Welcome to Week 8 of the Too Much Racing Game!
The F1 and IndyCar openers are done and dusted, one was incredibly boring and I hear the other was very exciting although I didn’t get to see it – I’ll catch it another time.
A word of warning – I am out of the country from Wednesday morning until Tuesday evening, so I probably won’t be able to check entries this week or provide scores next week. I’ll schedule an entry post for next Tuesday as normal and you’ll get two sets of results the following week. I’ll check tomorrow at the airport wifi but that may be it!
The other thing is a request for feedback: it was brought up on the Game page that perhaps Okayama may be too obscure a race. I think we’ll see some familiar drivers from the LMS and ALMS there but it may be a valid point. Do we lose it? The other thing was the Macau F3 GP – what do people say to including that, would it add an element of unpredictability to the final week of the game since the only there at the moment is the last NASCAR race, or is it too obscure also?
Quick-Start
Racing this week:
American Le Mans Series – 12 Hours of Sebring, Florida, USA;
NASCAR Sprint Cup – Bristol, Tennessee, USA;
All you have to do is reply to this post and pick up to 10 drivers! The only limit? No more than 7 in one race.
The cutoff is Friday 19th March at 11.59pm GMT. Call it midnight Friday night. Good luck! American/Canadian players entering Friday please note that although you’ve switched to Summer time Europe hasn’t yet – check your timezones.
For the full results from Week 7, read on.
How To Enter
1. Reply to this post.
2. List up to 10 drivers, with no more than 7 from a single event.
3. Send your entry before the stated deadline, usually some time on a Friday. You can make as many changes as you like until the closing point, I’ll take your last entry.
Most weeks feature 2 or 3 races, some weeks may have more than that and some may only have one. There’s not a rule stating you have to choose from each race, any combination of up to 10 drivers is accepted.
Further information can be found on the game sub-page.
Results
Week 7: Top Ten Finishers
[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=F1+Bahrain&iid=8249655″ src=”8/5/0/3/F1_Grand_Prix_efd5.jpg?adImageId=11290887&imageId=8249655″ width=”234″ height=”144″ /]
(Photo: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Cosworth RB6) leads Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F10), Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir courtesy Getty Images via PicApp)
| Week 7 | F1 | IndyCar | |
| Points | Bahrain | Sao Paulo | |
| 1 | 50 | Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) | Will Power (Penske) |
| 2 | 40 | Felipe Massa (Ferrari) | Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) |
| 3 | 35 | Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) | Vitor Meira (AJ Foyt) |
| 4 | 32 | Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) | Raphael Matos (dF/LDR) |
| 5 | 30 | Nico Rosberg (Merc) | Dan Wheldon (Panther) |
| 6 | 28 | Michael Schumacher (Merc) | Scott Dixon (Ganassi) |
| 7 | 26 | Jenson Button (McLaren) | Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) |
| 8 | 24 | Mark Webber (Red Bull) | Mike Conway (DRR) |
| 9 | 22 | Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) | Helio Castroneves (Penske) |
| 10 | 20 | Rubens Barrichello (Williams) | Tony Kanaan (Andretti) |
F1
A tedious procession in Bahrain ended with a Ferrari 1-2 after leader Vettel’s car developed a spark plug problem. He hung on to claim 4th. I know I previously posted about enjoying all kinds of races but really, this was a tough one to sit through.
IndyCar
A new street track, dust, bumps, rain, stoppages, unexpected good results from some and Takuma Sato in an opening lap crash. What did this race not have? And that’s just what I picked up on Twitter.
Week 7: Points Awarded This Week
[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=IndyCar&iid=8251004″ src=”1/2/0/9/Sao_Paulo_Indy_1c44.jpg?adImageId=11291029&imageId=8251004″ width=”234″ height=”152″ /]
(Photo: Will Power (Team Penske, Dallara IR4-Honda); courtesy Getty Images via PicApp)
| Player | F1 | IndyCar | Week 7 | |
| 1 | Sebastian | 209 | 120 | 329 |
| 2 | James | 213 | 113 | 326 |
| 3 | Startledbunny | 237 | 86 | 323 |
| 4 | The Speedgeek | 181 | 131 | 312 |
| 5 | RG | 153 | 152 | 305 |
| 6 | Burwellian | 235 | 69 | 304 |
| 7 | Jon Waldock | 211 | 91 | 302 |
| 8 | Pat W | 179 | 112 | 291 |
| 9 | Sean | 117 | 167 | 284 |
| 10 | Jackie | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Dank | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Well done Sebastian, James and Startledbunny for scoring over 320 points this week. Hard luck for Sean and myself who didn’t break the 300 barrier despite using completely different strategies. RG managed an almost even points split between the races! Jackie and Dank didn’t enter and their carryovers were exclusively NASCAR drivers. The scores were impressively close despite the varied ways of acheiving them.
Week 7: Overall Standings
| Pos | Pre | +/- | Name | Prior | Wk 7 | Total |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | James | 960 | 326 | 1286 |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | The Speedgeek | 938 | 312 | 1250 |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | Pat W | 909 | 291 | 1200 |
| 4 | 4 | 0 | RG | 887 | 305 | 1192 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | Sebastian | 840 | 329 | 1169 |
| 6 | 6 | 0 | Sean | 815 | 284 | 1099 |
| 7 | 7 | 0 | Burwellian | 790 | 304 | 1094 |
| 8 | 9 | 1 | Jon Waldock | 731 | 302 | 1033 |
| 9 | 10 | 1 | Startledbunny | 466 | 323 | 789 |
| 10 | 8 | -2 | Dank | 734 | 0 | 734 |
| 11 | 11 | 0 | Jackie | 421 | 0 | 421 |
James has extended his lead a little. There were no changes in position among the scorers yet things are still close, with the top 7 within 200 points given the number still on the table, anything can happen. I must say I’m a little disappointed that F1 and IndyCar didn’t attract any new entries and we’re struggling to retain regular entrants.
Week 8
There are TWO events this week.
ALMS – 12 Hours of Sebring
The 58th running of this tough endurance event, Sebring is so rough and bumpy that it is said 12 hours here is like 24 hours at Le Mans. Go to the ALMS Racehub to link through to a PDF Entry List and live timing & scoring. With two Peugeots and no Audis it will surely be a French win, but what if those bumps catch them out, could Drayson take a shock result? You can pick drivers from the same car if you like, so if it wins you get the 50 twice… but what if it crashes? It could be worth picking some LMP2 drivers as well, but which? If you plan to follow the race on Saturday be sure to listen to radiolemans.com.
NASCAR Cup – Bristol
Stock car fun for 500 laps of the dizzying half-mile oval. Expect panel-bashing. nascar.com for the info, I always say check the points as well as the entry list but to be honest at this track who knows what to expect?
More Information
I will soon update the TMR Game page with the current scores, I’ve not had time just yet (I’m rushing to prepare for my holiday!).
A reminder – from March 17th to 24th I will be away. I will not see your entries until next week so if you mis-pick I can’t point it out. Your entry may end up in the spam bin waiting to be authorised – if that happens it won’t show up as a reply, send another and if it happens again that’s probably where it is. I will see it when I get back and if it is within the time I’ll allow and publish it, you may want to email me as a backup. I may yet check in from time to time, but be aware I may not.
Next Tuesday you will see an automated post. It will be a basic post inviting entries for that week and will not feature any scores from Sebring or Bristol. I’ll do a combined results post featuring Weeks 8 and 9 the following Tuesday.
I think that’s it – good luck!
I Watch Too Much Racing 
Peugeot 08
Peugeot 07
Aston Lola 007
Drayson Lola 8
Intersport Lola 37
Jimmie Johnson
Kevin Karvick
Jeff Gordon
Kurt Busch
Matt Kenseth
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Bristol is much, much more predictable (and boring) than everyone says it is. The same cars/drivers run up front. It is a good talent indicator.
ALMS
Marc Gene
Alexander Wurz
SĂ©bastien Bourdais
Nicolas Minassian
Simon Pagenaud
NASCAR
Kyle Busch
Denny Hamlin
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
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For sports cars, you pick drivers, not cars…
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oooh. It’s drivers not teams.
Marc Gené
Alexander Wurz
Pedro Lamy
Emanuele Pirro
Anthony Davidson
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Any clues about your e-mail address?
If it is ok by you, I will do an unofficial add-up of the scores after this weekend and add it to the comments.
Well, the late change of team netted me two whole extra points. Pleased and suprised to win the week – out of nine that submitted teams, I came 5th in F1 and 4th in IRL. I made three points up on James, and if I keep that up, I will be ahead of him by…week 47. Damn!
By the way, I did not think the F1 was that bad. I would be interested to know if, and if so, how Vettel changed his driving style to adapt to his V7 engine – at the rate he was initially losing time, he stood to lose out to another three cars. I wonder if he changed his lines to carry more speed through corners. I think the Alonso-Vettel battle would have been v. interesting if Vettel had not had the engine malfunction.
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Sorry I thought I had it linked on the page: toomuchracing (at) gmail.com
Feel free to post scores if you want to, I’ve no problem with that.
My understanding with Vettel is that when he had his problem he backed off to save his tyres – that’s what he said anyway, I don’t know that I believe him because surely he wouldn’t have done that if there was no problem. I think it would’ve seemed a better race if they’d shown more passing and I wasn’t really counting a Williams and Force India overtaking the new teams as ‘true’ passing.
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My entry:
ALMS
Alex Wurz
Nicolas Minassian
Stefan Mucke
Emmanuele Pirro
David Brabham
NASCAR
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon
Kevin Harvick
Greg Biffle
Matt Kenseth
I will see if I can update the Game subsection tonight though I am a little pushed for time so it’ll be the first thing I drop if I have to.
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Bah .. forgot again… must set myself a reminder to pick this weeks drivers on a Thursday.
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ALMS
Sebastian Bourdais
Anthony Davidson
Emanuele Pirro
Adrian Fernandez
NASCAR
Tony Stewart
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon
Juan Pablo Montoya
Kevin Harvick
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Logged in this time, I will beat the spam filter! (or not, we’ll see)
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ALMS:
Marc Gene
Alexander Wurz
Anthony Davidson
Pedro Lamy
Sebastian Bourdais
Nicholas Manassian
Harold Primat
NASCAR:
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon
Tony Stewart
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I commented on the main game page about including the Macau GP to make the last week more interesting but I have since realised that the weeks likely to throw up the biggest spreads in scoring are the single-event weeks. With more than one event there are more drivers that are obvious choices which has a lot to do with there only being a spread of 40 and 45 points amongst the top nine in the last couple of weeks. (In a week with four races, there might be seven or eight drivers that are obvious picks for all of us.)
I would expect a bigger spread with NASCAR and F3 drivers from several championships but that probably still means perhaps five or six drivers that are fairly obvious to pick. If it is a close finish to the TMF competition, the more exciting we can make the final week the better. My radical suggestion is to change the rules for that one week so we can have seven drivers from NASCAR and seven drivers from Macau. That should increase the spread of scores without being too artificial. More a case of treating Macau as week #44. Too artificial or a good way to spice up the last round?
If that does not grab people, I would suggest not including Macau since just NASCAR will probably create a wider spread under normal rules between two or more close competitors looking for the more solid obvious choices.
I still favour ignoring Okayama.
It would be good to get some feedback on this from more than just Patrick even if you dislike my ideas.
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Right, my picks
ALMS:
Ant Davidson
Marc Gene
Jonny Cocker
Emmanuel Pirro
Alex Wurz
NASCAR:
Jamie McMurray
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
Jeff Gordan
Jordan Stewart
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My picks:
ALMS:
Marc Gene
Alexander Wurz
Anthony Davidson
Pedro Lamy
Sebastien Bourdais
Nicolas Minassian
Adrian Fernandez
NASCAR:
Kurt Busch
Tony Stewart
Kasey Kahne
Thanks!
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AMERICAN LE MANS:
Marc Gene
“Ant” Davidson
Pedro Lamy
“Le SĂ©b” Bourdais
Harold Primat
NASCAR:
Kyle Busch
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
Juan Pablo Montoya
…and I’d rather see Macau to Okayama. Had to use wiki to find out Okayama is the new name for the Aida circuit, never having heard of it. As for Macau, well past winners include Ayrton, both Schumacher brothers, Coulthard; it’s probably the best known junior formulae race too I’d’ve thought?
Regardless, I’m guessing with most formulae other than F1, so probably won’t make a huge difference to me đŸ™‚
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Dullest F1 race I’ve seen in a while, taking out refuelling seems a mistake at this early stage, but we’ll see if the racing improves through the season.
My late change cost me 2 points, but I was justified in backing Liuzzi over Sutil having seen the pace of Sutil’s Force India in practice. Shame Tonio finished a place behind Webber, whom I’d dropped in favour of the Italian. đŸ™‚
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…though I actually liked the new bit of track. It was bumpy, giving the drivers handling problems and thus giving us a chance to look at how they handled it, their styles… and the ocassional spin (*cough* Hulkenberg & Alguersauri *cough*).
The dullness of the race is highlighted by the fact that even the team principals were speaking out criticising it; Whitmarsh & Williams to name two.
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To quote Top Gear ‘Oh Cock’.
Oh well, just have give you guys a head start.
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Experiment; do tables work in comments?
Player
ALMS
NASCAR
Week 8
1
Bob
0
0
0
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Hi folks.
I have totalled and tabulated the unofficial scores for Week Eight but as tables do not work in comments, I set up a blog on WordPress to display the scores.
Please don’t hate me.
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