Front Page

The Teams

    The season's over, the Cup and the fame awarded, champaign corks popped, and the media coverage has all ended. Now the draft is coming up, what to do next? How should I spend my contracts? Should I spend my contracts? Well Grass-hoppa, read on and hopefully gain a touch of insite (whilst I shirk my responsabilities at work writing this).
    Your first descision is how to use your contracts. Under the present construction of the rules your contracts are "use or lose" so unless you absolutely despise everyone on your current team you need to pick two somebodys to award those too. I'd start with those who have talents you like, but watch those with two, three, or more injuries. Odds are increasingly likely that they will take a career-ending injury during the season and you'll be stuck wasting his signing bonus and paying overhead on him anyway until the end of the season. Don't bother with rookies, even if they don't get re-signed by you they're easily replaceble (hey, it's only money, right?)
    The draft itself is your only real opportunity to build your team as you want it for the coming season. If the season schedule is set already then you have an even greater advantage since you can tailor your team to the events as well as your playing style. If a lot of races are scheduled for next season then try and focus on competitors with lots of driving and agility talents. If, on the other hand, you see lots of special events (esp back-to-back ones) then perhaps shooting for those with Gunnery talents isn't a bad idea. Getting two or even three competitors with the same kind of abilities gives you pretty good depth in your roster so you can consistantly field the abilities you need. If you're pretty far down on the draft order you may find the field pretty well picked over by the time your turn comes up. In those cases try to keep in mind what talents you could use to counter the ones everyone else grabbed already. I wouldn't waste an early round draft pick on competitors with a lot of injuries, its always safer to try to stick to slightly fresher talent. On the other hand, a well experienced competitor as a later pick might give you an edge early in the season (who knows, the geezer might even make it all season long, but I'd rather not gamble on it)
    Once the competitor draft is finished then the sponsor draft occurs. Picking sponsors happens just like picking competitors only in the opposite order (so the team that had the best season picks first). I would recommend going more for the sponsors with special abilities you like or want. For example, if you know you will be purchasing a new vehicle next season try to pick up the engineering firm or auto manufacturer to get the bonus DPC if at all possible. Unless you are short on cash, I'd stay away from those that don't give you anything but income.
    Well, that's about it for now. Happy hunting until the next time.

Questions? Comments? Ask me here!