Motorsport News International
ICP12: Call for picks for Michigan
as789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Francisco J. Diaz)
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Tue May 7 06:17:50 EDT 1996
Entries for the Michigan race (US 500) are due by midnight U.S. Eastern
time, Thursday May 23rd!!! (this should be around Friday 05:00:00 Universal
Time/GMT). So, let's get those entries in! Please, read the rules carefully and
pay special attention to the entry format and spelling! I suggest that you
print out this document and keep it close. I always get entries with either
wrong format, spelling errors or submitted too late to be allowed! Avoid these
problems, check carefully your entry and submit early! Good Luck! :-)
What is the IndyCar Pick12 contest?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is a just-for-fun contest among IndyCar racing fans on the InterNet where
each participant uses his/her knowledge of IndyCar racing to predict how
drivers will finish at each race in the PPG Cup IndyCar World Series season.
Each entry will be scored based on the results of each race. The key to sucess
is one's knowledge of the sport, insider information, and most of all, psychic
ability (in other words, luck). Keep in mind that the only thing that you win
here are bragging rights, there is no prize money or anything else to be won!
(Note that this contest only supports IndyCar!)
Ok, How do I participate in the IndyCar Pick12 contest?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Easy, just read and follow these rules carefully:
IndyCar Pick12 contest rules
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Before the qualifying period for each race begins, you must pick who do you
think will take the pole, who will lead the most laps in the race and which
drivers will finish in the top 12 positions.
2. Send a message with your picks to any of the following address(es):
as789@cleveland.freenet.edu
fdiazriv@heartland.bradley.edu
cachaco@coqui.net
All the email will be forwarded to the last email address
(cachaco@coqui.net), so feel free to send to any of them. Now, for those
with WWW access, there are a few web pages located at:
http://www.big.hfb.se/~psyko/pick12/pick12.html (rules and other info)
http://www.big.hfb.se/~psyko/pick12/form.html (fill-in entry/form)
http://student-www.eng.hawaii.edu/carina/ra.home.page.html
You can also use either one to enter the contest! Courtesy of Stefan
Soderholm and Jay Carina!!! (note that Stefan's page doesn't check for
errors, so make sure you have your picks straight when using this page,
Thanks very very much to both, Stefan and Jay, I appreciate all the work
you guys have done!) :-)
NOTE: There's no limit on the number of participants that can enter the
contest using the same address, you can have as many people as you
want using your address.
3. Here is the format for the Pick12 entry. I process the entries using a
program and you must adhere to the format below, since running this
contest isn't a full-time job, I reserve the right to reject entries that
are not properly formatted (check further below the section that states the
error handling procedure).
a. Your message should say "Pick12" (or something related to it) in the
"Subject:" field, but anything else will be acceptable and won't
disqualify you from the contest. This subject will help me sorting out
all the daily mail I receive in my account.
b. The body of the message must contain a line with the text "Player:"
(without the quotes) followed by your full name (first and last names).
NOTE: Please be careful when spelling your name; if, for example, I use
Francisco J. Diaz in one race and then change it to Francisco Diaz
later on, my program will take it as 2 different players. Also, try
not to use either nicknames or first name only, there are many
players and it might cause problems later on the season.
c. The body of the message must contain a line with the text "ReplyTo:"
(without the quotes) followed by your Internet email address. This line
will help me should I need to contact you. Please, use your *COMPLETE*
Internet email address.
d. The body of the message must contain a line with the text "Race:"
(without the quotes) followed by the *RACE* (check the list below for the
allowed races, use the list in the 1st column for the "Race:" line of
your entry) that the entry is for. Here are the races that the program
recognizes:
Race Date
~~~~ ~~~~
Homestead March 3
Brazil March 17
Australia March 31
Long Beach April 14
Nazareth April 28
Michigan (US500) May 26
Milwaukee June 2
Detroit June 9
Portland June 23
Cleveland June 30
Toronto July 14
Michigan July 28
Mid-Ohio August 11
Road America August 18
Vancouver September 1
Laguna Seca September 8
e. The body of the message must contain a line with the text "Pole:"
(without the quotes) followed by the *NAME OF THE DRIVER* (check the list
below for the allowed driver names) that you think will take the pole.
f. The body of the message must contain a line with the text
"Most laps led:" (without the quotes) followed by the *NAME OF THE
DRIVER* (check the list below for the allowed driver names) that you
think will lead the most laps in the race.
NOTE: The Pole: and Most Laps Led: picks, when gotten right, pay big
points! :-)
g. The body of the message must contain your picks, one per line, in order
from 1st to 12th place. Each pick is a position number followed by the
name of the driver (check the list below for the allowed driver names).
NOTE: Please be careful when spelling the driver's names, Fitipaldi is
not the same as Fittipaldi, and Lynn is not the same as Lyn. If you
misspell a driver's name you risk loosing the points (if any) for
such driver since the program won't know who you are referring to,
please type them *exactly* like they are listed here.
The driver names that the program recognizes are these (exactly like they
are typed here, more will be added later if necessary), if a driver that
you know is participating in the race is not listed, feel free to put it
in your picks as the list will be updated before scoring takes place:
Drivers List (confirmed)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adrian Fernandez Marco Greco
Al Unser Jr. Mark Blundell
Alessandro Zanardi Mauricio Gugelmin
Andre Ribeiro Michael Andretti
Bobby Rahal Mike Groff
Bryan Herta Parker Johnstone
Carlos Guerrero PJ Jones
Christian Fittipaldi Paul Tracy
Eddie Lawson Raul Boesel
Eliseo Salazar Richie Hearn
Emerson Fittipaldi Robby Gordon
Gil de Ferran Roberto Moreno
Greg Moore Scott Goodyear
Hiro Matsushita Scott Pruett
Jeff Krosnoff Stefan Johansson
Jimmy Vasser Teo Fabi
Juan Manuel Fangio
Here is a sample Pick12 entry:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# Here are my 12 picks, please add me to your mailing list
# (that is, if I'm not on it yet)...
Player: Francisco J. Diaz
ReplyTo: as789@cleveland.freenet.edu
Race: Homestead
Pole: Al Unser Jr.
Most laps led: Paul Tracy
1. Emerson Fittipaldi
2. Jeff Krosnoff
3. PJ Jones
4. Al Unser Jr.
5. Paul Tracy
6. Bobby Rahal
7. Mark Blundell
8. Raul Boesel
9. Scott Goodyear
10. Adrian Fernandez
11. Robby Gordon
12. Michael Andretti
h. Case is not important here, but spelling is! All lines *MUST* start in
column 1. Comment lines must start with a "#" character, everything from
the "#" to the end of the line will be ignored. You can have comments
and/or blank lines between the picks, but DO NOT PUT COMMENTS ON THE PICK
LINES! I prefer that you make comments either at the beginning of your
entry or at the end. Please comply with the format! I will *NOT* edit
entries with errors to make them acceptable. I'm sorry about this, but I
just don't have the time to edit incorrectly formatted entries. At the
most, what I can do is send you a reply stating that it is an invalid
entry, but don't count or rely on it too much as I have others things to
do (check the section that states the error handling procedure further
below).
i. Picks must be unconditional, things like: "I pick Bobby Rahal for first
place unless he isn't racing, in which case I pick Paul Tracy", are not
allowed.
NOTE: Error handling procedure
In the event that I find any error(s) in your entry, either before or
after the deadline and/or at scoring time, the following steps will be
taken according to the error(s) in question, note that no corrections
and/or changes will be accepted after the deadline (simply it's not fair
for the other players, so please make sure that your entry is correct
before sending it or if not sure you can re-submit your entry, the last
entry received and allowed before the deadline will be the one used):
1. Any entry with its Player: or Race: lines empty will be
rejected. Please, verify the spelling of the race before
sending your entry or you will not get scored by the
program.
2. If 1 or more of your picks is empty, you'll loose those
potentially valuable points.
3. If you send an entry with missing lines (not empty but
missing, ie. any of the lines required for the entry are
missing), your entry will be rejected. Excess lines will be
commented out.
4. If there is more than 1 driver for the same position, the
first driver appearing will be the official pick, thus
leaving the other out.
5. If the same driver's name appears more than once in your top
12 picks, only the first/highest occurrence will be scored.
The other(s) will be treated as if no pick was supplied for
that particular position (where it was repeated), thus
loosing potentially valuable points.
6. If you have picks out of sequence, your entry will be
rejected. Any incorrectly formatted entry will be rejected.
7. In the event you entry has a driver name spelling error, you
will loose the potentially valuable points for such driver.
Here's an example of the common errors found so far:
Player:
Race: Brasil
# Error: empty Player: line, entry will be rejected.
# Error: missing ReplyTo: line, entry will be rejected.
# Warning: wrong spelling on the race name, will not get scores
Pole: Nigel Mansell
Most laps led:
# Warning: empty position, no driver picked for most laps led
# will loose potential points.
1. Emerson Fittipaldi
2. Nigel Mansell
3. Mario Andretti
4. Al Unser Jr.
5. Paul Tracy
5. Bobby Rahal
# Warning: 2 drivers for the same position, only P. Tracy
# will count, leaving B. Rahal out.
6. David Kudrave
7. Mike Groff
9. Raul Boesel
8. Scott Goodyear
# Error: picks out of sequence, entry will be rejected.
10. Adrian Fernandez
11. Bobby Rahal
# Warning: driver has already been picked for another position,
# this position will be treated as empty.
12. Micheal Andreti
# Warning: wrong driver name spelling, will loose potential points.
In the event I find an error in your entry I will proceed according to
what the rules state, but I remind you to check your entry carefully as
sometimes many errors go by unnoticed and I can't guarantee all of them
will be found. This is being done because the problem is that many people
send entries wrongly formatted and when I notify them, the reply I get is
that they didn't read the rules. If you can enter the F1 & NASCAR
contests (very good ones indeed!), entering this one shouldn't be hard at
all, since it is based in (almost) the same stuff.
4. Picks are due by midnight U.S. Eastern time of the Thursday preceding the
race (this should be around Friday 05:00:00 Universal Time/GMT). I chose
this time so that those who have access to early practice and qualifying
information won't have an unfair advantage over those who don't. To make it
absolutely unambiguous exactly when an entry is received, I will use the
time at which it is delivered to my electronic mailbox, please, try to send
your entry early as you know how unreliable and/or slow sending email thru
the InterNet sometimes is. Entries arriving after the deadline time may be
allowed or rejected at the discretion of the organizer (Francisco J. Diaz).
You may send entries as far in advance of a race as you wish, and you may
change your entry as many times as you wish, up to the deadline. The last
entry received and allowed will be the one used.
Unlike other contests, there are no rollovers, if you fail to send an entry
for a race, or if your entry arrives too late to be counted, you will miss
the race, thus loosing potentially valuable points. This is to stimulate
everyone to participate in the contest consistently, not to hurt anyone
(just ask some of last season's players who missed 1 or more races, how
important it is to send entries on time for each race, and how it hurt them
at the end of the season).
As of now I do not have a "Return Receipt" option in my program; however, I
do send out/post an "IndyCar Pick 12 player entries report" in UseNet
newsgroups (rec.autos.sport.indy and rec.auto.sports.info) prior to, or
around the DEADLINE as an acknowledgement for those who sent entries. I will
also set a mailing list with those participants who want all the info (call
for picks, entries received report, results report and other stuff) mailed
directly to them, if you want to become part of it, let me know by putting a
COMMENT in your entry stating such (if you haven't done so yet). If you
don't want to be put on the mailing list, it is your sole responsibility to
check the list posted on rec.autos.sport.indy and rec.auto.sports.info to
make sure I received your entry, I will handle "lost mail" incidents on a
"as needed" basis. If there is a major problem in the net that prevents most
entries from reaching me, I have the right to cancel that event.
NOTE: I do plan on participating in the contest and I do have moral values
and integrity so there's no need to worry about me cheating. But just
in case there is anyone out there who doubts my sincerity, I will
include my picks in the last "IndyCar Pick 12 player entries report"
mailed to everyone. And as you might know by asking around, I haven't
done that good at all in the last 2 contests.. :-(
5. In the event of a rainout at qualification time, the starting lineup for the
race will be placed on the grid according to the current current points
standings (as I have been told the IC rules state), therefore if this
occurs, all Pick12 entrants will receive zero points for their pole pick for
that race. The race will be scored solely on the first 12 places picks and
Most Laps Led pick. This is done because most likely some people might/will
be able to tell before the dealine time when it will rain hard enough to
ruin qualification and therefore try to get the pole right using the weather
advantage, unfair to the other players.
For those races, where the teams are given a few weeks for practice and
qualification (ie. where the pole will already be determined way before the
weekend of the event) the Pole: pick won't count. All Pick12 entrants will
receive zero points for their pole pick for that race. The race will be
scored solely on the first 12 places picks and Most Laps Led pick. The
dealine will still be midnight U.S. Eastern time of the Thursday preceding
the race (this should be around Friday 05:00:00 Universal Time/GMT).
6. Players score points for each race based on how well their picks match the
actual race results. For each driver that you pick, you will score points
based on where the driver finished compared to where you predicted he would
finish, note that only if the driver finishes in the top 12 you will score
points, if it finishes 13th or lower you won't get any points at all.
Scoring goes like this:
Correctly predicted the pole winner 5 points
Correctly predicted the most laps leader 5 points
driver finished exactly where predicted 20 points
driver finished 1 place off from where predicted 16 points
driver finished 2 places off from where predicted 14 points
driver finished 3 places off from where predicted 12 points
driver finished 4 places off from where predicted 10 points
driver finished 5 places off from where predicted 8 points
driver finished 6 places off from where predicted 6 points
driver finished 7 places off from where predicted 5 points
driver finished 8 places off from where predicted 4 points
driver finished 9 places off from where predicted 3 points
driver finished 10 places off from where predicted 2 points
driver finished 11 places off from where predicted 1 point
driver didn't finish in the top 12 0 points
Now for the interesting part, the points you get as specified above will
then be multiplied by a determined number (called multiplier or weight) to give
more emphasis/importance/weight to the top picks (which works like: points
awarded based on the places off of where you predicted x multiplier of the
position where you put the driver in your entry). The multipliers work as
follows:
pole: points awarded as above x 12
lap leader: points awarded as above x 12
1st place: points awarded as above x 12
2nd place: points awarded as above x 11
3rd place: points awarded as above x 10
4th place: points awarded as above x 9
5th place: points awarded as above x 8
6th place: points awarded as above x 7
7th place: points awarded as above x 6
8th place: points awarded as above x 5
9th place: points awarded as above x 4
10th place: points awarded as above x 3
11th place: points awarded as above x 2
12th place: points awarded as above
-----------------------------------------
Maximum points possible: 1690
Your total score for a race is the sum of the points scored for each driver
in your entry. For example, if you picked Paul Tracy to finish 3rd and he
finished 3rd, you would score 20x10 points (20 because he finished exactly
where you predicted and 10 because that's the multiplier for 3rd position,
where you put him in your entry). On the other hand, if you picked Paul
Tracy to finish 3rd and he finished 5th, you would score 14x10 points (14
because he finished 2 places off of where you predicted and 10 because
that's the multiplier for 3rd position, where you put him in your entry).
Whenever the race is over and the results become official, I will tabulate
all the entries and post 2 reports to rec.autos.sport.indy and
rec.auto.sports.info (and also send them to the participants on the mailing
list):
- "IndyCar Pick12 picks scoring report", which will show each player's
ranking for the event, how his/her picks scored in the event, points
for the event and points for the season.
- "IndyCar Pick12 player standings report", which will show the
standings and some other stats among all participants.
7. Should we have any ties at any given event and/or at the end of the season,
tiebreakers will be handled in the following order until the ties are
broken:
1. Highest number of picks on position for the season (including pole and
most laps led picks)
2. Highest number of picks that scored for the season (including pole and
most laps led picks)
3. Highest event score (from any single event)
4. If there's still a tie at this point (there's always the chance that
the picks were identical), it will be treated as an overall tie.
8. The IndyCar Pick12 Champion will be the player who scores the most total
points over the season. All 16 races will count towards the total. Any
questions, ideas, suggestions, criticism, etc. can be sent to me by either
replying to this message or using the Email addresses provided at beginning.
Thanks very much for your participation and support!!! :-)
May the best competitor win!