Play MCN Fantasy Racing online – and win a ZX-7

THERE’S more than £10,000 worth of prizes – including a new Kawasaki ZX-7R – up for grabs in the biggest ever MCN Fantasy Road Race competition.

And for the first time this year you can play the game 100% online, from as little as £4.99. You can enter your team and make rider changes throughout the year via a special new website. Look for the banners and links in our racing section, or just go direct to www.mcnfrr.com to enter your team now. PLUS we’ve set up a new discussion board for you to discuss rider choices and tactics with rival team managers. Follow the link in the ” related stories ” panel, right, or go to the Discussion and Chat section, then choose Racing, then Fantasy Road Racing.

Chris Walker will present the overall winner of the contest with a road-going version of his 2002 World Superbike worth £7180 otr. It tops a prize package which also includes:

* Kawasaki Texport leathers, an OGK helmet and £1000 cash for second place

* An OGK helmet and £500 for third place

* 30 runners-up prizes of signed and framed prints of Walker in action, plus £50.

By choosing your own unique seven-man fantasy road race team, you can share in the joy and heartache of the world’s top riders every Sunday afternoon as they unwittingly battle to earn you points. You score the same points as your chosen riders – when they win you win, when they crash, you slide down the rankings.

In an ideal world, you’d have Valentino Rossi, Troy Bayliss and John Reynolds as three of the seven riders in your dream team. But that would be too easy. So your spending is capped to a maximum of £10 million, meaning if you want Honda’s No1 Rossi at £4 million, you’d only have £1 million each to spend on your remaining six riders.

So the trick is to use your skill and judgement (and maybe study last year’s form book) to select the seven riders most likely to give you the best return on your investment. It’s all about picking out the potential bargains and the riders who are going to get you a consistent haul of points.

You must pick one rider from each of the three GP classes, two from WSB and one each from World Supersport and British Superbikes.

And the beauty of it is whoever you choose initially, you can drop and add riders at any point in the season if your first pick get injured or just aren’t delivering the goods.

And for the first time we have introduced a new wild-card element, which enables you to sign one rider for FREE once during the year. This rider will then net you double points for the weekend’s racing, though you can’t play the wild-card again.

Entering your seven-man squad is a doddle. Just go to www.mcnfrr.com and follow the simple instructions. You’ll need to fill in credit card details on this secure site to pay the £4.99 fee to enter your initial team. If you want to make changes to your team during the year you can EITHER use the special hotline to make changes (calls charged at 60p a minute) OR you can buy a one-off ” season ticket ” for £34.99 which includes your entry fee PLUS unlimited team changes during the season made via the web. If you choose this method you’ll still have the option to make changes by phone as well, for those times when you can’t get to to a computer and these calls will only be charged at national rate.

Whichever entry or playing method you choose, your payment will be confirmed by email, following which you’ll get a manager’s pack in the post with full instructions on which phone numbers to use and how to play.

Note that it is only possible to start changing your team AFTER the first round, so make sure your initial selection is your best one.

The game can also be played, as ever, simply by using a special phone number to enter your team and make changes. Pick up a copy of MCN for full details of how to enter and play using this method.

The closing date for picking your team is midnight on March 8, so start studying the form now – starting by checking out the latest test times within our GP, WSB and BSB news sections…