Armed Forces Virtual Race Challenge 2025

BFBS ARMED FORCES VIRTUAL RACE CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 REGULATIONS GOVERNANCE

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MOTOR SPORTS ASSOCIATION with charity number 1181915 will arrange and promote an online eSports championship for the benefit of UK Military personnel and veterans to promote Motor Racing opportunities in the military and provide synthetic training opportunities to competitors – the championship will be known as ‘ARMED FORCES VIRTUAL RACE CHALLENGE 2025'.

ARMED FORCES VIRTUAL RACE CHALLENGE 2025 is a Championship as defined in this Agreement and will be referred to as ‘the Championship’.

The RAF Motor Sports Association promotes the Armed Forces Virtual Race Challenge (AFVRC) championship to promote eMotorsports to the varied UK military community (including veterans). Championship registration is $30 and limited to 40 participants.

CONDUCT OF COMPETITORS

The Motorsport UK General Regulations apply to this Championship in respect of conduct online and offline as if the Championship was live at a physical venue. Competitors are representing their Service when competing and the highest possible standards of personal and driving conduct are required. All abusive and or disrespectful or bullying behaviour whether within the Championship or in any other media or any social media regarding the Championship by any participant may be investigated against Ethos, Values and Core Standards. Any investigation found to be in breach of these standards will result in automatic disqualification from the Championship.

All participants must install the required software to allow for full broadcasting functionality, such as Discord and Trading Paints. A comprehensive guide will be provided prior to the first online event. All competitors must be dialled into a voice channel during all qualifying and race sessions to allow the commentary team to arrange interviews. For those competitors who do not wish to communicate during the sessions ‘quiet’ channels will be provided. Competitors must have recognisable names in Discord to allow the event admin team to select the correct participants as required.

The following guidance has been developed over previous years of AFvRC running:

• Respect. Please respect that there is a variety of experience and talent across the competitors. Some have real-world race experience, and some have extensive race simulator experience. However, there are some who have neither. Please respect that and take the time to understand who is racing around you so that you can work out who you can race closely with and who you need to give some room to.
• Etiquette. Recognise when you have been legitimately overtaken, or ‘lost’ a corner to another competitor and focus on getting that place back in a sporting way. As per the sporting code of iRacing, deliberate blocking, crowding of a competitor off the track, or moves that can be considered unsporting (dive-bomb overtakes) are not what the AFVRC is about. If you have a spin then only rejoin the track when it is safe to do so and in a manner that does not impede those on track. Acknowledging when you have been passed and understanding why will make you a better racer. Please temper any response to an incident and work on the assumption that it was not a deliberate act, until such a time as it can be reviewed. If you make a mistake, then admit as such. Any act of retribution will not be tolerated.
• Standards. We are showcasing military eMotorsport to a wider and more prominent audience . Please remember that so that we can make the broadcast professional. Don’t quit out of a session because your race has gone bad. If you wish to quit then do so via the pits. At the end of the race you are required to complete a ‘cool down’ lap and return to your pit box, rather than stopping on track and causing a crash. Competitors must ensure that their car has sufficient fuel to return to the pits at the end of the race. If you find yourself being interviewed by the commentators then be polite and remember that you are representing the military, even if you are a competitor who is not in the military.
• Comms. DO NOT broadcast any chat over the iRacing comms. Utilise the Discord channels. This is to ensure that the stream does not capture any inappropriate comms.
• Spotters - Not all sim setups provide the same level of situational awareness. Some drivers will be racing on a single screen with little to no situational awareness when a car is alongside. To that end, especially for those new to iRacing, you should strongly consider the use of a 'Spotter'. There is a spotter within iRacing, under the 'Sounds' tab, offering a variety of voices that will keep you informed of what is going on including warnings about cars stopped on track, crashes and most importantly when a car is left or right of you i.e. overlapped, so that you can keep to your side. Other spotter programs exist with one of the popular alternatives being Crew Chief. If you haven't already then please try one before the next event.
• Lapped cars and flashing lights - Whilst flashing the car headlights is widely used in some series to try to distract the driver in front, their principle use is the same as for the road i.e. to warn another road user of your presence. In the case of AFVRC we would only routinely expect headlights to be flashed to indicate to a lapped car that there is a lead car approaching. This may well prove to be a factor for Brands Hatch Indy as any sort of spin or incident will likely lead to those cars being lapped. Lead cars will flash their headlights to cars they are approaching to lap. It remains the responsibility of the lead cars to pass safely and lapped cars are not required to leap out of the way (ala F1). Lapped cars should maintain the racing line and remain predictable, only moving over when it is obvious and safe to do so to facilitate the pass. It is far safer for a lapped car to remain on the racing line and lift off the throttle to facilitate a pass than it is to try to second-guess where the leaders might go and end up both going the same way.
• Rejoining - A reminder that it is a rejoining car's responsibility to do so safely. If you run wide then you must ensure that you do not impede on track cars as you rejoin. If you spin out and remain on the track, then DO NOT MOVE until you are sure that it is clear to do so. It is very easy in the heat of the moment to try to get going and find yourself in the path of another vehicle. Hold your brakes, check any info you have displayed about cars around you and only move again when you know you are clear.
• Conduct in the face of crashing cars - Sim racing removes the IRL fear factor of arriving at an incident (as well as the cost) and it is very common to see iRacing official racers gambling on an incident to make places, in many cases not even lifting. The nature of the chosen tracks could well lead to some incidents, and we implore anyone approaching such an incident to apply caution so that hopefully those arriving on scene might stand a chance of getting through. iRacing does not enforce local Yellow flags for road races, but if we were to apply an IRL logic to such an incident then technically the race would be neutralised in that sector and anyone passing under yellow would be penalised. Please apply a similar respectful logic to our races so unnecessary contact is avoided.

REGISTRATION

Registration for the championship will be via the Armed Forces Sim Racing page on Sim Grid. All subsequent communications will be via the AFVRC Discord server channels.

Registration will be $30 per competitor, all monies will be paid into the RAFMSA account to support the Championship costs. Details of payment will be sent to each competitor following sign-up; this is to be completed using the online merchant account, where a link will be provided once signed up.

COMPETITION STRUCTURE

The Championship will be organised by the RAF Motor Sports Association and will be run using Sim Grid. Not all rounds may be broadcasted but rounds that are will be done so by a technical partner and shall include general practice and races with results calculated using Sim Grid. An additional point shall be awarded to the driver with the fastest lap during a race.

WINNER

The overall Championship winner will receive a motorsport oriented prize, paid for / provided by RAFSMA/eMotorsports utilising a portion of the entry fee. Further details will be made available to the winner as required.

STEWARDING & DISPUTES

Stewarding will be carried out by the simulator and issue iRacing incident points for off track, loss of control and contact as it deems necessary. Any disputes regarding the results of or conduct of the Championship shall be resolved through a protest system in place hosted on the Championship Discord channel, post-event stewarding will be carried out by a member from each team with a voting system. N.B team members from the team being disputed will not get a vote. This will be carried out in accordance with the AFvRC 2025 Stewarding Document.

CALENDAR

The Championship race events will be held on Wednesday evenings over a 10-week period. A broadcast will be provided through social media channels.

• 12th Feb - 2x 15 min Thruxton
• 19th Feb - 1x 40 min Silverstone GP
• 26th Feb - 2x 15 min Oulton Park International
• 5th Mar - 2x 15 min Snetterton 300
• 12th Mar - 2x 15 min Wheel of Fortune FREE
• 19th Mar - 1x 40 min Spa-Francorchamps GP
• 26th Mar - 2x 15 min Knockhill International
• 2th Apr - 2x 15 min Navarra Speed
• 9th Apr - 1x 40 min Donington Park GP
• 16th Apr - 2x 15 min Brands Hatch GP

Round 5 will be held at a random free content track from within the iRacing content, NOT including Oulton Park. This will be chosen at random during the previous round (round 4).

Each event will run in the following format, with the exception of the 40 minute endurance race:

• 1550 - Open Practice
• 1950 - Qualifying Starts
• 2010 - Qualifying End
• 2014 - Race One Starts
• 2029 - Race One Ends
• 2033 - Session 2 Live
• 2042 - Race Two Starts
• 2057 - Race Two Ends
• 2105 - Stream ends

For the single 40 minute race the format will follow the same timings but the second race will be omitted.