2021 TCH Contest Results

[fastbackss]

Here are the results after the first race.

We had 10 horses in the gate to start. We're missing two of our stalwarts, Jeff and JustWinBaby - hopefully they will join us.

Martinsville was a conundrum for us pickers. It had been relatively predictable, with few outliers. This race had some surprise entrants...plus a number of incidents that took out contenders. For the first time that I can recall - EVERY person got at least one zero.

That kept the scoring low. Mod11Racer and I had the best regular score with 36. Only four players had regular scores in the 30's even (the average was below it). Bonus points propelled me to the early lead. Blake is in 2nd place.

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*Note - MJ Procko should have a 10 point deduction for being slightly late in getting the picks in during the practice session. I have noted it, but not assessed at this time.

[fastbackss]

Well that was a veritable train wreck.

Blake was the only one to get pole points. That should have been a sign that things were going to go sideways.

Coby, Bonsignore, Silk, McLaughlin, and Preece all finishing 11th or worse doomed our scores for the week.

It was nearly 9 points lower on average than the first race - despite having 7 or so less cars to choose from. And it was less deviant - meaning we were consistently worse. Every player who picked both races did worse in the 2nd.

(JustWinBaby should be in 10th. There is a spreadsheet glitch that will fix itself once he gets another race result).

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[MJProcko]

I was asleep in my hauler and missed the driver's meeting. I accept my penalty.

[fastbackss]

Normally Riverhead is a critical race in our year-long challenge. Typically the player who can identify the “Riverhead local” that does well can be successful.

Well, this week none of them were. And a number of us loaded up on them. Coupled with Preece doing poorly, and we had some low weeks. We also saw a fair amount of people getting pole points.

Blake and JustWinBaby took the week title with 30 points. This helped Blake ascend to the top of the rankings. Mod11Racer is two points behind and would be the overall leader if not for the aforementioned pole points.

Jennerstown is next…and I suspect we might finally see some higher points.

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[fastbackss]

Jennerstown provided a return to normalcy. Big points (everyone got 36 or more). To provide a frame of reference - 36 points had only been attained TWICE so far this season. Not to mention - every entrant scored points for qualifying. So - good job!

This is partially attributed (in my opinion) to a sparse entry field. There were only 20 drivers. Every driver picked, except for one, finished 11th or better. (There were none of those dreaded 1 point 14th place efforts).

TourMods ascended to the lead on the strength of 55 points. To show how tight the field is, Blake dropped from 1st to 7th.

Racing returns in 2 Saturdays.
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[fastbackss]

This is why I need you all to "check my math." An astute participant noticed that his pole points were not being added in.

Upon further inspection - nobody had them added in! They were part of the sorting criteria, but excised from the formula for points.

This had an impact as it moved RBH to the top of the scoring pylon.

Have a good day,
-Mike

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[fastbackss]

okay - i will take some time to vet the technical gremlins after next race.

The TOTALS after drop in the first one were correct, but the totals before drop were not.

These are unofficial for now.
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[fastbackss]

A bizarre week of picks to match a bizarre week where one of our stalwarts was off defending the honour of NASCAR's oldest division.

Coby's absence with a substitute, Preece+Hirschman showing up, broke up some of the predictability. We saw varied scores, with the highest standard deviation of the year to date (and guess what - Riverhead is next).

Our point leader (TourMods) submitted twice. Luckily for him they netted the same total! That could have been catastrophic (only the later submission is counted).
Our 2nd place point sitter (Mod11Racer) decided to pull a Coby and sit out. This plummeted him to 8th in the standings.

The new standings find a 3-way tie for 2nd. There are 5 people within 20 points of our leader.

Short turnaround this week- so make sure to get your picks in!
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[fastbackss]

Some fun facts from the Riverhead results.

All 11 participants got pole points. 10 of those from Bonsignore, 1 from Coby.
All 11 participants had a driver who did not finish in the Top 15. Unfortunately 6 had 2 drivers who didn't, and thus got the double zero.

This meant that the results were bimodal. Five participants scored between 44 and 49, led by our fearless point leader with 49. The six with two zeroes all got between 30 and 36.

TourMods stretched his lead slightly and now has a month to thumb his nose at us...as we impatiently await New Hampshire.

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[MOD11RACER]

A bizarre week of picks to match a bizarre week where one of our stalwarts was off defending the honour of NASCAR's oldest division.

Coby's absence with a substitute, Preece+Hirschman showing up, broke up some of the predictability. We saw varied scores, with the highest standard deviation of the year to date (and guess what - Riverhead is next).

Our point leader (TourMods) submitted twice. Luckily for him they netted the same total! That could have been catastrophic (only the later submission is counted).
Our 2nd place point sitter (Mod11Racer) decided to pull a Coby and sit out. This plummeted him to 8th in the standings.

The new standings find a 3-way tie for 2nd. There are 5 people within 20 points of our leader.

Short turnaround this week- so make sure to get your picks in!
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Sorry about the mix-up leading to me not scoring any points. I was traveling and my wife did put may picks in under the first TourMods entry and forgot to say that entry was for Mod11racer. I wonder if she did that on purpose. LOL

[fastbackss]

Hmm. what do we think folks? this seems like we should allow it...

[Moa57]

No issues here.

[Moa57]

Hmm. what do we think folks? this seems like we should allow it...

No issues here.

[fastbackss]

It shall be resolved with the points totals from the next race

[bobgabes]

No issues Here

[fastbackss]

New Hampshire threw a wrench in the results for many.

First, there were a number of interlopers. Second, there was the first lap crash. Third, there was Doug Coby's blown engine.

Six of us had 2 drivers not score points. All of us had at least one (Coby).

Couple that with the plethora of solid choices for pole points that didn't manifest (Coby, Preece, McLaughlin, Newman) and we had some tumult in the standings. Only one of us got into the 40's (nice job bobgabes) and five us didn't escape the 20's. One of those was our (former) point leader TourMods who had a week that should be forgotten.

StevieGoodyear ascends to the top of the leaderboard. The top 5 are only separated by 13 points.

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[fastbackss]

A short field usually means tight points. Whilst the standard deviation was reasonable, we did see some high scores. What did they have in common? They were the only players to pick "uniquely" - Rypkema, McLaughlin, Hossfeld. So good on you.

Coby not recovering would have been even more devastating on our group, especially for those who had him winning. 9th place salvaged some of our days.

The battle up top is really tight now, 1 point separating the top 2. Pole points still making the difference.

It's a short week, so get after it back in "standard land" - i.e. CT.

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[fastbackss]

This was a big week in our group. It was the highest average score for a race this season...by nearly six points!

4 of us exceeded 50, and all of us exceeded 42. (42 would have been the high score in four of the nine races so far).

We also saw the highest individual score of the season - 59 - by one MJ Procko. For what it's worth - the highest race score available is 61. Patrick Emerling finishing higher by 2 spots would have been perfection.

The top of the group has some small amounts of breathing room. Six points from 1st to 2nd, nine points from 2nd to 3rd, five points from 3rd to 4th, and eight points from 4th to 5th. 5th through 8th however are separated by four points total.
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[fastbackss]

A short field usually provides jumbled results. This was no exception.

All drivers picked except for two finished in the top 10. They were Goodale (11th) and McKennedy (finished outside top 15 meaning no points). Beyond that the scores didn't have a lot of variety...so it was some form of "did you have Bonsignore winning or low top 5." Surprising (to me at least) is that nobody eclipsed the 50 point bogey. When I saw the results I presumed someone would have. Nobody had Silk winning, so it proves how important the 15 points are to that maximum score.
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(Sidebar to the results above. Stevie Goodyear got a pick in before the deadline, but after practice/qual. The highlighted cells indicate that a 10 point penalty is looming. Neither affected player has had 10 points deducted. Yet.)

[fastbackss]

We have a tie for the lead!

We have a tie for third!

The leaders have pulled out to a few car length lead (14 points).

Bobgabes pulled into contention with a strong effort, the only competitor to get points for all 5 positions. This was 9 points higher than the nearest players. Bobgabes' score was enough, by itself, to add 1.6 points to the standard deviation.

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Unrelated tip of the cap to JustWinBaby for getting 42 in three straight races.

Reminder it's a short week, so get after it.

[fastbackss]

Well that was exciting.

Bonsignore, Silk, Santos, Emerling - ZERO points amongst them. Wreaked havoc on our picks - everyone got at least two zeroes and most got three.

MJProcko was the only player to get three picks with double digit points, which carried to the week's victory.

Four players got Bonsignore as the polesitter though, which helped soften the blow. It also continued to help Stevie Goodyear keep up. There is now a tie for the overall lead. Bobgabes is lurking in third only 7 points behind.

Blake didn't get any picks in, which all but ended the chances to keep in contention.

We now go to Riverhead, which is known to have some outliers, and Stafford, which usually has a high car count. Two weeks from today we'll have a winner!

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[fastbackss]

Well that was crazy. I looked at the results and thought “there will be some pure chaos in the standings.” I could not have been more incorrect.

Our gap, from top to bottom, was only 4 points. It was the lowest “deviating” race I can recall, at 1.4 points.

This did little to change the standings.

TourMods has a one point lead over Stevie. Bobgabes is 7 points behind. Their respective drops are 17, 15, and 21. It is unlikely those will change so it should come down to this race. Pole points could swing it for sure. TourMods has a 1point per race higher average, but has lagged in the pole points department which decreased the deficit.

Furthermore, Blake was the only person to score pole points. If Blake had scored well at Richmond he would be in the hunt.

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[fastbackss]

And just like that, the season has ended.

This Stafford race was the "middle" of the three.

One Stafford race had the highest scores. One Stafford race had the lowest.

TourMods held on to the lead held for much of the season, and secured it with a stout 44 points. TourMods had, by far, the most points in the races with 536. The next closest was 521. Pole points brought it closer.

The top of the standings stayed in the same order, but got a little closer. Uniquely, the top 4 and bottom 4 stayed in the exact same order. The "mover" in the last race was Blake who jumped from 7th to 5th in the overall standings. (Blake would have been close if not for the missed race. Blake would have had to score 48...which happened a lot this year, just not in the race he missed where the high was 36).

Stevie Goodyear finished 2nd. Bobgabes finished 3rd. The tech inspectors are still evaluating Stevie's one late pick, which would have swapped that order.

RBH had the most pole points, followed by bobgabes, and Mod11Racer.

Thanks for playing and hope to see you all next year. We'll discuss format early in 2022...hopefully the naysayers are wrong about the health of the Tour for next year.

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[RBH]

Thanks for running this, see you next year.

[scott]

Same here. Hopefully way better.

[MOD11RACER]

A Big Thank You:

For all of your hard work putting this together.

My Offer still stands for next year.

Maybe we can get more people involved.

Craig Gabriele

[fastbackss]

The more the merrier!

(Both contest and car count)