Winners & Losers of 2011

[eduardo1]

Originally Posted by b195

Curious most improved team...

Actually, I (suspect I) understand how it works... he scored 50% more points than the previous driver in the car did in 2010 (though the car did wear a different number).

OTOH, he still only scored 75% of the points of his teammate (though the previous driver scored about 50% in 2010) and about 60% of his own pointscore from 2010 on the way to the least successful title defence in the V8 Supercar era.

So I understand how the team won the award, but I think even they might be a little embarassed about winning it... it's certainly not the intent of the award IMO (the fact it is award to one car in a two-car team is something you could also debate...). Interesting also there isn't a most improved driver award either, which to me would be a better award to have, or have both, but have the teams award be eg. Team Vodafone, or Toll Holden Racing Team, Stone Brothers Racing etc rather than just an individual car.

BTW, I don't know how the winner of the award should be off the top of my head, but there is no way I would have picked that result!

It's a misleading award - it has nothing to do with James. It's actually the REC entry that had the biggest improvement in championship positions.

The 22 entry (running 1 this year) went from 22nd in the championship to 10th.

It shouldn't have been announced as James Courtney, it should have been announced as Toll HRT.

[Woolcor]

Originally Posted by Reload

So was it Courtney,s driving skills, the car, the crew or ???

driving skills! you can't blame the crew for driving up the back or into the side of someone, which he seemed to do regularly.

I mentioned his crew later.

[Gaz170]

- Best Driver- Toss a coin between Whincup & Lowndes
- Best Team- 888
- Best Car -888
- Best Crew- no one really stood above the others, possibly Kelly 3&4.
- Most Improved Driver -Tim Slade, Moff still too accident prone.
- Most Improved Team - FPR
- Most Improved Car - Bundy racing
- Most Improved Crew - FPR
- Worst Driver (remember no bashing..) - Sorry Bargs, it's time to go.
- Worst Team - LDR
- Worst Car- LDR
- Worst Crew- Can't really go with LDR here, as it seems they are constrained by funds more than any other team. 888 for all their money made a few silly mistakes during the year which could have cost them dearly.
- Best Race - Bathurst without a doubt.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by Woolcor

driving skills! you can't blame the crew for driving up the back or into the side of someone, which he seemed to do regularly.

I mentioned his crew later.

how had his driving skills changed from the previous year, the change was the car and the crew, both which had been average the previous year also?

[eduardo1]

Originally Posted by peckstar

how had his driving skills changed from the previous year, the change was the car and the crew, both which had been average the previous year also?

On this one I'm with you Peckstar.

Given Garth Tander finished 5th in both 2010 and 2011, it's clear that HRT haven't made any leaps forward. Yet Courtney managed to bring the '22' entry up from 22nd to 10th, in his first year with a new car, a new marque and a new crew.

[Pro Racer]

Originally Posted by eduardo1

On this one I'm with you Peckstar.

Given Garth Tander finished 5th in both 2010 and 2011, it's clear that HRT haven't made any leaps forward. Yet Courtney managed to bring the '22' entry up from 22nd to 10th, in his first year with a new car, a new marque and a new crew.

not saying JC's driving ability didn't have anything to do with it as he came from about 20th to 10th from Bathurst on and thats a pretty good effort, however one would argue that Willie D became very unloved at the backend of last year once he decided to vacate & this year put his FPR chariot 6th for the year.

[b195]

Originally Posted by eduardo1

It's a misleading award - it has nothing to do with James. It's actually the REC entry that had the biggest improvement in championship positions.

The 22 entry (running 1 this year) went from 22nd in the championship to 10th.

It shouldn't have been announced as James Courtney, it should have been announced as Toll HRT.

Yep, it only made sense if it was the car/REC rather than the driver. I gather it's not actually points, rather position in the championship, which is neither better or worse I guess - depending on how other results fall, more points doesn't guarantee a better championship position, and equally a better championship position doesn't mean you score more points.

What I found out over the weekend that was interesting is that this is the second time in three years that the #22 car/REC has won the award.

2008 Mark Skaife 1644 14th
2009 Will Davison 3044 2nd
2010 Will Davison 1236 22nd
2011 James Courtney 1869 10th

(which is a little confusing because the 2008 #2 must have become the 2009-onwards #22, while the 2008 #1 became the 2009-onwards #2 - to a casual observer they might have expected the #2 was the #2 all along, if you follow :-P)

(Am I right in thinking that the last four seasons have all been 14 rounds x 300 points with the same points scoring system? If so, it shows how the same points can have different results, as Courtney would have finished 13th in 2008, 2009 and 2010 with his 10th position 2011 points haul (12 if you remove Courtney himself from those championships))

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by Pro Racer

not saying JC's driving ability didn't have anything to do with it as he came from about 20th to 10th from Bathurst on and thats a pretty good effort, however one would argue that Willie D became very unloved at the backend of last year once he decided to vacate & this year put his FPR chariot 6th for the year.

and JC brought the most important person along with him in his engineer Scott Sinclair. Hardly a totally new crew etc

[Woolcor]

Originally Posted by peckstar

how had his driving skills changed from the previous year, the change was the car and the crew, both which had been average the previous year also?

Depends on how you look at it, but the bloke went from 1st to a long-way-back 10th and was regulalrly involved in the same sort of rubbish everyone is quick to jump on Bargs etc etc for in this thread.

So you're probably right. Maybe his skills haven't changed and this year is a true reflection.