cracklyfinger.com - test site for flyingcracker.com

Am I reading the above chart correctly? SuperBestFriends has picked more Number 1 finishers than anyone else? My life may have just gotten even more complicated...

Karun = Suckon Moneymoto

Big$$ = U-Drive

We still have seven races to go and no fantasy position is safe. Everyone in our top ten is has a chance and is vying for a podium spot, so make your last seven race picks count!

SuperBestFriends picks up 43 points! Number 11 is not bad for starting on race 4.Graham increases his lead by 7 to 46. Four pickers get 40 and three get 33. Not the right race to pick Hamilton,eh. Go Vitaly! Look out for that wheel! Black flag for Schumacher? What a race!

Sorry scuderiateocalli, I called you mat. Lost my head.

Hey Mat-I wanna go to Texas (usta live in Brownsville) and I definitely have less points than you. Put me in the bowl and pick Dinkledorf. I make a mean Margarita and killer chile rellenos!

The elete 43 Club has 4 members:

graham and matbarlow (Twice)

HotRod and SuperlBestFriends (Once)

Yeah baby! Who's next?

With Red McCombs being named a primary investor in the proposed Austin Formula One Track I feel this may actually be a legitimate enterprise after all. As I have previously posted, Austin has had a series of high-profile, major announcements regarding motion picture studios, among other things, which were never realized. Given what I know today, I am thinking it is around a 50-50 proposition that this track will be built after all. My fingers are crossed... And the first person to ask and whose final points are below scuderiateocalli at the end of this season will be welcome to come and stay with us for the inaugural event.

$100,000 fine for Ferrari's team orders, I wonder if the points and standings will remain the same?

Biggest Jump: apexalex, 40 points=5 places; HotRod, 40 points=4 places to 2nd! Picks for this race the same: 2 w/ 40 2 w/ 27 and 3 w/ 23 points Ties in current standings: apexalex & Jimbo, matbarlow and racerx Graham still maintains a comfortable lead of 39 points over #2. Only 21 points separate #2 and #10. The new points system can really move things around quickly. Need more data? The JimboLog

I'm going all German this weekend, but just switched from one German to another. Good luck to everyone! Enjoy the race.

Hi everyone, remember that the Hungarian Grand Prix is just one week after Hockenheim. Be sure to make provisional picks now just in case you forget later.

Best Pickers: 89TurboTA and superbestfriends (37) Best jump: 89TurboTA (8th to 2nd) I will NEVER pick Alonso again! Did he really loose 6 positions at the start? And then a drivethru, OY!

I think that if anyone picked Kobayashi they should have gotten double points. Him in seventh, and even finishing a race, who woulda thunk. Isn't this only the third race this year he has finished??

I have updated the Jimbo Log with the correct results which does indeed shuffle some Fantasy Pickers around a bit. It should open on the Fantasy tab but all the races to date are on the tabs to the right. I saved the Provisional data under the Final if you want to see how it was.

Note - Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi, De la Rosa, Petrov, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg all had five seconds added to their race times for speeding under safety-car conditions. Glock had 20 seconds added for ignoring blue flags.

Holy Cow boys and girls, F1 has revised the results from #8 down. Alonso went up 1, Nico R +2, Massa +3! I think only Alonso (+2) and Nico R (+1) Pickers will be affected. Looks like users can only enter the results once. Sorry for the "Provisional" data, I'll try to hold my horses next time. There will be some minor shuffling on the Top Ten List, like a little 4.7 rumbling through.

How 'bout that HotRod: 43 points! DocSue and scuderiateocalli not bad w/ 40 points each too! Graham extends his lead from 24 points last race to 47 this one! We have a tie for 7th place with 89TurboTA and brickyard. The view from the podium looks good for me but Danifrog is right on my gearbox. The Top Ten have definitely shuffled again.

High point of the race: Mark Webber's major air, whoa Nelly! Kobayashi takes 2 positions on the last lap! Imagine 6 drivers in the top 10 that no one picked. What a race! As of 11 PST, F1 still reports the results as "Provisional" so things could change??

Boy did I mess up those links! BBC Nugget should now work as well as BBC Jewel. Markdown newbie llama errors.

@graham Is the "posted time" GMT? At 20:42 my time it says 03:42 tomorrow eh.

You all know about this BBC nugget? A global zoom-in view of all the tracks. (Well, some are blocked?) The way-cool thing is the car leaves a green or red trail depending on acceleration. You can briefly see the path through the corners changing color at the apex(alex).

For hot gossip and stats, this BBC jewel is win. They report "McLaren believe the upgrades Ferrari are planning to take to Valencia this weekend could give the Italian team an advantage." We LOVE upgrades! Sunny, low 80's in Valencia predicted. A little over 28 hours to P1 at this posting. Can't wait!

My favorite "Chuck Norris"-type comment about Adrian Newey on this F1Fanatic thread: "Adrian Newey only owns two pairs of shoes. He calls them his Primes and Options."

Hats off to Graham too for being among the elite top 3 that scored 43 points! Three skilled contestants also scored 37. Two three-way ties for this event. There was definitely some heavy shuffling on the Top Ten list. (Not complaining, I like the view 6 points from the podium! matbarlow has the same view of brickyard: on the gearbox!) I agree, it was most entertaining, full of racing and passing, no yellow-dog laps and great weather!

Maybe one of flaviosfinger's boys was supposed to take Button out or something, but doing Bottom Picker math, that's 18-10=8. Whereas dukedoggler did well with Kamui for -25 points. Too bad he didn't pick Senna for -18-25=-43. Dinkledorf still rules the dregs at -118! My calculations have duke at -64 and flav at -5 as of Canada. Still available at my site.

Astute comment from Jenson Button after Canadian GP qualifying: "...going flat-out every lap might not be the quickest way to get to the end of the race in the shortest possible time."

That race (the Canadian Grand Prix) was one of the more entertaining scrums of this season. Bridgestone nominally blew the tire call but the result was some very good racing. What about Schumi getting lapped, finishing behind Force India and out of the points!? At least Nico helped the team. Congrats to Force India for their first ever top ten finish for both cars.

Hats off to SuperBestFriends and matbarlow for their astute picks for the Canadian GP. And for the second time in a row all (real) players in our series got points for both of their picks. Nice job everyone.

My apologies to Kubica, slipped a cog I reckon. Rain is still predicted, who knows how much action the walls will get. Gee, and we can watch it live!

@jimbo your "top ten" somehow left out Kubica in P8 ahead of Sutil. Hats off to the Force India team, let's see if they can make it stick.

Our top 10: Hamilton Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Button, Liuzzi!, Massa, Sutil! and Rosberg Hot Diggity!

@Jimbo if a player changes their pick, the guess time is updated accordingly. It shows the time of your most recent selection. I'll consider your idea for ties, thanks.

Regarding ties: How about, like F1, there aren't any. Of the two (or more) tied contestants, who had the most 1st place picks, then 2nd and so on until there is a victor. In the event of still being dead even, then they have to come to Cracker HQ and have a drinking contest. Last man standing!

The new features are great! What if one changes his pick? Will the 1st or last time and date display? I like how the wall hits go w/ the drums and cymbals in the video. Nice mixing.

Nice Grand Prix du Canada "Wall of Champions" video compilation from our friends at Axis of Oversteer.

Recent fantasy site improvements:

• As you can see in the event detail pages, we now display the date and time you made your picks for that event.
• Series standings now reflect all results even if some results are not yet approved by the series admin.

We haven't yet figured out (programmatically) how to assign series standings ties.

"provisionally updated", I like that! Nanee Nanee 89TurboTA, me 'n Mat are breathing down 4BktVet's neck wheel to wheel. Some people got negative points, but that's not zero. FYI: HotRod is pulling out of Jimbo's driveway in the early AM tomorrow (Monday).

What a good race... I thought lots of us were getting 43 points but instead Vettel took himself out and pushed Webber to third. I'd like to have heard the private conversation between those two afterwards! My feeling was Seb didn't have it made and forced the issue, and that may affect the championship result for both drivers and constructors. And who would have guessed Kamui Kobayashi would score his first points of the season in Turkey?! Certainly not dukedoggler and flaviosfinger.

One cool note about this race, everyone who made picks got points - there were no guessers who totally blew both picks. So good job everyone, way to stay on top of your game.

Soon I'll implement a few more site updates including a method to indicate ties. This week matbarlow and Jimbo should both be shown as (5) in the pink. [89TurboTA, "in the pink" is Jimbo's nomenclature for a top ten standing.] Another thought is that the standings should be provisionally updated when race results are entered. That way you can see our standings before I get around to verifying the results.

Sorry Jimbo, but after looking at the standings you are still trying to get into the pink! You did get lucky and score good this weekend, but it's gonna take another weekend of luck(and teammates running into each other) for you to come back. Good Ruck!

Graham still rules! Go Graham! Top 3 scores this race: Dalio-40, SBF-35, Jimbo-33 Finally, I'm back in the pink, tied w/ Mat Barlow for 5th. Check your mirror 4BktVet, we're coming on. I'll bet Vettel got a hell of a scolding, eh? Dinkledorph is dominating the bottom at -100. To download the bottom-picker's data browse to this page.

The new features on the Fantasy site are dandy Graham! Very cool. Guess I should look into the markdown syntax so I can take advantage of the increased bitchiness. Great race day: F1 and Indy!

[edited by graham to insert the backmarker link]

Dinkledorph here just getting under the wire with my bottom picks. No one can catch me now.

Lynda and I were totally surprised by this news -- there has been zero information and/or publicity about plans to bring F1 to Austin. Of course, we are excited and have our fingers crossed that this will actually happen. I hate to sound negative, but Austin has a history of grand schemes being announced, backed up by contracts of one kind or another, only to discover that six-months later the developers are gone and nothing has happened. Wish I could be more optimistic -- but this whole thing just doesn't "smell" right. When I hear anything substantive in the days ahead -- either way -- I'll post it here.

Formula1.com has announced that F1 racing will return to the United States in Austin, TX in 2012! Apparently the track and facilities will be specially built for F1 racing. Who woulda thunk it?! Did scuderiateocalli have anything to do with this?

The eagle-eyed amongst our fantasy players might have noticed a few small site changes lately.

First, we now give feedback that you picked drivers for a race. After you click "Submit Picks" you should see a box near the top of the page, "Your picks have been saved." If you don't see that acknowledgement then your pick was not saved.

Second, we now show the race guess deadline on the race page. We also show the date and time you entered your picks, if applicable.

Third, the 2010 Formula One main page now shows the next race and guess deadline. If you have not made any picks for the next race an alert appears, otherwise your current picks are shown. This is my favorite improvement.

Finally you can preview your comment before posting. This helps when using the new comment formatting (see the markdown link) which allows text highlighting, bullet lists, web page links and more.

We hope you like our little improvements. Please feel free to suggest your own ideas, either by email or here in the comments. Thanks.

What a bummer for all the Lewis Hamilton fans... a puncture in the next to last lap?! Fickle-fingered hand of Fate indeed.

What can we say about Nico Rosberg? He needs to get back in the short wheelbase chassis and forget about what Schumi is doing. Lead, don't follow.

My favorite F1 fan site these days is F1 Fanatic. Keith doesn't have a good fantasy system (compared with cracklyfinger!) but he's got a well-informed user community and informative blog posts. Highly recommended.

Eeeehaw!

Very nice Mat Barlow! Thanks Graham! CrLf 2 practices down 1 to go. Don't think I'll be up at 2 for real time so my picks are in. Funny that Hamilton and Vettel swapped 1st and 5th in practice 1 and 2. Can you say 1 2? How 'bout Glock and Senna, eh?

Hey, if any of you F1 fans wondered about matbarlow's bona-fides, check out this footage posted on Axis of Oversteer: http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2010/05/up-in-the-air.html. Nice work Mat, let us know when the HD version is posted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HFvF-QfTo&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HFvF-QfTo&feature=player_embedded

Ferrari Steering wheel.

Check out the line-up for tomorrows Moto-GP race. The times amongst the front-runners are unbelievably close. So awesome to see Nicky battling Stoner so tight this year. Looks like a year of learning the torque-monster Ducati has allowed him to challenge up front again!! 8 am ET Pos Rider Team Time Gap 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m39.202s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m39.487s + 0.285s 3. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m39.511s + 0.309s 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m39.558s + 0.356s 5. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m39.560s + 0.358s 6. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 1m30.591s + 0.389s 7. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.970s + 0.768s 8. Ben Spies Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.989s + 0.787s 9. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m40.021s + 0.819s 10. Marco Melandri Gresini Honda 1m40.027s + 0.825s 11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m40.206s + 1.004s 12. Hiroshi Aoyama Interwetten Honda 1m40.322s + 1.120s 13. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 1m40.416s + 1.214s 14. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 1m40.482s + 1.280s 15. Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati 1m40.555s + 1.353s 16. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda 1m40.586s + 1.384s 17. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati 1m40.803s + 1.601s

Were Button (9 picks)and Vettel (11 picks) favorites? How about 5 people got 33 points, 5 got 26 and 4 got 20. Some crazy numbers. No ties in the total score though. Bahrain and Malaysia had one tie but there were 5 Fantasy positions tied in Australia! Where will it all go? Gleefully, I am back in the pink (top 10)!!

I was just going to watch the start, maybe first few laps. I was up til 2, glued. The head was bobbin a bit at the end there but I made it thru live. I noticed that the Live Timing seemed to lag a little. I wonder how live it is? Seconds, minutes?

How bout that fat and feisty Russian, eh? Petrov scores 12 points! Seems like all the other names are somehow similar but PETROV is soo Russian. I like saying PETROV, PETROV. What a race! Button rules! Nico's cool. What's up w/ the Ferrari engines? Holy cow, they blew a bunch of 'em!

I've noticed that the Fantasy data and graph graph don't go negative which does not reflect the other end of the scale. I have proposed that the three low-ball pickers (dukedoggler, flaviosfinger and Dinkledorph) get negative points mirroring the other end. The first driver out gets -25 points. So like this race saw Glock, Liuzzi and Kobayashi on the bottom of the podium.

I have created an Excel spreadsheet that does include this data. It should open w/ the fantasy tab selected. The other tabs are copied from Formula1.com. I recommend selecting save and then opening it. It will change after each race but the link will be the same. Check it out. http://personal.linkline.com/jrowler/FantasyLog2.xls

Go Nico! I am glad to see him on the podium two weeks in a row.

My IRL race review from the barber motorsport park, last Sunday: A female commentator sitting way up high on a bar stool? That seems kind of silly... along with most of the interviewer questions - just plain silly. Good to see Takuma Sato doing well. Most cars did three pit stops, that certainly upped the strategery quotient. The car camera moves! The vaunted "IRL non-stop!" coverage is a) not particularly easy to see, b) frustrating when something does happen because then you're really pissed off about the commercial break, c) not non-stop! Several times I saw a complete break in action for full-screen commercials. Dead cars can be towed to the paddock, repaired and returned to the track for more laps. The race "strategist" interviews, live during the race, were pretty nice, the guys demonstrated remarkable candor about their situations. Good touch. And finally the "overtake button"? From what I gathered, you get 9 HP for a limited time, after which there is a "reset" period when you can't use the button. You get to press the button 20 times during a race. It's useful for passing and blocking and becomes part of your strategery. Bottom line? I like Speed's commentators much better, IRL has better camera work and in-race interviews. As for IRL's car passing versus F1? Well frankly it's better than F1. I don't know if it's the magic button or what but they just seem to be able to make passes more frequently in dicey situations. I like F1 better on a whole but IRL has better passing.

IRL review from the barber motorsport park quallys. On-camera interviews, ad speed. On-screen graphics, ad VS. Driver personalities, equal. Danica factor, 0%. Drivers as role models, ad clean-cut IRL. Driver accessibility, ad VS. But their drivers are boring and all spout inanities. Best forward promotion, ad VS with, "coming up next, PBR Encore..." - I can only imagine. General commentary: ad Speed - David Hobbs at his most sloshed talks circles around those goofs. Looking forward to viewing the actual racing.

Damn it, I dropped Webber this time and look what happened. Oh yah, no snivelers.

Best comment by a commentator during today's race: "He's as fit as a butcher's dog." (Referring to Sebastian Vettel)

Westbury Gillet aka token anglophone is terrible, and hilarious all at the same time.

As for highest DNF rate, you'll have to ask forix.com for that one. I'd wager Olivier Panis' win at Monaco in the Prost has to be pretty high up there.

Best comment by a commentator during today's race (re. Sebastian Vettel): "He's got some mighty big attachments."

I never imagined my pre-race prediction of 8 drivers out of the race would get exceeded by 25%! Ten drivers never made checkers. Paging Kamui Kobayashi: please double check your front wing nuts before your next stint! Can anyone tell us the highest single race DNF total in F1 history for a completed race?

Wow, our fantasy field just got a lot tighter! 4BktVet and racerx tied for first, followed closely by Jimbo in today's, much more exciting, race.

Now seriously, Vettel goes out from an uncontested lead?! That's just crazy. Maybe Red Bull's ride-height suspension "trickery" failed, putting a grin on Martin Whitmarsh' face. Or maybe it was another spark plug failure. No wait, they're saying it was a loose wheel nut.

Will someone please tell Lewis Hamilton to grow up?

Perhaps the biggest laugh of the race on SpeedTV was Westbury Gillett talking to a grid girl about her cheeky outfit, all while quite obviously leering through the mesh down into her cavernous cleavage. Atta boy, Wes! If the drivers won't talk with you, might as well make time with the ladies.

Formula 1 is the absolute pinnacle of automotive technology -- so why do some of the team radios sound worse than two tin cans strung together with string?

I want to party as hard as Jimbo,,so I made my pics now as well. Thanks Graham for the reminder ! How about a photo of Matt and the C.F 2009 F1 Trophy ? Keep an Eye in your Mirrors,,,,,,, Hot Rod

Welcome back Jimbo. The logo we are referring to is the new cracklyfinger.com logo displayed top left, courtesy of matbarlito. scuderiateocalli is used to docsue's lectures, we're private pilot buddies from way back.

"Where's slacker when you need him?" Jimbo, I hate to tell you but "brickyard" is a reincarnation of last year's "slacker". I had a problem with password reset before the race and so let slacker create a new persona.

I'm really proud of how everyone who guessed got two drivers in the points. That certainly didn't happen last season. Get your picks in early for next race!

I finally crawled out from under my blanket of doom and have ventured to the comment box. Holy cow! Who woulda knowed? The very bottom of the pile! Yikes! Where's slacker when you need him? Only one picker got 1 and 2, Go Graham! Straight to the top! Are we referring to the F1 logo at formula1.com? And no scuderia, only points for picking winners. If you wine too much, you may get a lecture from docsue. Well new guys, I'm Jimbo, also know as Rowlee, a friend of Gillman's who lives in the CracklyFinger neighborhood (aka-FlyingCracker HQ). I live in Claremont CA so I get to go to the Winternationals and the Finals for a nitro fix at least twice a year. I drive a '64 4 door Chevelle wagon which has been to Gillman's Hot Rod Lodge. I work in the automotive industry and love internal combustion, eh! F1 is the pinnacle of IC, aerodynamics and all that increased bitchiness.

More on Vettel's spark plug: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/vettel-s-engine-failure-leads-to-poor-reliability-claims-for-renault-18086.html

Hey -- don't I get any points for picking the pole winner in the first Formula 1 race of the season? Can't wait until the next race...

Thanks for entering the results Jimbo and great new logo matbarlow. Frankly I thought the race was a tad boring. Too bad for Vettel, a bad spark plug is a terrible way to lose first place. Massa and Alonso are looking strong, yeah baby! I wonder how the provisional engine change will affect Ferrari later in the season. Welcome OTBMP, 89turboTA, kapt and brickyard. Tell your racing fan friends about our league, missing one race isn't a huge handicap based on our results last season. Just a reminder, it's wise to make provisional picks now for the next race just in case you forget later on.

I guess my rubbing my lucky 2009 Cracklyfinger F1 World Champion trophy only gave me medium luck with my guesses this weekend... Better watch out though!

How about that new points system?! Makes for crazy reading when you're used to the old system. I guess it wouldn't change much if applied retroactively though. Crazy that Ferrari has 40something points after only one race though.

Also, welcome newbies to the game!

How about that sweet new logo?

Whoa! Nice pickin docsue and new-guy OTBMP! (OnTopBigMountainPeak?) 2nd and 3rd aren't bad picks either Graham! We're off and running. How about those Ferraris, better than last year, eh? Tomorrowcould be full of fail. Hot and Heavy. About 6 hours to race time, I'll be asleep. What time is viewing at FlyingCracker Headquarters? Will the Ramos Fizz be on the breakfast menu? Welcome new fans: OTBMP, 89TurboTA, 4BktVet, kapt and brickyard! So where's racerx and slacker? Have you seen Berni's new watch? (http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/3/10521.html) Maybe FC should order three of these babies for this year's Podium finishers.

US F1, R.I.P.

@scuderiateocalli - of course you can change your guess, anytime before the guess deadline listed for the event. I believe CT is -6/-5 from UTC. As mentioned last season, it's best if you make a provisional guess for the next race when the current race ends and you check results. That way, three weeks later after you slurp too many margaritas friday night and forget, you at least have a chance at points.

I'm assuming I can change my early picks anytime prior to the race deadline. Yes? If not, I'm probably already screwed...

I can't wait for the season to start...