Hello and welcome to TMR Game Week 22.
This post accepts entries for these 4 events:
– F1 Valencia (European GP)
– IndyCar Iowa
– NASCAR Cup Sonoma
– MotoGP Assen
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
Results
| Week 21 | IndyCar | DTM | NASCAR Cup |
| Points | Milwaukee | Lausitzring | Michigan |
| 50 | Dario Franchitti | Martin Tomczyk | Denny Hamlin |
| 40 | Graham Rahal | Timo Scheider | Matt Kenseth |
| 35 | Oriol Servia | Bruno Spengler | Kyle Busch |
| 32 | Will Power | Gary Paffett | Paul Menard |
| 30 | Danica Patrick | Oliver Jarvis | Carl Edwards |
| 28 | James Hinchcliffe | Jamie Green | Ryan Newman |
| 26 | Scott Dixon | Tom Kristensen | Tony Stewart |
| 24 | Takuma Sato | Felipe Albuquerque | Clint Bowyer |
| 22 | Helio Castroneves | Christian Vietoris | Mark Martin |
| 20 | Justin Wilson | Maro Engel | Brian Vickers |
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This Week’s Scores
| Player | NASCAR Cup | IndyCar Series | DTM | Week 21 |
| Pat W | 86 | 102 | 143 | 331 |
| Sebastian X | 30 | 106 | 185 | 321 |
| Maverick | 0 | 159 | 162 | 321 |
| Sean | 108 | 95 | 111 | 314 |
| The Speedgeek | 55 | 146 | 103 | 304 |
| Jackie | 49 | 108 | 143 | 300 |
| RubberGoat | 19 | 119 | 157 | 295 |
| Startledbunny | 42 | 143 | 103 | 288 |
| Ryan | 46 | 137 | 103 | 286 |
| James | 40 | 112 | 93 | 245 |
| Felipe Gana | 49 | 138 | 53 | 240 |
| Dylanpt24 | 109 | 107 | 0 | 216 |
| No Entry Received: 80% of lowest score | ||||
| Jay | 173 | |||
| The Crooked Cap | 173 | |||
| Mike Rice | 173 |
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I’m pleased to score a win, it wasn’t expected at all this week! Sometimes I think have a decent chance at a win, this week I thought a decent midfield score would be good given the competitiveness of a NASCAR/DTM week.
Sebastian and Maverick tie for 2nd, I placed Sebastian ahead for having a higher ‘series’ score with the DTM but Maverick did take more 2nd-place drivers (they both picked two winners) so there’s an argument for placing him higher.
Jimmie Johnson’s poor result hurt a few people this week, he only picked up 3 points for the 6 people that picked him.
Dylan, Felipe and James had relatively poor weeks.
Do check the more detailed sheet produced by Sebastian which this week features a great table showing each driver’s scores from the two IndyCar races.
Leaderboard
| Pos | Pre | +/- | Name | Prior | Wk 21 | Total | + |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | Sean | 4375 | 314 | 4689 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | Sebastian X | 4319 | 321 | 4640 | 49 |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | Pat W | 4143 | 331 | 4474 | 166 |
| 4 | 3 | -1 | RubberGoat | 4172 | 295 | 4467 | 7 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | Felipe Gana | 4125 | 240 | 4365 | 102 |
| 6 | 6 | 0 | The Speedgeek | 4058 | 304 | 4362 | 3 |
| 7 | 7 | 0 | Startledbunny | 4022 | 288 | 4310 | 52 |
| 8 | 12 | 4 | Maverick | 3896 | 321 | 4217 | 93 |
| 9 | 10 | 1 | Ryan | 3924 | 286 | 4210 | 7 |
| 10 | 11 | 1 | Jackie | 3898 | 300 | 4198 | 12 |
| 11 | 8 | -3 | James | 3951 | 245 | 4196 | 2 |
| 12 | 9 | -3 | Dylanpt24 | 3930 | 216 | 4146 | 50 |
| 13 | 13 | 0 | The Crooked Cap | 3822 | 173 | 3995 | 151 |
| 14 | 14 | 0 | Jay | 3554 | 173 | 3727 | 268 |
| 15 | 15 | 0 | Mike Rice | 3038 | 173 | 3211 | 516 |
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As we approach the halfway round of the game, Sebastian has reduced the gap to Sean by 7 points. I’m pleased to have jumped back into the top three (sorry Gavin!).
Maverick has reclaimed the four positions he lost a week ago. That group remains as tight as ever although they are dropping Dylan slightly – still time to catch up though.
It was actually fairly tight in the midfield scoring this week, ‘Geek and ‘Bunny both made another points gain on the trio ahead of them (that’s Speedgeek’s third consecutive week reeling group I’m in).
No position changes until 8th where all hell broke loose. James and Dylan are up two spots, next up is Ryan who gains 3 places with his big win. These three gain at the expense of Jackie, Mav and Crooked Cap. There are still only 55 points between James and Crooked Cap so that group has a lot of fun ahead of them!
Feel free to point out anything I might have missed here!
Upcoming Races
This is the halfway point of the TMRG season and my hasn’t it rolled around quickly? No rest this week, we have four races to choose between.
F1 – European GP
There hasn’t been a good F1 race at the Valencia street course yet although Rubens Barrichello had a good shot at it once, and there was that Alonso Safety Car drama last year but that was just a normal F1 rules controversy rather than actual racing. Hopefully the Pirelli/DRS combo will have a positive effect here, sadly there are two DRS zones which is annoying and may make for easy meat.
IndyCar – Iowa
From one short track to another, this time the 7/8ths of a mile Iowa Speedway. The banking and angle of the turns makes this drive like a small superspeedway track, that’s to say fast and flat out! After only a few years of running there is already a huge bump (in turn 1 as I recall), so that’ll make things ‘interesting’ for the drivers. Remember this is a Saturday night event (2am for us in the UK.. may skip that one).
MotoGP: Assen
Dani Pedrosa is still injured and is likely to skip this round (tbc at the time of writing), but Hiroshi Aoyama has been promoted to his ride for this week. Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi is slated to take Aoyama’s seat at Gresini. Hopefully this will be a good race, it can be a very good one but it can also be a bit flat and with so few quality riders/bikes out there in the series this year I’m not confident. This is a Saturday afternoon race.
NASCAR Cup: Sears Point, Sonoma
The first of two road courses on the Cup schedule so those with a road course racing background should do well but it doesn’t always work out that way. I’m not sure if there are any ‘ringers’ in the field especially for this race? Might be too early to know for sure. Do also keep an eye on the Nationwide Series race at Road America on Saturday for more NASCAR road racing.
Good luck!
I Watch Too Much Racing 
Tomy Drissi, Tony Ave, Andy Pilgrim, P.J. Jones, Brian Simo, and I think there’s a rumor that Boris Said will replace Cassill in the #51. Those are the road course ringers for Sears Point.
I don’t believe any of them are in good enough cars for using them to be worthwhile especially with so many other series from which one can pick. Full-timers like Montoya, Ambrose, perhaps even Allmendinger? Damn straight. But with guys like those full-time in the series, not to mention the established guys like the Gordons, Stewart, and Kyle Busch, it’s hard to justify taking any of the ringers this time. Even Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, and Kasey Kahne are probably worth taking over any of those ringers. Now if they were in equal cars, maaaan would Pilgrim especially mop the floor with the others.
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Cup: Ambrose, Ky. Busch, Montoya
F1: Hamilton, Vettel
IndyCar: Franchitti, Kanaan
MotoGP: Dovizioso, Lorenzo, Stoner
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F1
Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Mark Webber
INDYCAR
Will Power
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon
MOTO GP
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
NASCAR
Juan Montoya
Tony Stewart
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Congratulations to Patrick who tends to be modest when he wins. I thought I was up for the win and a few more points against Sean until TK stuffed it. How come this year Tomczyk gets demoted to an older car and Green gets promoted yet the former is shining and the latter struggling to do as well as the last couple of seasons?
Formula One:
Sebastian Vettel
Jenson Button
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
MotoGP:
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
Andrea Dovizioso
Indycar:
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon
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I’m changing Kanaan to Dixon…
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Good info on the Cup drivers Sean, thanks. I was always going to go for JPM and Ambrose but wondered about any others. 🙂
Cup
Montoya
Ambrose
Johnson (I remember he wasn’t too shabby last year after the Rolex Series stints)
F1
Vettel
Webber
MotoGP
Stoner
Dovizioso
Lorenzo
IndyCar
Franchitti
I’m going to take Kanaan 🙂
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Single digits baby!
F1: Vettel, Hamilton, Button
MotoGP: Stoner, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Simoncelli
IndyCar: Franchitti, Dixon
NASCAR: Kyle Busch
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Ouch, last weekend was tough for my team…! :O
F1
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Moto GP
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
IndyCar
Dario Franchitti
Tony Kanaan
Will Power
Scott Dixon
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MotoGP: Ben Spies, Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi,
F1: Sebastian Vettel
Indycar: Will Power, Tony kanaan
NASCAR: Jeff Gordon, Juan Montoya, Marcos Ambrose
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F1
Vettel
Button
Webber
MotoGP
Stoner
Lorenzo
IndyCar
Franchitti
Rahal
Dixon
NASCAR
Ambrose
Montoya
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Man, I did ok but stuffed up on my NASCAR picks. As a protest, I shan’t pick any this week. Also I’m not sure about the F1 as it’s a street race…
F1
1. Vettel
2. Button
3. Alonso
MotoGP
4. Stoner
5. Lorenzo
6. Dovisioso
7. Rossi
IndyCar
8. Power
9. Franchitti
10. Dixon
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Slight rethink.
Formula One:
Sebastian Vettel
Jenson Button
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
MotoGP:
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
Andrea DoviziosoBen Spies
Indycar:
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon
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Yeah baby, I’m back in the game! Dovi’s fall in the MotoGP has made my decision making a little easier but he’ll probably go and win it now that I’ve said that. So with me boycotting NASCAR once again, I’ll go with
F1
Sebastian Vettel
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
INDYCAR
Will Power
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon
MOTO GP
Casey Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo
Marco Simoncelli
Ben Spies
p.s. 321 points is 321 points but: “I placed Sebastian ahead for having a higher ‘series’ score with the DTM…” why use the DTM difference rather than the IndyCar or NASCAR? I’d probably let NASCAR decide it given the larger field but just wondering what your thinking was.
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F1:
Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
IndyCar
Dario Franchitti, Will Power, Tony Kannan
MotoGP:
Ben Spies, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner
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F1:
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber
Jenson Button
IndyCar:
Scott Dixon
Dario Franchitti
MotoGP:
Casey Stoner
Marco Simoncelli
Andrea Dovizioso
NASCAR Cup:
Juan Pablo Montoya
Tony Stewart (he’s sure to be freshly reacquainted with road course stuff after those high-speed laps in Lewis’s McLaren last week)
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Because it was the higher number, because I felt like it, because it is just a game, and because it doesn’t really matter.
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I know I like to hide in the background but I seem to have gone all anon with the avatar above, how odd
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Dylan only picked 9 drivers.
We’re faced with choice of leaving it as it is or arbitrarily topping it up based on most recent picks. Yesterday I was thinking about leaving it as a warning as to what happens if you forget. Today I’m a little less militant so maybe it is better to go back through the previous picks until we find a driver racing this weekend not yet picked. That’s Castroneves from two weeks ago. I haven’t seen the IndyCar result yet so I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing!
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