We did a lot of club racing, with the three race cars we used in the final episode. We also did an MX-5 race, and then did some races with the GT4 cars that we would be racing in Dubai. One of the races we did was a 3 hour night race at Donington Park, which made for some really good training.
Will: Now lets fast forward to the race in Dubai. How did it feel to not only be in a real race with other GT Academy winners, but also with Lucas Ordonez?
Steve: Well with Lucas being the first winner of GT Academy, he’s someone we can look up to, because of what he has accomplished and been leading the way for what we are doing now. If he wasn’t successful after taking the inaugural victory, then likely none of us would be here.
Alex Buncombe was also a valuable asset for us. He is always fast and helped lead us as well. We could check out his data, compare it to what we were doing, and have us adjust to become even faster.
Will: Now let’s talk about where you see yourself going. If you could race in any series and/or race, where would you want to go?
Steve: I’ve always liked V8 Supercars, those guys really know how to race each other hard and can be really entertaining. I’d love to do at least one of those races.
SuperGT in Japan could also be something fun to try out, it would be fun to do one of those races, maybe with Lucas or another one of the Academy winners.
In terms of US racing, I’d like to see a GT-R in the World Challenge series, now that they have made GT3 cars legal to be raced in that series, and it seems to be headed in the right direction. I also got to watch the 24 Hours of Daytona, and I feel like that would be a fun race to take part in.
I’d love to maybe do a race at the Nurburgring, and have another chance at the 24H at Spa, since I never really got a chance to really race there.
Will: How can we keep track of your progress in your racing career, what you’re doing, and where you’re headed?
Steve: I have my Twitter feed and my Facebook page that I regularly update and am active on. I also am on GTPlanet, with my own thread where I update it with my progress as I continue in my career.
Will: What would you say is the most significant moment that stands out to you, when you look back at these past two years?
Steve: I would say that the most significant thing, one of my biggest highlights in my career, would be in September. It was my last GT3 race at Navarra in Spain. I started in 11th place, and I was able to work my way up to third overall, finishing behind Sebastian Loeb and his other team car. I remember coming onto the front stretch after passing a Lamborghini for third place, seeing Sebastian Loeb and his teammate in front of me, and just thinking to myself, “Is this really happening?”
Will: What would you say to other sim racers who are looking to try to get behind the wheel of a real car and pursue a career in racing?
Steve: I would say that GT Academy has shown itself to be a legitimate way to get into motorsport. There are a lot of other sims that people will say is more realistic, or is better, but when it comes down to it, GT Academy is a proven way, and the results speak for itself.
I’d say keep playing Gran Turismo, and push as hard as you can. Put in as many hours as you can, even when you’re sick of it. Putting in that extra hour can make all the difference.
I would like to thank Steve Doherty again for taking the time to speak with me, and on behalf of Inside Sim Racing, we wish him the best of luck as he continues living out his dream.