Our first ever Sidepodcompetition drew to a close on Monday night, and we can now announce the winner! I know, it's taken quite a while, more on that in a moment. For now, many congratulations go to Chris Harland.
Chris correctly answered the question:
Shell have a unique FMT formulation that is one of the added benefits when using V-Power fuel in your vehicle. What does FMT stand for in this instance
Answer:Friction Modification Technology
The tickets are now winging their way to Chris, and on Sunday he'll be at Earl's Court watching the Top Gear Live show unfold. Clarkson and Co. plus plenty of action awaits him. We're looking forward to hearing all about it upon his return.
We had a great response to the competition, 40 entries through the new and rather snazzy form, plus a couple via email. Nobody got it wrong, and there were plenty of submissions from names we haven't seen before... Hello lurkers! Why not join the real-time conversation? We'd love to hear from you.
When it came to selecting a winner, things didn't go exactly according to plan, as Chris was the name we pulled from the hat at the second attempt. Unfortunately, we didn't get a response for the initial winner, which caused all manner of trouble given the tight deadline we were working to. Thanks go to the lovely people at Edelman and Shell, for not only allowing us to run the competition but also for going beyond the call of duty and fast-tracking tickets to the winner at the last minute.
Thanks to everyone who took part, and please do have a go at whatever Sidepodcompetition pops up next.
This time last year, following on from the Brazilian GP, half our attention was on newly crowned champion Lewis Hamilton, while the other half was on race winner Felipe Massa. The Brazilian had been astoundingly gracious in defeat, losing as he did, the world driver's championship on the last corner of his home Grand Prix.
One year on and all of our attention has been on Jenson Button, who won the championship in style this weekend. The two contenders who just missed out on the title haven't had much look in, not to mention the race winner, Mark Webber.
All the pictures I've seen of the young Sebastian Vettel have featured melancholy expressions, and never a smile. Even in the team photo celebrating Webber's win, where everyone is supposed to cheer loudly, Seb doesn't appear to be in a cheerful mood.
It's understandable, of course, that he is sad to have missed out on the title, but he had already thrown his toys out of the pram on Saturday. A terrible qualifying session wrote him out of what would have been a really tough fight back to the win anyway, so he must have realised that it was asking the impossible. Surely he can't still have believed he would be still able to do it come Sunday? He didn't hold back when it came to post race soundbites either:
"Second is the first loser. I don't really care about second or third."
Compare Seb's mood to Barrichello, though, who has been the perfect gentleman in the face of losing not only his shot for the title but also his second place in the standings. With one race left to go, he has a chance to grab that back, but he wasn't thinking of that. In the Brawn shots, he's smiling, he's happy. He lent Jenson his private plane for goodness sake.
Part of me prefers Rubens' attitude, it is certainly more constructive. He knows it was Button's fight to lose and is happy for his friend. However, I do quite like the fact that sulky Vettel isn't hiding away is his feelings. We often ask for our drivers to show more emotion, we can't be mad when this happens. Even if it does mean he won't be smiling for a few days.
What do you think? Did Massa raise the benchmark for magnanimity in defeat, and did the home crowd raise Barrichello's spirits as it did Felipe's a year earlier? Should Vettel be cheered or chastised for making such dejected comments?
After the unbelievable job everyone in the Fantasy Racers league did last year, we're doing it again in 2009.
This time out we're defending champions. No longer will the rookie tag wash, we're professionals now and we know what we're doing... unless you didn't enter last year, in which case, you may be excused.
Signup
As before, the details you need to sign in to the league are as follows:
Yup, that's Franck with a 'c', and because it caused no confusion whatsoever last year, so why should it this time around?
If you haven't done so already you'll need to create an account, which can be done so by selecting the Register option. It's free to join, but a donation will see you upgraded to Preferential status allowing you to hide your strategies from other players.
Rule Changes
As if to mimic Formula 1 yet further, the rules have been slightly tweaked in '09 in order to provide closer racing. Of note, you begin with a 40m starting budget, but drivers prices fluctuate based on popularity amongst all competitors in the game. The challenge will be to buy low and sell high and this should add an extra dimension to proceedings.
While Away the Hours
As mentioned, last year the Sidepodcast community brought home the award for Top Private League, and Jordan led us home with string of fantastic point hauls.
The game provided endless hours of entertainment, and we're hoping to spend even more time on it this year. We highly recommend everybody signs up as early as possible and as ever, please let us know your teams in the comments and we look forward to racing against you all season.
Following on from that speech, and thanks to the generosity of both Jordan and Dan, the above trophy found its way to our doorstep this morning.
The question now is, what should we do with it?
It would be nice to have it on display during the live show, but that is one heavy object, and I can see us struggling to perch it on top of the microphone stand. It's already mighty crowded up there, what with Bibendum, a panda, a pop shield and, well, a microphone. We don't have any shelving to hand either.
At some point we're planning to introduce multiple camera angles into the live show, so maybe we need a "trophy cam" that we can cut to for a moment of serenity or something?
Suggestions on a post card or in the comments please.
Update: In my haste to post this earlier, I forgot to mention the very lovely engraving.
It reads: Fantasy Racers Winners '08. Thanks to Christine & me from the Motley Crew.
After nine exhausting months of relentless planning and scheming, after many incredibly late nights spent incessantly berating the competition, a winner was declared in Brazil. A champion worthy of the name, a person who can stand up and say "I fought with the best, and came out the victor".
Yes, shortly after the dramatic conclusion to the season last weekend, Jordan Allen was declared the 2008 winner of the Sidepodcast Fantasy Racers League. Not only did the man beat 163 other competitors fair and square (without the need for a stewards inquiry or any FIA intervention), he also helped secure the trophy for the most successful private league against some fierce competition from members of the Autosport forums.
Earlier last week we asked Jordan to pen a few words to let us know how he was feeling, but the man went one better and recorded a speech for us. Therefore, without further ado, allow us to present an Oscar winning performance from the fastest racer in town, take it away Mr. Jordan Allen:
That Speech in Full
I was about to start my speech with "Friends, Countrymen, Earthlings - lend me your ears", but then I realised that I would have freshly harvested corn thrown at me.
I am bitter-sweet about the Brazilian Grand Prix. I am not too impressed with Glock since he was in a position to affect the championship no matter what he did, and I wished he did it by a more positive fashion from his point of view and tried to defend his position. Glock let Toyota and myself down by not defending against Vettel or Hamilton.
Congratulations go out to those who managed to secure themselves temporary membership to the "Group of Five" club. The list is long but distinguished. But there is even a more elitist club, the Sidepodcast League's Top Scorer of the Race club, so everyone bug myself or Alianora, or G.R. or I think Alan Wolfe for the key to the room. There's a nice bar and snooker table... but God, you Brits need to bring a refrigerator or an icebox so there's a chance the beer can be kept cold. It's basically a sacrilege to us foreigners that the beer is not kept cold.
With regards to the outright winner of the Sidepodcast league? While I was in first place during the competition, I was being chased by tons of very beautiful lassies. It was unreal. I would have stopped and waited for them to catch up but I noticed their husbands and boyfriends also closing in, and so the chase resumed.
After Brazil, imagine my let down to realize that I was no longer being chased by anyone. Nor was I, but rather the trophy, the object of this pursuit.
And finally, on behalf of myself, Dan Cross, and all the other members of the Sidepodcast family, we like to present to you, Christine, and "me", this trophy for the most successful league of 2008, in recognition of all the hard work and the amount of free time, holidays and nights lost while maintaining this web site.
To butcher the speech of a far greater man than I will ever be, way back when Sidepodcast was just an idea in the back of your heads, you had nothing to offer us but "blood, toil, tears, and sweet". We have seen the excellent results without the use of blood. And for this we declare: "Never, in the field of podcasting, has so much been owed by so many, to so few."
Hopefully this trophy will at least, pay the interest.
Bye for now, have a nice day and I'm still somewhere between Nassau and Miami. See ya soon.
We've been building up to this for an entire season, and really, it all comes down to the first corner. Massa has the edge over his rival and starts from pole position. Hamilton is where he needs to be in terms of points, but in the middle of a very busy pack. 100 yards and a left hand bend, and the race can be won or lost.
Of course there are 71 laps after that, and with uncertain conditions, it really is anyone's guess as to what is going to happen. Amazingly, Trulli put his Toyota in second position on the grid. I have no idea what their strategy is, are they really that competitive, are they running light to get into the mix, do they even have a plan? I will be fascinated to know what Trulli's gameplan is and whether he will become the Ultimate Trulli Train for yet another Grand Prix.
Aside from that, we have Kovalainen just ahead of Alonso, meaning their battle is going to be intense. My money is on Alonso, of course, but perhaps Kovi will put in a last ditch super drive to save the face of himself and his team.
Further back, Kubica couldn't qualify well for the second weekend in a row. He's obviously struggling with his car, which is unfortunate, as Heidfeld has just started to get to grips with his. He's just in front of Coulthard, who was also hoping for better for his last race. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he can stay out of trouble and have a nice clean race. It doesn't look like scoring points will be an option, but you never know, and it'd be nice for him to go out in style (because the new livery isn't helping).
Let's get on with it then, here are some links that might be useful:
Please let us know where you are, how you're watching, and what your predictions are, and don't forget to make full use of the Live Commenting Live... Thing.
