Welcome to Week 11 of the Too Much Racing Game!
I hope you enjoyed the Malaysian GP, or at least tolerated it – I thought it was a fairly average race, nothing special but not terrible, you can read more of my thoughts here. The other series running was World Rally over in Jordan where the top Ford and Citroen teams played some rather pathetic games with time penalties in order to secure a better road position (running first means you encounter more gravel and are clearing the road for the others).
Coming up this week we have the first race of the Le Mans Series schedule – an 8-hour special rather than the usual six – as well as IndyCar at Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama and NASCAR Cup at Phoenix. See the later section for entry lists.
Just as a heads-up, next week will see five events and is the second-biggest weekend of the year in terms of number of events to choose from – could be a tricky one! More details on that in next week’s post or check the Game page for the schedule.
Quick-Start
Racing this week:
Le Mans Series: 8 heures du Castellet, Paul Ricard, France;
IndyCar Series: Barber Motorsport Park, Alabama, USA;
NASCAR Cup: Phoenix International Raceway, Arizona, USA;
All you have to do is reply to this post and pick up to 10 drivers! The only limit? No more than 7 from one race.
The cutoff is Friday 9th April at 11.59pm BST (British Summer Time = GMT+1), or 4.59pm US Eastern..
For the full results from Week 10, 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 which will be updated later in the week.
Results – Week 10
Top Tens
Week 10 | F1 | WRC | |
Points | Sepang | Jordan | |
1 | 50 | Sebastian Vettel | Sébastian Loeb |
2 | 40 | Mark Webber | Jari-Matti Latvala |
3 | 35 | Nico Rosberg | Petter Solberg |
4 | 32 | Robert Kubica | Dani Sordo |
5 | 30 | Adrian Sutil | Matthew Wilson |
6 | 28 | Lewis Hamilton | Sébastien Ogier |
7 | 26 | Felipe Massa | Federico Villagara |
8 | 24 | Jenson Button | Kimi Raikkonen |
9 | 22 | Jaime Alguersuari | Henning Solberg |
10 | 20 | Nico Hülkenberg | Xavier Pons |
Vettel finally takes a win! After two previous events as the fastest driver in the field, Sebastian Vettel put in a flawless drive to lead from turn one all the way to the flag. Webber had to settle for 2nd. Their main rivals from McLaren and Ferrari did well to make their way up from the back but that doesn’t diminish from some good runs from the likes of Rosberg, Kubica, Sutil and Alguersuari.
Over in rallying, Loeb predictably took another win after he made up a full minute on Day 2 leader Latvala – recovering from a 30-second deficit to post a 30-second lead after Day 3. Good to see Petter Solberg on the podium too. Mikko Hirvonen crashed out and rejoined the next day under SuperRally rules with the requisite time penalties, but his eventual 20th place cost a lot of TMR players some good points.
Points Awarded
Player | F1 | WRC | Week 10 | |
1 | Jon Waldock | 185 | 153 | 338 |
2 | Pat W | 159 | 167 | 326 |
3 | James | 175 | 135 | 310 |
4 | Sebastian | 185 | 120 | 305 |
5 | Sean | 145 | 160 | 305 |
6 | Startledbunny | 185 | 120 | 305 |
7 | RG | 152 | 128 | 280 |
8 | Burwellian | 172 | 107 | 279 |
9 | The Speedgeek | 126 | 142 | 268 |
10 | Jackie | 175 | 84 | 259 |
11 | Dank | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Well done Jon! James, Sebastian, Sean and Startledbunny scored well once more and I didn’t do too badly either..
Good to see Jackie back, unfortunately she was one of those hit by Hirvonen’s retirement.
Week 10: Overall Standings
Pos | Pre | +/- | Name | Prior | Wk 10 | Total |
1 | 1 | 0 | The Speedgeek | 1898 | 268 | 2166 |
2 | 2 | 0 | Sebastian | 1859 | 305 | 2164 |
3 | 4 | 1 | Pat W | 1778 | 326 | 2104 |
4 | 3 | -1 | RG | 1806 | 280 | 2086 |
5 | 5 | 0 | Sean | 1742 | 305 | 2047 |
6 | 7 | 1 | Jon Waldock | 1652 | 338 | 1990 |
7 | 6 | -1 | Burwellian | 1671 | 279 | 1950 |
8 | 8 | 0 | James | 1602 | 310 | 1912 |
9 | 9 | 0 | Startledbunny | 1316 | 305 | 1621 |
10 | 10 | 0 | Dank | 1000 | 0 | 1000 |
11 | 11 | 0 | Jackie | 662 | 259 | 921 |
Despite most of us having four-digit scores after just 10 weeks, The Speedgeek’s lead is now just two single points over Sebastian, who missed the first round of the year. That’s quite something, and it proves some good picks and a bit of luck can bring you up to the front.
I’ve recovered the place I lost last week and Jon’s ‘win’ leaps him over Burwellian.
Week 11
This weekend we have LMS Paul Ricard, IndyCar Barber Motorsport Park, and NASCAR Phoenix.
LMS – This is the season-opening event for the Le Mans Series and is an extended event. Rather than being 1000km or 6 hours, this race will run to a time limit of 8 hours and I don’t believe there is a distance limit. As always with sportscar races, you may choose more than one driver per car and scoring that 50 for a win more than once, bearing in mind you take the risk of that car not finishing and losing two or three scoring opportunities. This might not be as clear cut as Sebring though!
Official LMS website with live timing. PlanetLeMans.com has an unofficial entry list which is quite accurate. Don’t forget to follow the race live on RadioLeMans.com particularly as the TV coverage is quite limited. It starts at 10am UK time Sunday.
IndyCar – This is a new event at the Alabama circuit, which apparently is fairly tight and narrow but I’ve never seen a race there before. It should feature the usual cast of characters, plus Bertrand Baguette who is joining the series at this race. You can see a list of drivers here in championship order.
NASCAR – The first of two visits this year to the fairly flat (non-banked) Arizona oval. Again it is the same faces we’ve seen almost every week since February so there should be no surprises, here is the current championship order if you’d like a form guide.
I think that’s everything, any questions just ask in the comments, and good luck!
WAHOOOOOOO!!
Right so…based on my winning streak (of 1, lets not get cocky now Jon)…my strategy isn’t obvious at all 😉
Dindo Capello
Tom Kristensen
Allan McNish
Nicolas Lapierre
Will Power
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Dario Franchitti
Jimmie Johnson
Greg Biffle
Matt Kenseth
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Well done, Jon. Not sure how I finished above Sean and Startledbunny, especially as Startledbunny and I picked the same ten drivers. Also, Jon, Startledbunny and I had the same six F1 drivers.
LMS:
Rinaldo Capello
Tom Kristensen
Allan McNish
Olivier Panis
Nicolas Lapierre
Stéphane Sarrazin
Harold Primat
IRL:
Will Power
Dario Franchitti
Ryan Briscoe
Have you seen this! What are Audi playing at? Just how late will they confirm who is racing? Are they planning to use other drivers or not complete the race? So the above is a provisional list I may change later in the week. (I do realise there is a NASCAR race).
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You each scored 305 points and the ranking between the three was down the vaguaries of Excel…
I don’t see what Audi gain by being so secretive. It isn’t like the works Peugeot team are there.
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That was a poor week. Glad NASCAR is back this week
IndyCar:
Will Power
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Danica Patrick (I have a hunch)
NASCAR:
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
Kurt Busch
Jeff Gordan
Dale Earndhart jr.
LMS:
Allan McNish
Tom Kristiansen
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Thanks for letting me in last week. I’ll make sure I get it well in time this week to compensate.
Le Mans Series:
Adrián Fernández
Tom Kristensen
Allan McNish
Stéphane Sarrazin
IndyCar:
Dario Franchitti
Will Power
Justin Wilson
NASCAR:
Denny Hamlin
Jimmie Johnson
Mark Martin
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Indycar
Helio Castro Neves
Ryan Hunter Reay
Dario Franchitti
Danica Patrick
NASCAR
Jimmie Johnson
Kevin Harvick
Juan Pablo Montoya
Jeff Gordon
LMS
Nigel Mansell
Olivier Panis
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LMS
Greg Mansell
Leo Mansell
Nigel Mansell
Indycar
Dario Franchitti
Danica Patrick
Takumo Sato
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Nascar
Greg Biffle
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Kyle Busch
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Dario Franchitti
Ryan Briscoe
Will Power
Takuma Sato (when he does eventually finish a race, it should be quite high up the order..)
Jimmie Johnson
Kevin Harvick
Matt Kenseth
Allan McNish
Stephane Sarrazin
Adrian Fernandez
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Indycar
Will Power
Ryan Briscoe
Dario Franchitti
NASCAR
Jimmie Johnson
Kurt Busch
Mark Martin
Jeff Burton
LMS
Allan McNish
Stephane Sarrazin
Dindo Capello
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OK. Here goes:
IndyCar:
Will Power
Ryan Briscoe
Dario Franchitti
LMS:
Nicolas Lapierre
Olivier Panis
Stephane Sarrazin
Allan McNish
Cup:
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Kurt Busch
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Right so due to Mr Tom; I’ll swap him for Stéphane Sarrazin
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In light of recent injuries, change Kristiansen for Nicolas Lapierre
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OK, amended line up:
LMS:
Rinaldo Capello
Allan McNish
Olivier Panis
Nicolas Lapierre
Stéphane Sarrazin
Harold Primat
IRL:
Will Power
Dario Franchitti
Ryan Briscoe
NASCAR:
Jimmie Johnson
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NOTE – Tom Kristensen has pulled out of the LMS race this weekend due to injury, it looks like there will be no replacement.
All those who picked Tom can re-pick until the cutoff, which is now CHANGED to 5am UK time Saturday morning which equates to Midnight Eastern in the USA. This is to allow the American players time to make a driver change – at the time of writing I think everyone’s done this apart from Sean.
I think in future I will set the weekly cutoff at this time so that everyone has a reasonable chance to enter on a Friday evening – WRC weeks excepted.
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NOTE 2 – Two cars excluded from the results of the ALMS 12 Hours of Sebring have been reinstated. Under the rules of the ARFL points system, which TMRG uses, I believe this means they will also be reinstated within the game.
I’ll advise of any points alterations on Monday/Tuesday when I post the results.
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That was not my best week, by any means… I was questioning my decision to weight heavily towards F1 drivers again almost before I posted my entries.
Anyway, well done to Jon, and here are my entries for this week:
LE MANS SERIES
– Nicolas Lapierre
– Olivier Panis
– Stéphane Sarrazin
– Allan McNish
INDYCAR
– Will Power
– Dario Franchitti (any idea why’s he got a St Andrews Saltaire when the other Brits have got a Union Jack?)
– Justin Wilson
NASCAR
– Jimmie Johnson
– Greg Biffle
– Matt Kenseth
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I read this at 12:15 am Saturday EDT. I am not making a replacement pick because you already gave me a break and one such break is plenty…
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Scottish drivers seem to prefer the Scottish flag whereas English drivers go for the British flag. Despite disproportionate success in motor-racing, not that many people live in Scotland compared to England, many of those people favour independance for Scotland, and Scots tend to take the Scottish identity very seriously. The English flag tends to be associated with soccer support or rascism, perhaps unfairly. It would be a brave decision either for a Scottish driver to use the British flag or an English driver to use the English flag.
Technically, it is only a Union Jack if flown on a boat. Otherwise, it is the Union Flag. However, only pedants care.
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I know about the Union Flag vs. Union Jack stuff… I’ve given up pedanting over that 😉
I guess that makes sense, though it does seem a little odd that two sportsmen from the same country are listed by different flags. You wouldn’t see De la Rosa with a Catalan flag next to Alonso and Alguersuari with Spanish flags on the Formula 1 website for example… (Ignoring for this point that Jaime was also born in Barcelona, Catalunya)
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Sorry. I did assume the enquiry came from overseas. I would do an embarrassed emoticon if I knew how.
It is odd we enter some things as Great Britain and others as the individual nations. For the rugby, does not Ireland include Northern Ireland just to make it more confusing? The only similar example I know is the West Indies in the cricket but Jamaica, Barbados et cetera for the Olympics. Of course, we all know the commentators’ rule, British if they win, Scottish if they lose!
I did read something many years ago in Autosport that technically David Coulthard was not allowed the Saltaire next to his name on the car because FIA rules dictated it had to be the official flag, that is the British flag but never heard anything more. In WRC, Nicky Grist had the St. Davids flag next to his name on the car. It seems Scottish and Welsh drivers can get away with it for some reason. Of course, John Watson and Eddie Irvine used the British flag but what would a Northern Irish Catholic driver go with?
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I’ve no idea – and it has always bugged me about some drivers or some series.
Just to answer a point Sebastian made as well, Oriol Servia used to race in CART/ChampCar with a Catalonian flag, I’ve no idea if he still does (when he does race..).
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