After scratching my head and getting the grey cells aligned, I found the old Rank account and the logon credentials, and after yet more intellectual excertion I had logged on and then figured out how to produce those nice-looking tables of the rank and monster rank.
Initially I was quite sceptical about purchasing GPL back in the day, when by chance I encountered a copy of it in a local shop. I decided to give it a go even if my expectations were low. I did not know about any of the acclaim and rave that surrounded this sim at that time. I literally did not know I had bought a gem and a classic.
I too became obsessed for a couple of years, mainly working on my rank in hotlapper mode or short races with with the AI. There was something uniquely fascinating with seeing my name alongside those of Brabham, Clark, Rindt, Stewart, Hill, - and even Surtees, who always was a quite forceful driver in GPL.
One of my absolute favourite tracks was the one that did not appear in the real ´67 season; Rouen. I adored that circuit, it really gave me a buzz, the downhill sweepers towards the hairpin, the high speed turns and kinks where you absolutely had to get the line and speed just perfect or else you ended up in the ditch against some trees, very far from the apex. For a couple of years I had a tradition of spending New Year's Eve there, trying to perfect my laps.
Zandvoort was great, a short lap and those fast switchbacks, drifting from one turn to the next.
I hated, hated Spa because I thought it was so hard to get into a rythm there and crashes were so enormous and violent; once I flew off the track like a missile and landed amongst the railway tracks outside the track boundaries. On another location I blasted, full throttle never lifting off, into the first of the two lefthanders at La Carriere I think it is called.
And Masta. Don't mention Masta.....
Nürburgring was another kind of Hell. Derek describes it so well, I nearly went into hysterics when I crashed early in a lap and had to do another full warm-up lap before I could have another go at a timed one. When it worked however, and I fell into a trance, the zone, it was magical. Until I woke up and realized I was now intellectualizing what had until this point been pure muscle memory and intuition. Crash! Bonk! Ohhhh Shute.
The Glen another short track and I think my very first session in GPL, I had there. Didn't make it out of the pits before spinning due to too much pressure with the right foot. The track will always remind me of Oct. 6th, 1973.
It was through our mutual love for GPL that many of us met and became virtual friends. An experience I wouldn't be without.
One day I found I'd had enough. I was involved in several sims, leagues, betatests, writing and I didn't want to drive in virtual circles anymore. It was no longer good fun but more an extra (unpaid) job. I was burned out. There was more to life. So I retired.
On very rare occasions I fire up the old girl and do a couple of very slow laps, way off my old pb's and just totter about a bit.
