"Sorry" for the excessive use of "quotes" (OK, I'll stop now...) but unfortunately there will be no food here, nor will there be much that I can legitimately call an award. But anyway, here's what I'm sure some of you have been anxiously awaiting...

...the official results! First, for the race...

1 jes_ 117
2 Brown Rhino 105
3 boiler bird 101
4 penskeracing 100
5 smuff76 100
6 Merlin1976 99
7 BJWilliams 96
8 Talon64 95
9 NMan 93
10 gnome 88
11 SomeDutchGuy 85
12 2121 Vision 85
13 EarlofSpeed 85
14 HighPlainsDrifter 81
15 bmw_williams_13 72
16 Grizzlor 61
17 Andrettifan 61

For the first time all year, bmw repeated a pick (that of Andretti). Of course, Andretti had a bad race anyway, so bmw didn't really lose much... of course, if he had realized his mistake, he might have gone for Kanaan and his eventual 32 points.

It wouldn't really have mattered in the end, though, although it would have made it incredibly close...

Final Results
1 EarlofSpeed 1807
2 bmw_williams_13 1772
3 smuff76 1685
4 HighPlainsDrifter 1664
5 Merlin1976 1659
6 gnome 1658
7 jes_ 1638
8 2121 Vision 1511
9 Andrettifan 1494
10 NMan 1493
11 SomeDutchGuy 1483
12 Rand 1465
13 BJWilliams 1451
14 indychic317 1442
15 djski 1212
16 Brown Rhino 1124
17 Grizzlor 1060
18 penskeracing 1036
19 Talon64 947
20 jklyons007 821
21 AndRome 727
22 boiler bird 544
23 Indyfan2 346
24 AutoRacer5 307
25 f1racefan1966 263
26 Boxster Boy 157
27 canuck1 121
28 waterboy_09 87
29 PeterNut 86
30 thetruthbigd 86
31 JohnMc 82
32 Sabrina81 76
33 eagledale 70
34 Spin 70
35 FASTRACK 40

So congratulations to EarlofSpeed for winning the inaugural SpeedTV Boards Indycar Pool! In fact, congratulations to everyone who participated! It wouldn't have been the same without each and every one of you, and I hope you all had fun. I definitely had fun running it.

Anyway, the remainder of the "awards" (and maybe even some "prizes"!) will be presented tomorrow (read: after I finish the exam I should be studying for!). But before then, feel free to discuss, brag, commiserate, etc. What I would really like to hear was, how was this season of the pool? What did I do well, what should I improve for next year? (Yes, I plan to do this again next year!) Ideas and criticism are welcome!

Yes!!! I made the top 25! I would like to congratulate Earl for a great run, I'd like to thank bduddy for making this possible, and to all my fans and sponsors... I could not have done as well as I did with out you guys (tear).

You had fans? And sponsors?! Hey, why am I not getting a cut?

>_>

Yes,buddy thanks for all of your time and effort.

Thank you for all your time and effort this past season, hopefully we'll be doing this again next year as well.

I'd hate to think of the time you and SomeDutchGuy spent dealing with this! Thanks for all your work and the time you spent on it. It was good times.






oh and take that HPD! Couldn't catch me!

Hammer Down Racing pleased with top 10 finish
(Morrisville, N.C.)--At the end of a tumultuous inaugural Speedtv Message Board IndyCar pool, Hammer Down Racing is pleased to finish 9th in the overall standings, especially after missing the first race of the season due to an unfortunate misunderstanding with Federal authorities. Having been found not guilty of the charges, Hammer Down Racing's owner, Andrettifan, hopped onto the first Greyhound bus available to compete in the rest of the season's races.
"It was a scary time for us but thankfully justice prevailed and we were able to pull together and have a successful season," Andrettifan said in a press release. "We'll set our goals higher next year, hope to win a race or two and maybe finish in the top five. I'd like to thank our sponsors, Laphroig scotch, Yuengling beer, Davidoff cigars and Smith & Wesson for supporting the Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Special for 2009 and I look forward to their support in future years.
"I'd like to congratulate EarlofSpeed for a fine championship. I'd also like to thank bduddy and the bduddy family for hosting the world's best IndyCar pool.
"We'll be back next year and we'll put the hammer down even harder. Can't touch this!"

(End)

smuff76 - 20 October 2009 08:33 AM

oh and take that HPD! Couldn't catch me!

Yea, yea. Congrats on the podium.
Those bonus points sure make a difference. You beat me by 21, and 20 of that were your bonus points.



<makes mental note for next year>

thanks for doing this bduddy, I promise to try and make every race next year to mount a title run


SHAMELESS PLUG: make sure to go over to the awards thread and vote, you've got til the end of the month!

It was a solid year for American Freedom Racing. Had a couple tough races that dropped us out of the top 10 but it was good to rally and finish where we did. Cheers to all the hard working staff and we are hard at work for the 2010 season

After a "short" break for snacks and cocktails...it's time for the next segment of the Awards Banquet:

the 3rd Annual SpeedTV Forum Indycar Awards:

Most Improved Driver 2009
- Mario Moraes -

2009 Rookie of the Year [IndyCars]
- Raphael Matos -
(almost unanimous)

2009 Rookie of the Year [Lights/Atlantics]
- Sebastian Saavedra -

Race of the Year 2009
- Kentucky 300 -
(who knew there were this many Carpenter fans? seriously though, great race huh?)

One-Off of the Year
- Townsend Bell (Indy 500) -
(narrowly beat out the dominating job by Will Power at Edmonton; still, heck of a job to take 4th in the 500)

2009 Racing Team of the Year
- Target Chip Ganassi -
(fantastic year by this team. Chip is eating Tums by the package though about Penske having 3 cars next year)

DRIVER OF THE YEAR
- Dario Franchitti -
(Dario came back to Indycars with a vengence this year, and he will take his second DOTY award, just beating out Hildebrand, who whooped the Indy Lights series. hope to see him and former Lights-dominator Lloyd in the big cars next year)