Fantasy WRC Review: Finland

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures) 08/06/2013 at 14:39 • Filed to: fantasywrc, rally

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Rally Finland is the fastest event on the WRC calendar (in fact of the 10 WRC events with the highest average speed 8 of them are WRC Finland), for this reason (and the fact that it's absolutely littered with jumps) it tends to be a fan favorite. It's also a fun event from a fantasy perspective because it historically favors Scandinavian drivers (they made up half of this year's top 10 and have won 24 of the past 30 rallies) and there tend to be a fair number who rent WRC cars and come out just to run this event. This year, however, is Ogier's and woe to those who bet against him (namely Orlove and myself). Here's an absurd stat for you, after eight rallies Ogier has only been beat by a driver in points contention once, with that one event being Acropolis where he was hit with mechanical issues. So effectively he's won seven of eight events. At least the Loeb-bot had the decency to pretend he had mechanical issues, wasn't fast enough to win, or "accidentally" crash on occasion in order to prolong the title fight. Mathematically speaking Ogier could clinch the title as early as the next round. If he wins (and the stats say he probably will), Latvala and Neuville, who are tied for second, will need to finish in the top four to prolong the championship for another event. Fourth place Hirvonen would need to not only win the rally but have Ogier finish third or worse to stay in the hunt. At least the ERC battle is still interesting.

Sorry, I got off on a tangent there, let's talk fantasy points. Big week for Sliding Sideways, McNewbie, and Hermann, all of whom correctly picked the final top 4. Unfortunately Hermann loses seven points for making picks after the rally started (in the future points lost for being late will be 7 for the start plus 5 for each stage started before picks were entered, y'all have been warned), but he still handily takes third on the week.

Rally Finland results:
1. Sliding Sideways - 76
2. McNewbie - 74
3. Hermann - 63
4. Nobody - 59
5. World Rally Blog - 56
6. Dusty - 31
7. Orlove - 31

Points standings through Rally Finland
1. Nobody - 383
2. McNewbie - 372
3. Hermann - 366
4. Dusty - 347
5. Sliding Sideways - 299
6. Bobololo - 227
7. Orlove - 215
8. Bob Loblaw - 169
9. World Rally Blog - 59
10. Reigntastic - 39

Average points through Finland:
1. World Rally Blog - 56.00
2. McNewbie - 53.14*
3. Hermann - 52.29*
4. Sliding Sideways - 49.83*
5. Nobody - 47.88*
6. Bobololo - 45.40
7. Dusty Ventures - 43.38*
8. Bob Loblaw - 42.25
9. Reigntastic - 39.00
10. Orlove - 35.83*

*Has entered enough fantasy events (6) for score to be official.

Raphael Orlove > Dusty Ventures 08/06/2013 at 14:48

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I'm last in average points! Wooooo!

Hermann > Dusty Ventures 08/06/2013 at 14:52

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Darn it! I agree with these rules, fair enough. But I really didn't see the post, and since you were unable to tag it I couldn't find it. Probably I scrolled right through or didn't even scrolled through it. I was gone already when it was posted. Crap. What do you think about scheduling posts as soon as the entry list comes out?

Anyway. Rally Finland is always awesome. It's a bit scary to look at the dash cam videos, because of the proximity to trees (and piles of logs), but also so absurdly awesome because it's just very damn fast. Finland is definitely the land of Rallying.

dinobot666 > Dusty Ventures 08/06/2013 at 15:12

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I thought rally Sweden had the highest average top speeds, due to the cars being able to slide against the snow banks in the corners.

Dusty Ventures > dinobot666 08/06/2013 at 15:58

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Nope. Sweden isn't even close, due to overall lack of grip

Dusty Ventures > Hermann 08/07/2013 at 00:39

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I know, the post wasn't tagged and I realize that made it hard (fortunately the new mobile editor will prevent that issue in the future). I'm going to try to be more timely with my fantasy WRC posts and intended to have this one out a full week in advance but getting ready for my own rally took all my time.

Hermann > Dusty Ventures 08/07/2013 at 07:28

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No worries, man. You're already doing all us so much for planning and keeping all this.

I could help on further races, if you want.