Hello and welcome to TMR Game Week 20.
This post accepts entries for these FIVE events:
– Le Mans 24 Hours
– F1 Montreal
– MotoGP Silverstone
– IndyCar Texas Twin 275s
– NASCAR Cup Pocono
Housekeeping
Each week you pick 10 entries with a maximum of 7 of those coming from a single championship. You can have any mix of races from those listed in this post, and you don’t have to use all of them.
See this page for the game rules.
Email reminders will be sent on Thursdays or Fridays by either myself or Sebastian. Please leave a valid email address in the comment form. If you do not wish to receive reminders please let us know, otherwise we’ll assume we’re okay to send them. Also let us know (privately if you prefer) if you would like to use a different address to the one you use here. I may also use Twitter or other sites if I happen to see you there on Thursday or Friday.
Scores
| Week 19 | MotoGP | DTM | NASCAR Cup |
| Points | Catalunya | Spielberg | Kansas |
| 50 | Casey Stoner | Martin Tomczyk | Brad Keselowski |
| 40 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ralf Schumacher | Dale Earnhardt Jr |
| 35 | Ben Spies | Oliver Jarvis | Denny Hamlin |
| 32 | Andrea Dovizioso | Bruno Spengler | Jeff Gordon |
| 30 | Valentino Rossi | Mike Rockenfeller | Carl Edwards |
| 28 | Marco Simoncelli | Jamie Green | Matt Kenseth |
| 26 | Cal Crutchlow | Timo Scheider | Jimmie Johnson |
| 24 | Nicky Hayden | Gary Paffett | Tony Stewart |
| 22 | Loris Capirossi | David Coulthard | Kurt Busch |
| 20 | Karel Abraham | Renger van der Zande | Greg Biffle |
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Scores This Week
| Player | MotoGP | DTM | NASCAR | Week 19 |
| Startledbunny | 152 | 112 | 75 | 339 |
| Sean | 152 | 112 | 62 | 326 |
| Maverick | 180 | 144 | 0 | 324 |
| The Crooked Cap | 180 | 62 | 75 | 317 |
| Ryan | 150 | 94 | 72 | 316 |
| The Speedgeek | 185 | 126 | 0 | 311 |
| Sebastian X | 187 | 122 | 0 | 309 |
| Dylanpt24 | 155 | 0 | 151 | 306 |
| Felipe Gana | 152 | 74 | 76 | 302 |
| Jackie | 152 | 94 | 54 | 300 |
| RubberGoat | 148 | 96 | 54 | 298 |
| Pat W | 152 | 94 | 47 | 293 |
| No Entry Received: 80% of lowest score | ||||
| James | 234 | |||
| Jay | 234 | |||
| Mike Rice | 234 |
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Well done Startledbunny on his second win of the year, and a nice gap over his nearest competitors too.
Sean scores well as does Maverick. The rest of the field is fairly tightly bunched, apart from me at the bottom, I can’t believe I came last! I blame Ekström for crashing.
Do check the breakdown of driver scores produced by Sebastian.
Leaderboard
| Pos | Pre | +/- | Name | Prior | Wk 19 | Total | + |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | Sean | 3801 | 326 | 4127 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | Sebastian X | 3730 | 309 | 4039 | 88 |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | RubberGoat | 3605 | 298 | 3903 | 136 |
| 4 | 4 | 0 | Pat W | 3574 | 293 | 3867 | 36 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | Felipe Gana | 3548 | 302 | 3850 | 17 |
| 6 | 6 | 0 | The Speedgeek | 3453 | 311 | 3764 | 86 |
| 7 | 8 | 1 | Startledbunny | 3388 | 339 | 3727 | 37 |
| 8 | 10 | 2 | Maverick | 3380 | 324 | 3704 | 23 |
| 9 | 9 | 0 | Jackie | 3386 | 300 | 3686 | 18 |
| 10 | 7 | -3 | James | 3447 | 234 | 3681 | 5 |
| 11 | 11 | 0 | Dylanpt24 | 3372 | 306 | 3678 | 3 |
| 12 | 12 | 0 | The Crooked Cap | 3341 | 317 | 3658 | 20 |
| 13 | 13 | 0 | Ryan | 3277 | 316 | 3593 | 65 |
| 14 | 14 | 0 | Jay | 3189 | 234 | 3423 | 170 |
| 15 | 15 | 0 | Mike Rice | 2673 | 234 | 2907 | 516 |
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Sean’s second place this week ensures he extends his overall lead to 88 points. There aren’t any notable changes in the top six.
Startledbunny’s win moves him up a place, and Maverick’s third gains him two overall spots. They were aided by James not entering. These two now have a little gap over that tight midfield battle we’ve been watching for the last few weeks.
This could change within the next 7 days.
Upcoming Races
Two weeks after one epic weekend here comes another, and this one is even bigger! I have absolutely no idea how we are going to survive it.
With this many events I have to write a fair bit of text here, sorry about that!
ILMC: 24 Hours of Le Mans
Here we are, the epic annual all-day battle between Audi and Peugeot. Both have new cars which proved to be a little unreliable at Sebring and Spa. Peugeot were faster but broke down more often. And what of the ORECA car, the older more reliable Peugeot – will it outlast the factories or will they keep it behind? Will the diesels DNF and allow the likes of Rebellion and Pescarolo in to the top six? As usual this year, just pick the entry not a driver (e.g. #1 Audi, list the drivers or not, up to you).
Away from TMRG picks, which will surely all be in the LMP1 category unless you are feeling brave, the GTE Pro battle looks like it will be one to watch and it will surely keep us entertained throughout. I’m also very excited about the return of the FIA World Endurance Championship name next year, which is what the ILMC will become in 2012.
Official entry list (PDF)
F1: Canadian Grand Prix
Montreal hosts a great Grand Prix and last year when Bridgestone brought the wrong compounds, it sparked the whole ethos we have now of short-life tyres with Pirelli. It’ll be interesting to see how these tyres last on this abrasive track where braking performance is key, particularly in concert with full fuel loads and the debut of a second DRS zone.
IndyCar: Texas Twin 275s
Something of an experiment for the IndyCars, going back to a short-term format from a few decades ago ‘for the show’. Rather than a single 550km event as Texas usually is, the superfast 1.5-miler will host two races of half the distance within an hour of each other, offering half the points for each. I will do the same – half TMRG points for each of the two races, so 25 points for a win instead of 50, but I’ll round up any half-points to keep the tables clean of 0.5s.
This whole idea could be a lot of fun or it could be a disaster. The jury is out for me at the moment, the purist in me hates it but the fan of wheel-to-wheel racing action is fascinated. I must say though, I don’t like the idea of the grid for race 2 being decided by a blind draw.
MotoGP: British Grand Prix
Back-to-back weekends as the series moves from Spain to Britain, becoming the second event in a fortnight to use the new pit and paddock facilities on the new layout. The changes at Silverstone mean we don’t really have any historical form guide, but I think we can probably assume the Hondas will be up there.
Again there will be no Dani Pedrosa, and there is a question mark about the return of Colin Edwards. We could see another depleted field for this one.
NASCAR Cup: Pocono 500
NASCAR has a lot of endurance races, and this one at the bumpy old 2.5-mile Pocono tri-oval is known to go on for a good few hours. It can throw up some ‘different’ results though.
Good luck!
I Watch Too Much Racing 
Another podium, am I destined to be the Nick Heidfeld of TMR? 🙂
This week I am going to stay away from random grids I think…
F1:
Vettel
Hamilton
Alonso
MotoGP:
Stoner
Lorenzo
Spies
Dovizioso
Simoncelli
Le Mans:
#1 Audi
#3 Audi
Now watch the number #2 romp home…
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Depends how you pronounce your ‘R’s..
Here’s my entry, may change it later if I feel more adventurous.
Le Mans: #1 Audi, #3 Audi, #7 Peugeot, #8 Peugeot
(same lack of trust over #2 and #9 as at Spa.. even though they proved me wrong)
F1: Vettel, Hamilton
MotoGP: Stoner, Dovizioso
IndyCar: Franchitti, Dixon
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I will almost certainly look at this again on Friday evening, so this is my just-in-case-I-forget entry.
Formula One:
Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Jenson Button
Mark Webber
MotoGP:
Jorge Lorenzo
Casey Stoner
Andrea Dovizioso
Indycar:
Scott Dixon
Dario Franchitti
ILMC:
#3 (Audi:Capello/Kristensen/McNish)
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Formula 1:
Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Jenson Button
Mark Webber
MotoGP:
Jorge Lorenzo
Casey Stoner
ILMC:
N°3 Audi (Capello / Kristensen / McNish)
N°7 Peugeot (Davidson / Gene / Wurz)
N°8 Peugeot (Sarrazin / Montagny / Minassian)
NASCAR
Denny Hamlin
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NASCAR: Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick
F1: Sebastian Vettel
MotoGP: Ben Spies, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo
Indycar: Will Power, Graham Rahal
Le Mans: Audi #3, Peugeot 8
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A clarification which I totally forgot about when writing the post:
After last year’s Le Mans and I think at Daytona this year as well, we talked about how Le Mans would be scored.
Last year I believe I followed the official ACO scoring in which any car which DNFs is removed from the results regardless of distance completed.
After those discussions, this year I believe we agreed to run the scoring as if it were any other event on the racing schedule, that is to rank the cars based entirely on distance completed and ignore the ‘must cross the finish line or you are excluded’ rule.
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Out of interest, had we applied that last year, it would have promoted the ORECA Peugeot from 29th to 4th, and one of the Aston Lola’s from 30th to 6th. However, it does seem the fairer way of doing it since the ACO rules are just silly.
Just a minor clarification. If a retired car scores the same number of laps as one or more of the running cars, presumably, the running cars get the nod?
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I think it is fairer. Usually I try to keep in line with what the championship or event does officially, but I think it is ridiculous that a car completing a hundred laps less than another should be placed ahead of it. This is almost entirely down to some ‘retired’ cars not officially withdrawing from the race (signified by closing the garage door), so they stay listed when others who have withdrawn are removed. Rather than leave it in the hands of the teams or the officials I prefer to follow the timekeepers.
I should think a running car would have priority yes.
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You guys have it covered there with the way I think Le Mans should be scored. That’s precisely how I do it for the regular ARFL game.
My team (subject to change in the next 24 hours):
F1:
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
IndyCar:
Scott Dixon
Ryan Briscoe
Le Mans:
Peugeot #8
Peugeot #9
Audi #3
MotoGP:
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
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F1
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber
INDYCAR
Will Power
Dario Franchitti
MOTO GP
Jorge Lorenzo
Casey Stoner
NASCAR
Carl Edwards
Jimmie Johnson
LE MANS
#1 Audi
#9 Peugeot
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I am passing on IndyCar this weekend. Shootout-style restarts at Texas, IndyCar’s equivalent of restrictor plate racing, are bad enough. Adding an appalling randomized draw to start the second race is even worse. This actually manages to out-gimmick NASCAR, as at least it only did that kind of crap with the all-star race which never counted for points. I think the random starting grid for race #2 will create artificial crashes and “excitement” much like most plate races lately, so I’m not sure I trust anyone finishing. Not to mention that Indy makes me really reluctant to predict that necessarily we’ll have all Penske/Ganassi oval shows for the rest of the season.
Le Mans: 1, 3, 8, 9
F1: Button, Hamilton, Vettel
MotoGP: Lorenzo, Stoner
NASCAR: Hamlin
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Forget NASCAR and INDYCAR, the results will be way too random.
I’m going for all 3 Audis and Peugeots with a side of MotoGP and F1:
So…
ILMC:
1. Audi #1
2. Audi #2
3. Audi #3
4. Peugeot #7
5. Peugeot #8
6. Peugeot #9
MotoGP:
7. Stoner
8. Lorenzo
F1:
9. Vettel
10. Hamilton
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Ahh, top 5? Bloomin heck. Remember last year I opted for no Le Mans entries and won by miles, so, in the brave attempt of thinking lightning may strike twice…
F1: Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Schumacher
IndyCar: Franchitti, Power, Dixon
MotoGP: Stoner, Lorenzo, Dovisioso
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F1:
Rosberg
Hamilton
Alonso
Schumacher
MotoGP:
Stoner
Dovizioso
Simoncelli
Le Mans:
#1 Audi
#3 Audi
#7 Pugeot
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Can I drop Schumi please and add Vettel. TY
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Did I say Schumacher? I’d kinda like Alonso instead now. Cheers.
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New commenting system?
What are you using as I’ve been thinking about something along these lines?
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NASCAR is unpredictable, Indycar oval-races tend not to be that predictable plus Texas has a silly random grid for the second leg, whilst also the weather forcasts for MotoGP, F1, and Le Mans all suggest a high chance of rain-effected races. Does not make chosing easy.
Formula One:
Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
MotoGP:
Jorge Lorenzo
Casey Stoner
Indycar:
Scott Dixon
Dario Franchitti
Ryan Briscoe
ILMC:
#3 (Audi:Capello/Kristensen/McNish)
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Mav: The new commenting system was rolled out by WordPress the other day, all wordpress.com (non self-hosted) blogs now have it. http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/post-comments-twitter-facebook/
Here is my updated entry. Sean makes a great point about the 2nd IndyCar race being gimmicky. I’m keeping Dario though.
Le Mans: #1 Audi, #3 Audi, #7 Peugeot, #8 Peugeot
(same lack of trust over #2 and #9 as at Spa.. even though they proved me wrong)
F1: Vettel, Hamilton, Webber
MotoGP: Stoner, Dovizioso
IndyCar: Franchitti
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F1
Vettel
Hamilton
Alonso
MotoGP
Stoner
Lorenzo
NASCAR
Johnson
Edwards
Hamlin
Le Mans
Audi 1
Audi 3
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OK so….
F1
Sebastian Vettel
Fernando Alonso
Indycar
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon
NASCAR
Denny Hamlin
Jimmie Johnson
Moto GP
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
Le Mans
#3 Audi
#8 Pug
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Pat: Cheers – seems I’ll have to wait for it to be available on self-hosted… or stick with plan A
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“Now watch the number #2 romp home…”
Hmmmm…
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Mav’s psychic! rofl
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I’d like to formally apologise for putting the hex on so many drivers’ weekends by my picks this week. It is surely a miracle that Vettel never found a wall when going off on the last lap, joining the vast majority of my picks in watching the race from the pitlane/hospital. I still feel somewhat responsible for costing him the win and can only hope the stewards remedy that in order to alleviate some of the guilt I am now feeling.
Again, sorry.
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Amazing run of bad fortune for you there, I’m only a little way into doing the scores but this is probably going to hurt..
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