Nay Bother, maybe next week we will get a few more drivers.
I do hope so.
I don't want anything with sticky boots and wings so if PnG pegs it I'm scuppered.
I tend to agree with you Clive, which is why I dipped my toe into PnG and GTL looking for some old style racing. At the same time as I branched out from GPL about 18 months ago I also tried GTR2....and I found that it was just too modern for me.
As you say, "I don't want anything with slick tyres and wings" and Tony is doing a great job in keeping wings and stuff off the agenda over in GTL IMHO. The only class I struggle with ( well OK, the class I struggle MOST with!!) are the IMSA series from the mid 70's which have modern slick tyres and don't seem to like any 4 wheel drifting. But, on the up side Tony has the Le Mans 55 series with really old school D types, Aston Martin DB2, old Fezzas etc and they are the best fun ever , with brakes that would not stop a shopping trolley and tyres that are so bad that I have seen better on a lawn mower!!!
As for lack of members........
I know GPL suffered a huge crash in membership when iRacing kicked off, but several of those who jumped ship have returned having recognised the extortionate cost of competing there year after year. Maybe Assetto Corsa will not have lasting appeal, who knows?
GPL has also attracted a large number of members who enjoy the 60's Grand Prix cars and the great racing that we still have. I think UKGPL is one of the biggest GPL leagues around these days and we certainly have an international makeup. It seemed to me that there is a "critical mass" value to the membership with any racing sim. GBGPL ran well for many years alongside UKGPL and had some very strong membership, but slowly the numbers dwindled and they were having grids of 5 or 6 cars. With a broad spread of talent on such a small grid there was very little race action and GBGPL just expired. The few members left now race with the Hungarian league on Sats in the Groundhog races.
UKGPL on the other hand made a concious effort to attract newbies and set up "novice" divisions as a nursery. I cannot say for sure if that is why we have such a vibrant league at the moment, but for a sim that was released in 1998, it ain't doing so bad.
So what I think I am trying to say is that if you want to grow numbers you need a) to attract new members who are already quick with some great tracks and cars, because the faster drivers always want to match themselves against the best opposition. and b) attract noobies with a level of racing that does not intimidate them.
We found that a lot of new members had been put off joining GPL on line simply because they felt that they would be totally outclassed by aliens. The introduction of the Novice/Amateur divisions with unlimited resets allowed them to ease themselves in to GPL on line with people of a similar ability without looking foolish and inept.
When I started PnG about 18 months ago I wondered what the hell I was doing here! After years of pounding GPL cars around, with some success, PnG was a huge challenge and I almost quit after 6 months because I was just not "getting it". Whether it was sheer bloody mindedness or because I was still able to get my ration of champagne in GPL races I don't know, but I stuck at it and although I am still not totally au fait with these beasts, I can at least avoid getting lapped these days.
I for one hope that PmT keeps going as I enjoy wrestling the older cars with oversized engines and under performing tyres, coaxing them into corners and keeping them on the grey stuff.
