Shoutbox

Ok, we're all fired up and ready to go, as are the contests we want to run for 2005.  All details about the group and the contests are below.

Main group server
news://news.thegraveltrap.com [need to find the "tgt" groups and select "subscribe"

Direct links
news://news.thegraveltrap.com/tgt.public.tgtchat
news://news.thegraveltrap.com/tgt.public.tgtxl

The top group is for all general discussion, and the second group is for anything posted that is going to be over 100KB is size.

As wel as these two groups, we are running a series of contests during the 2005 season, the details of which are below:-

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CONTEST DESCRIPTIONS
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BackMarker Scramble [BMS F1]
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An entry post for the BMS will be posted after final qualifying has finished. To enter, all you have to do is log onto the contest selector and choose BMS F1 from the menu of listed games and select one driver that you think will have the biggest improvement to their finishing position over their qualifying position.

For the final score, it is a simple case of [start position] - [finishing position] = [points scored].

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BITS F1
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An entry post for BITS F1 will go up by the Wednesday before a race weekend. Before the first session of qualifying starts, you must select 2 drivers [team-mates if you wish, but CANNOT be the same driver] and your choice of Chassis, Engine and Tyres. ALL choices EXCEPT tyres have a limit of 2 selections for the entire season, so as the season rolls on your choices for each section will gradually get more limited. Try to earn as many points by picking smart and not always going for the obvious choice. Points are scored using the F1 scoring system [10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1] for each component EXCEPT tyres, which is a 5 point bonus for the tyre which scores the most points based on the F1 scoring system.

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BETS F1
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An entry post for BETS F1 will go up by the Wednesday before a race weekend. Before the first session of qualifying starts, you must select from a choice of 15 possible scenarios, all with odds ranging from 1:1 to a maximum 50:1. You will have a starting balance of $190,000 to play with, but a race weekend limit of $15,000 or 5 scenarios, whichever comes first. If you join the contest after round 1 then your balance will be reduced by $10,000 per round that you missed.

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TIPS F1
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An entry post for TIPS F1 will go up by the Wednesday before a race weekend. Before the first session of qualifying starts, you must select your choice of the top 8 drivers for the race & qualifying, as well as what you think will be the pole-time. You must also pick who you think will set the fastest race lap, who is leading at the mid-point of the race and who ends up as the first retirement.

The fastest lap, half distance leader and first retirement are all 5 point bonus categories. Get it right, score 5 points per section, get it wrong and score nothing. The pole-time works on a sliding scale. If you are within 1 second of the actual pole-time (above or below it) you score points. Within 1 tenth score 10 points, 2 tenths score 9 points, 3 tenths score 8 points, etc.. down to within 1 second and score just 1 point.

If you make a mistake with your choices, or you suddenly feel the urge to switch a driver for somebody else, just log back into the selector, make the changes and send your adjusted entry to the newsgroup entry post. The only contest that won't allow this will be the BETS F1, so make sure that you are 100% happy with those choices before you confirm them.

For all of the contests, if a driver is disqualified of penalised in some way then the contests results will be adjusted to reflect the adjusted results of the race.

The contest selector can be found at http://www.thegraveltrap.com and ALL contest related entry posts and information will be posted to the newsgroups at the top of this message.