OVERVIEW
Welcome racers to the VCO Grand Finals Qualifier hosted by SOP Motorsport!
SOP Motorsport are just one of ten chosen communities hosting the VCO Grand Finals Qualifier rounds as VCO x SimGrid have come to a decision to have a more community focus championship and that's how they came up with this new championship: SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals! You must join our discord server if you are choosing our competition as an entry point into the VCOxSimGrid Grand Finals.
SOP Motorsports Road To Grand Finals will be a 3-round endurance championship with races of 5 hours in length. Imola, Suzuka, Indianapolis. One day race, one night race, one wet race. July, August, September. Teams of 2 or 3. We will impose a 45-minute stint timer with each race. There will be a maximum of 6 tyre sets for the entire weekend.
ABOUT THE GRAND FINALS
The SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals is a 3-round endurance championship that will take place in November and December 2023. The Grand Finals will feature a mixed-class grid of GT3 and GT4s. Each and every slot on the grid of the Grand Finals will be filled by teams who win their slots through ten different competitions held by some of SimGrid’s top communities.
From each of the competitions, the top 3 will secure a grid slot at the Grand Finals in the GT3 class. P4 and P5 will secure a slot at the Grand Finals in the GT4 class. And P6, P7 and P8 will enter a Grand Finals GT4 Play-Off that will take place in October 2023. The top 3 in the GT4 Play-Off will then be awarded the final GT4 slots at the Grand Finals.
At the Grand Finals, the drivers who participate will not only be representatives of the team they’re racing for, but the team itself will be a representative of the community they won the slot from. This means the Grand Finals will not only have the team standings in each class but also Community standings!
It is important to note that teams are free to enter as many of the ten different Grand Final qualifying competitions as they like. They can enter all ten if they want to! However, a qualified team is only allowed to receive a maximum of two slots to the Grand Finals, one per class.
REGISTRATION
There are 45 team placements in this championship which must consist of 2 or 3 drivers at every round. Teams may change their team roster on a round-by-round basis up until 2 days before the first/next round of the championship, ie Team lineups confirmed on Fridays at 12 UTC ready for the next round Sunday at 12 UTC.
This championship is a qualifier for the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals. From the final championship standings, the top 3 will be awarded a slot in the GT3 class. P4-5 will be awarded a slot in the GT4 class and P6-8 will be awarded a slot to the Play-Offs which will take place in October. In the Play-Offs, the final 3 slots will be awarded for a slot in the GT4 class.
CALENDAR
- Round 1 - Imola - 30/7/2023
- Round 2 - Suzuka - 27/8/2023
- Round 3 - Indianapolis - 24/9/2023
EVENT TIMETABLE
- Practice (15 mins)- 12:00 UTC/13:00 BST
- Drivers Briefing (5 mins)- 12:15 UTC/13:15 BST
- Qualifying (20 mins) - 12:20 UTC/13:20 BST
- Race (300 mins) - 12:40 UTC/13:40 BST
INCIDENT REPORTS
The SOP Motorsport Road to Grand Finals Championship will have both Live Race stewarding and Post Race stewarding. During the race, you can contact stewards via the discord where we will have a dedicated incident channel and then this same channel can be used for anything post-race that still needs action taken on.
PIT STOPS AND STINTS
The championship SOP Motorsport is hosting will impose a 45 minutes driver stint time limit. The stint timer stops when you enter the pit lane and is reset upon exiting the pit lane (unless you are serving a penalty). The game will automatically apply a Drive Through penalty if the stint limit is exceeded. Each driver must drive at least one stint during each race. Teams will receive a penalty of 130 seconds if a driver does not drive a stint. There is no maximum driver time and there is no mandatory number of pit stops but each team will only have 6 tyre sets to last them the entire weekend.
Points system
Points will be awarded to every team at each race. The points allocated for each position are 1st = 100 to 45th = 4, with 2 extra points up for grabs to the team that record the fastest lap.
absent TEAMMATE
This is a driver swap series where each team is required to have a minimum of 2 drivers at a race. You must have 2 or 3 drivers participating in every round. If your team cannot complete the mandatory driver swap you will receive a 130s penalty at the flag post-race.
custom liveries
Custom liveries made outside of the game are permitted in this series. The Series will be live-streamed on Twitch and custom liveries can be shared onto Awesome Sim Racing livery tool here: SOP Motorsport community | Awesome Simracing (awesome-simracing.com) Any politically charged or potentially offensive material on a custom livery will see the team banned from the series.
Withdraws and reserves
If a team is unavailable to attend a round in the championship, then use the withdraw function. This is found by clicking on the "Races" tab, and then "Admin" on the round you need to withdraw from. There you will find the withdraw button. Teams are permitted one withdrawal in this series. Missing a race without withdrawal will result in disqualification. If a team has withdrawn from a race but wishes to attend the race after all, please contact a member of the Event Admin team as the slot may have already been filled by a Reserve team. If you are a reserve team, you can see if teams have withdrawn from a round on the same "Admin" tab on each round. If you see a team has withdrawn and you wish to take their place, please contact a member of the Event Admin team.
