Johnny Collins is better than Maxx Bennett

[Joe]

Don't think so? You're an idiot. I thought these awards (though they don't come with a trophy or money that I know of) were supposed to mean something.

Johnny Collins won everything there is to win on dirt in Florida this year. Wayne Anderson won 11 races and the Governor's Cup. They have 2 percent of the vote each.

No offense to Maxx Bennett, but I don't know who he is. And I get paid pretty good money to cover this sport sometimes.

Google search for this Maxx Bennett character led me to a website. Apparently he is 13 years old and drives a truck and a sportsman car. Good for him.

Maybe this is no more than a popularity contest. Apparently, Maxx Bennett is a big deal and has more friends than everyone. Maybe he comes from a large family. Maybe he's figured out a way to vote over and over again in his eighth-grade pre-algebra class.

That's all I have for now. On another note, everyone should go to the Snowball Derby if they have the means to do so.

[BJ Cavin]

Joe, sometimes we all learn from our mistakes. I agree that the polls are prone to being abused and that they in no way correctly represent the feelings of the racing community at large, but they can still be fun.

When the folks over at Florida Flagstand cried foul I told them that if its ok for others to cheat, then they can cheat too! Right? Maybe the whole thing will determine who can recuit the best and most cheaters, and tell us nothing as to who deserves to win. So what? I'm still enjoying it despite all of that.

So what would those who are complaining about the polls have Karnac do? Take them down and lets have a do-over? And who is to say that cheating won't occur all over again if we do that? The way I see it, the best move is to leave it as is and go with the flow, and maybe learn from our mistakes the next time around. But let's not trash it because some folks can't play fair. After all, we don't call off races because someone violates the tech rules, do we?

Win or lose, I'm honored that someone thought enough of me to nominate me. I guess that means that I'm doing a good job, and that's alright by me.

[flvideo]

Joe

I don't know that there is any cheating, although there may be. I am more prone to think that the people that would vote for the Freight train don't frequent message boards. I, like BJ, am honereed to be nominated at all. I voted for Johnny myself, but most of the people that Voted for Maxx probably never heard of Johnny Collins. You find yourself voting for those you are more familar with. There are drivers I've never heard of and for that reason I wouldn't vote for them. Maybe it is a popularity contest, but like BJ said its still fun. Just my take. Bob....

PS: I know Maxx and he is young but is a good wheel. He's gonna go places, but I agree he is not on the same plane as Johnny, although he well may be one day.

[Front Stretch]

I also

voted for "the freighttrain" Johnny Collins and I am disturbed over the results I have been seeing! He tore up the tracks he raced on this year, was the points champion of the UDLMCS and I can't believe his low ranking in this poll! Ivedent Lloyd is another, back to back NALMS champion and he is low in the rankings too. I have been waiting for a post from Frasson to explain to us who these other people are and maybe let us know why they deserve the ranking they currently have. I put ALOT of trust in the things Frasson says about racing as he seems to know something about every driver that gets mentioned! WHERE ARE YOU FRASS? Just very hard for me to understand how a driver that competed against over 150 other drivers, raced in three states, ran tracks he had never been to before, wins the points championship in the series and is nowhere near the top of this poll! In my opinion,
Johnny Collins , YOU ARE THE "BEST OF THE BEST" for 2008!!

[JackTripper]

Online polls = popularity contest.

13 year old has all of his friends at school vote for him over and over again.

Case closed.

[Jane]

You are definitely right, there are flaws to the poll for sure. How do we fix it, I am not sure yet. When I did the BEST OF THE BEST a few years back, I actually had everyone send me their votes and they could only vote once a day. And yes, there were a few who tried to do it more but that did not happen.

Yes, Jack could take it down and start all over again since from the nominations I got, there are some who were not repeat nominations but were only nominated once where others got quite a few and now seem to lead when they should not be. So for that, I do apologize.

If we do this again, I promise to think of a better method since this seems to be off.

[Frasson118]

Why would it be okay to vote once a day? Doesn't each persons opinion only matter ONCE?

How do you think Bill Elliott won so many "Most Popular Driver" awards, when it was so obvious that Dale Earnhardt was so far out in front? Elliotts "fan club" had pre-printed voting forms (stacks of them) sent out to all club members, with Elliotts name ALREADY CHECKED on the ballott. All they had to do was send them in (the whole stack) and each ballott got counted as a vote.

Getting all of your Junior High School buddies to vote for you does NOT make you a Driver of the Year. Driving your ass of, winning races and championships... THAT'S what makes you a Driver of the Year. And with those guidelines, Johnnie Collins probably deserves that title more than anyone else in Florida.

Sorry kid... get a Late Model, travel the state, beat Johnnie Collins on a regular basis, and THEN we'll talk about "Driver of the Year".


How about a panel of 100 knowledgeable racing folks around the state that would make up the voting pool? Track Promoters, announcers, officials, media types, and a few fans. Public nominations would be used to put people ON the ballott, then the panel would vote from that list.

[Boneman]

Its just for fun, we can't get too worked up.

Here are my nominations for a more serious list:

TBARA champ Troy DeCaire
Dave Steele
Gov. Cup winner Wayne Anderson
UDLMCS Johnnie Collins
Triple Crown champ Brian Finney
CFSS champ Keith Butler
truck racer Steven Darvalics

[AJ14]

Is Johnny better than Maxx at what ?

[Joe]

I would say Johnny Collins is better than Maxx at driving a racecar and winning races. I give the edge to Maxx if this was "Best Pre-Algebra student of 2008," unless Johnny is taking night classes in Pre-Algebra. Then it would probably be a toss-up.

Maybe we should just call it the Florida Short Track Racing Fans Choice Awards. That would be an easy fix.

Then for Best of the Best, have write-in ballots sent out via e-mail (postage is expensive) to the promoters, head officials, track owners and media. The categories could be limited to Driver of the Year, Rookie, Improved and Hard Charger.

But all seriousness aside, I've figured out how to cheat too, BJ CAVIN (mainly because you explained it to me). I'm currently contracting an off-shore phishing company (I guess all fishing companies would theoretically be off some shore) to vote JOE VANHOOSE for best writer.

Who didn't love that piece on Wayne Anderson last week and the live Snowball Derby coverage anyway?