FRC 2012 - Year in Review

[joeb]

Congratulations to Chiana the 2012 FRC Champion!

This thread is going to be where I post some of the highlights of the 2012 season. It may include some different ways to look at scores, or whatever else I can come up with!

To start out with here are the final scores:

Name	Total_points
Chiana	194
The Badger	178
isynge	176
skycafe	165
cptkablamo	164
Lebanza	161
Victor_RO	149
911targa	146
Nick49	142
fieldofdreams79	131
FordCosworthPanoz	130
joeb	120
Prometheus	117
kober	108
protopuma	89
Gingers4Justice	65
jo1998sh	64
hoppelemine	43
Aysedasi	39
Bentley03	35
Canada ALMS fan	32
R4z3rw33n	26
Beetle	20
C6R Racing Fan	18
morningview66	18
GAMEOFGUTS21	15
JasonM3	0

I want to thank every one of you for participating this year. I am really looking forward to next season. There will be some changes in format for next year. Nothing to crazy, but check out the Prediction Competitions sub-forum for updates throughout the off-season.

[joeb]

We had a long and grueling FRC season this year that combined the entire ALMS and WEC schedules - with a spattering of ELMS races thrown in there. We had a total of 27 different forum members enter, with the highest participation being Sebring with 22 entries and the lowest was Shanghai with 9 entries. I attribute the general reduction in entries throughout the season to the length of the season - both time wise and the number or rounds.

The average scores per round varied quite a bit as well. Not surprisingly the highest scoring rounds were the double and triple point rounds of Petit, Sebring and Le Mans. The lowest point scoring rounds were Donnington and Silverstone. What was going on in the UK?

Round	Total Points	Number of Entries	Average score/person
Sebring	454	22	20.6
Paul Ricard	111	19	5.8
Long Beach	116	17	6.8
Spa	103	19	5.4
Laguna Seca	154	17	9.1
Le Mans	375	21	17.9
Lime Rock	145	14	10.4
Donnington	67	15	4.5
Mosport	131	15	8.7
Mid-Ohio	122	13	9.4
Road America	95	13	7.3
Silverstone	61	13	4.7
Baltimore	68	10	6.8
Brazil	85	12	7.1
VIR	95	11	8.6
Bahrain	104	13	8.0
Fuji	61	11	5.5
Petit	120	11	10.9
Shanghai	72	9	8.7

[joeb]

Here is a list of the Round Winners:

Round	Round Winner
Sebring	FordCosworthPanoz
Paul Ricard	cptkablamo/hoppelemine
Long Beach	Chiana
Spa	FordCosworthPanoz/The Badger/Nick 49/Bentley03
Laguna Seca	FordCosworthPanoz
Le Mans	Aysedasi
Lime Rock	skycafe
Donnington	isynge
Mosport	Nick49
Mid-Ohio	isynge
Road America	lebanza/isynge/Beetle
Silverstone	cptkablamo
Baltimore	911targa
Brazil	The Badger
VIR	joeb/911targa/Lebanza/isynge
Bahrain	911targa
Fuji	isynge/Nick49
Petit	Chiana
Shanghai	Victor_RO

Nobody had more than 2 solo wins, but if you take co-round wins into count then isynge had 4 round wins.

There were 2 signature wins in that group that really stood out to me. The first was skycafe winning the Lime Rock round by picking all 5 ALMS class winners outright - no partial picks! This had never been done before and may never be duplicated. The second win that stands out is Aysedasi's win at Le Mans. He played one round and then retired into the sunset!

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by joeb

There were 2 signature wins in that group that really stood out to me. The first was skycafe winning the Lime Rock round by picking all 5 ALMS class winners outright - no partial picks! This had never been done before and may never be duplicated. The second win that stands out is Aysedasi's win at Le Mans. He played one round and then retired into the sunset!

I balanced things out by being abysmal at other rounds, including I believe putting a P1 car down as P2 winner at one round of WEC.

Let's not tell this Aysedasi about this contest next year, he scares me.

[isynge]

First off thanks to joeb for running an absorbing competition, that this year has been impressively all encompassing and comprehensive. It's certainly been an additional area of interest come race weekend time.

In retrospect it's been intriguing seeing how often from my perspective my picks were driven by a combination of a desire to see something different happen, and by affinity for particular squads, rather than a balanced approach looking at maximising the points haul - so in the ALMS in particular I'd generally back Conquest over Level 5, figuring that I'd like to see them win, and in the event they did, it would give rise to a decent haul that wouldn't have to be shared with too many others.

I'd be interested in what sort of approaches others take - any especially interesting systems out there?

[joeb]

My picks were often similar (in though process)to your's isynge. I picked cars that I thought would not be the popular picks. Although my position arose from falling behind early on in the competition. I often picked ESM, and when I stopped they won....

[Victor_RO]

I tended to go based on recent form, although I often put in various Porsche teams for wins in GT/GTE based on previous races only to see them suffer. And generally trying to cover a wider basis by picking as many cars as possible on the double- and triple-point rounds.

[Deleted]

Yet, taking risks often leads to the big points... being too careful can be costly.

What a great season, I only wish I had done better at Sebring (just look at my score there!!!) and some other rounds. But I guess I've got nothing to complain really. Good competition from both isynge and Badger, if only FCP would've stayed with us a little longer - he was a worthy opponent.

Not sure if I'll do full season next year. To be honest I've kinda lost interest to WEC and (the corpse that is) ELMS - don't even mention the Asian LMS. So I may just do the ALMS rounds + Le Mans. I've gotta reduce my racing following next year anyway due to 'other commitments' so it's gonna be tad trickier - I've already promised myself that I'm only gonna watch the events I really, really care about 'cause this year was a bit overkill. But we'll see, maybe I'll do all of the rounds nevertheless and just pick the cars half-randomly on some of the rounds without really following the races - something I've never really done before.

thanks again joeb

[Deleted]

Oh one more thing, if you just combine all of the ALMS events together, who scored most points in those alone? What about WEC? ELMS?

Just asking for fun, it's sorta like the Oval and Road course trophies in Indy - no-one really cares and they mean pretty much nothing but it's nice trivia

[joeb]

I have broken down the points by series in which they were scored. This meant pulling apart the Sebring round into its two components - lots of fun!

Anyways, skycafe was the ALMS champion with 112 points. The Badger was the WEC champion with 81 points, and isynge was the ELMS champion.

Name	ALMS Points
skycafe	112
Chiana	105
isynge	97
The Badger	91
Lebanza	90
FordCosworthPanoz	84
Victor_RO	81
cptkablamo	80
911targa	79
fieldofdreams79	73
Nick49	72
joeb	70
Prometheus	65
protopuma	43
jo1998sh	32
hoppelemine	25
kober	22
Beetle	20
Gingers4Justice	19
Canada ALMS fan	18
R4z3rw33n	14
Bentley03	12
morningview66	10
C6R Racing Fan	6
JasonM3	0
GAMEOFGUTS21	0
Aysedasi	0

Name	WEC Points
The Badger	81
Chiana	80
kober	78
cptkablamo	70
isynge	62
Nick49	61
Lebanza	60
911targa	57
Victor_RO	55
fieldofdreams79	54
skycafe	47
Prometheus	42
joeb	40
Aysedasi	39
FordCosworthPanoz	37
protopuma	35
Gingers4Justice	30
Bentley03	23
jo1998sh	19
GAMEOFGUTS21	15
C6R Racing Fan	12
R4z3rw33n	10
hoppelemine	8
morningview66	8
Canada ALMS fan	6
Beetle	0
JasonM3	0

Name	ELMS Points
isynge	17
cptkablamo	14
jo1998sh	13
Victor_RO	11
protopuma	11
Prometheus	10
joeb	10
hoppelemine	10
Chiana	9
Nick49	9
Lebanza	9
FordCosworthPanoz	9
kober	8
Gingers4Justice	8
Canada ALMS fan	8
The Badger	6
911targa	6
skycafe	6
fieldofdreams79	4
Aysedasi	0
Bentley03	0
GAMEOFGUTS21	0
C6R Racing Fan	0
R4z3rw33n	0
morningview66	0
Beetle	0
JasonM3	0

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Not sure if I'll do full season next year. To be honest I've kinda lost interest to WEC and (the corpse that is) ELMS - don't even mention the Asian LMS. So I may just do the ALMS rounds + Le Mans.

Next year will likely see separate FRC competitions for WEC and ALMS. I'm not sure ELMS and AsLMS will be part of the FRC.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by joeb

Next year will likely see separate FRC competitions for WEC and ALMS. I'm not sure ELMS and AsLMS will be part of the FRC.

Thanks, this would really suit my needs then.

As for those individual results of this year - not too bad with the ALMS for me, considering the fiasco that was Sebring

edit // technically PLM was an ELMS round too but I guess you cannot really count it here

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Thanks, this would really suit my needs then.

As for those individual results of this year - not too bad with the ALMS for me, considering the fiasco that was Sebring

edit // technically PLM was an ELMS round too but I guess you cannot really count it here

You're right about petit. But I didn't count elms p2 as a separate class during FRC.

[skycafe]

I get a kick out of this, I am surprised I did that well at ALMS. I know I really s*cked at Sebring.

I really have never looked at making choices based on trying to out maneuver others. Sure there is some sort of potential advantage, but so many things have to fall into place, and the nature of racing over long distances has so many complications with passing different classes, weather, etc.

I don't think of outdoing other's picks by going a different way because with the three voices in my head I have enough crazy input. You have logic, chance and sentiment all haunting and competing in your head.

If those early season entrants that leave after a few races are reading this, please try to stick around next year. If you look race by race, the results go back and forth. Everybody has a bad round, and the person that has a bad round leaves the door open for someone else to have a good round.

[Deleted]

As some of you have noticed, I tend to make my picks almost immediately after the thread is started - I do NOT take into account what others pick, nor do I pay attention to any of the practice sessions. Yes I often make some late modifications to my picks, but only after I've learned something new (for example Bleekemolen driving in GTC) or my pick had withdrawn.

My picks are based on the following:
1) I calculate how well the team has done so far this season,
2) I calculate how well the team did on this circuit last year (if possible), and if this particular circuit suits the particular model/team - for example Falken on street circuits
3) I check if there's a guest starring star driver like Dalziel on the cockpit
4) I check the latest ACO and IMSA Balance of Performance sheets
5) I see if there's rain in the forecast
6) I see which entry Chief Tucker prefers this time round and whether he may decide to park the other car + estimate how Conquest is going to screw it up this time round
7) I pick #4 Corvette automatically for ALMS GT win, no thought process behind thay (except Long Beach this year, what was I thinking); same with IMSA Performance for European events

Regular WEC rounds are easier as the results are more predictable and races more boring (IMO)

[fieldodreams79]

I don't know how you keep up with this, but much obliged for running the show, joeb

[Bentley03]

Yes, this year was certainly something of a marathon. A HUGE thank you joeb, on behalf of everyone on 10Tenths!


And, sincere apologies for my own woeful lack of support for the competition this year.....must try harder next year.

[The Badger]

Worried about losing another pint James ?