Race Club UK Season 10 Rules
Everyone is welcome in Race Club
UK and primarily the aim of the group is to have fun and enjoy the
racing. These rules have been put
together to enhance the aim of the group, many of them are common sense and general
decency.
It is also worth noting that any
times mentioned within this document are based on British GMT and
our international drivers would
need to make allowance for any time zone differences themselves.
1. Minimum expectations
Drivers are expected to be
familiar with the tracks they are racing including the positioning of the
entry and exit of the pit lane,
including pit boxes.
While it is not expected for
everyone to be on the ultimate pace and not everyone will be competing
for pole position. Generally, any
drivers who are not within 10 seconds of the qualifying pole position may be
invited to participate the next event ‘under observation’ whereby a reasonable
expectation would be that they are able to get within 10 seconds of the pole
time there. If the driver is unable to post a time within 10 seconds of the
pole time The Stewards may decide that, at the next event this driver should
spend time enhancing their performance so as not to be a danger to others
rather than racing – to date no requests of this nature have been made.
Drivers are expected to be
courteous to others and to race respectfully. These events are meant to be fun so please make sure you
keep it that way. This also includes the chat group ‘banter’ on both Facebook
and Discord.
DRIVERS ARE
EXPECTED TO MANAGE THEIR RACING/WITHDRAW STATUS FOR EACH ROUND
If a driver registers for a race,
does not compete but fails to sign out they will receive a set number of penalty
points for missing the round and should they reach the maximum penalty points they will be removed from the championship.
Please see the penalty section below
for further details.
All drivers are expected to a)
records/stream their live races via YouTube/Twitch or another platform and b)
to map the replay button to an easy to use button. An incident cannot be
reported without the appropriate video evidence.
2. Funding
This season we are requesting an
entry fee via Sim Grid. The funds from this are all put back into running the
group. Unfortunately refunds cannot be given once the entry has been paid, nor can it be pro-rata'd for the season.
3. Car Choice
Drivers will be locked with their
car selection for the full 12 round season from the Sunday evening preceding
the first round of the championship.
4. General Rules
A lot of these rules are what you
would call common sense, for example no weaving in the braking zone, a single
change of direction on the straight is permitted, and contact should be avoided.
Should you inadvertently cause an
accident, and you understand that you are at fault you should allow the
affected driver to repass you even if this means you lose more than just the
place you are giving back.
Incidents can be reported for the
stewards to review via the incident reporting option on Sim Grid.
SPECIAL
QUALIFYING RULES
For any meetings with two or more races there will be a very short qualifying
session of 5 minutes. Drivers will post a single hot lap and then return to the
garage, either by driving or returning to garage having pulled over in a safe area.
The process is 1 x outlap, 1 x fast lap and return to garage.
Any drivers found to be posting multiple times in
the session will be DSQ from that particular meeting, however if they have
raced and been responsible for any incidents, they may still receive penalty points
as detailed further in this rule set.
5. Championship Rounds
The season will be made up of 12 rounds, with a
non-championship warm up race the week before the season starts.
Following feedback from the group the split of races is
as follows:
1 round featuring 3 x 20-minute races.
5 rounds featuring 2 x 35-minute races.
2 rounds featuring 1 x 75-minute race.
3 rounds featuring 1 x 90-minute race.
1 round featuring 1 x 120-minute season finale.
Championship rounds along with
the race format for those particular rounds can be found under the event menu
on Sim Grid together with dates for each round.
Drivers are expected to withdraw
from races they are unable to compete in, failure to do so will result in DNS
penalty of 15 penalty points being awarded to the offending driver.
The points scoring breakdown can
be found under the scoring menu in Sim Grid.
Each meeting is worth a maximum
of 300 points with the exception of the 2 hour Season Finale which is worth a
maximum of 600 points.
These are broken down and
distributed depending on the race format for that particular event. E.g. 3 x 20
minute races, each winner will receive 100 points, for 2 x 35 minute races,
each winner will receive 150 points.
There will be 3 bonus points for
the fastest lap in each race.
Points are distributed up to and
including 30th position and are substantially enhanced for the
endurance races to encourage maximum participation.
To be eligible for points the
driver must complete 65% + 1lap of the winner driver’s overall race distance.
Stewards may review this and
increase the window for points scoring depending on the circumstances (e.g.
serious adverse weather conditions).
6. Driver Briefing
At 19:20 GMT every Tuesday there
is a driver briefing which is hosted via Discord and we would like all drivers
to attend. This is the drivers’ chance to ask any questions they may have about
the event and to have input into the race meeting. The group server will be
reset at 19:15 GMT with a new password. This password will be shared with
members in the briefing and will be posted in Facebook and Discord only when
the briefing has concluded.
7. Teams Championship
There is also the team
championship running.
Two drivers per team. There is no
requirement for both drivers to be in the same car, however
liveries should be as closely
matched as possible in terms of colours and design to make identifying
teammates easier – Should two
teams have very similar colours one team may be requested the
make an alteration to their
livery to make it more distinguishable – especially as we hope to have live
commentary via the Race Club UK YouTube Channel.
Points scoring for the teams will
be the same as the drivers’ championship points above.
Team orders are permitted
provided it does not result in dangerous/unfair driving tactics.
8. Incident reporting to the Stewards
The Stewards Panel is made up of a
number of individuals who will remain anonymous to protect against any possible
conflict of interest. If the incident in question involves one or more of these
individuals, then they will
refrain from offering an opinion on the incident in a stewards capacity.
This is the same process as has
been used for the previous three seasons.
To submit an incident for review
please use the incident reporting facility on Sim Grid.
Please note you have 26 hours from the start of the race
to upload any incidents which you feel require review.
ACC allows you to map a button to
save replays and it may be advisable to record the race using the
share button on your PS5. This
can be uploaded to YouTube/Twitch or the capture gallery on PS5,
or other video sharing web site.
You can send the link to this recording with a time for the stewards to look at.
Stewards will
only review the time specified
Some penalties may be dealt with
in game – track limits, pitlane speeding etc these penalties will apply, however, some other
incidents may require review. These will generally be Racing Incidents
and Dangerous Driving.
Racing
Incidents – if you feel another driver has
caused an issue – forced you off the track, hitting
your car or generally driving
extremely aggressively then you should report it to the stewards for
consideration.
Dangerous
Driving – if a driver rejoins in an
unsafe or dangerous manner or drives in a way that is a
danger to other cars, you should
report it to the stewards.
You should only report incidents
you are involved in and not on behalf of someone else.
You may report incidents from
Practice and Qualifying should you wish but again must be supported with video
evidence and a brief commentary of why it is being reported together with
details of when the event took place – race number and lap.
PLEASE ALSO REMEMBER THAT THE STEWARDS WILL NOT
WATCH YOUR STREAM BACK FOR INCIDENTS. IF YOU FEEL AN INCIDENT REQUIRES REVIEW
IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO REPORT IT.
PLEASE DO NOT MOAN ABOUT DRIVING STANDARDS IF YOU DO NOT
REPORT INCIDENTS.
Mechanical/technical
failures will not be reviewed by the
stewards. If your wheelbase turns off,
your pedals fail, or you lose
internet connection because your wife is microwaving her dinner then
while this is unfortunate and
while it may result in divorce, the stewards do not have the discretion
to intervene nor act as a
marriage counsellor. Mechanical failures happen in the real world.
9. Possible penalties
Stewards have the discretion to
award a penalty as deemed appropriate. There may also be points
added to a drivers license –
these do not make prizes, but may lead to further sanctions applied in
the future should a certain
number of points be accrued.
Example penalties could be as
follows however are not limited to:
Time
penalties added to overall race time.
Qualifying
Ban – meaning the driver will have
to start from the back of the grid for a race.
First lap
drive through penalty.
Pit Lane
start for next race meeting (if the race
meeting has multiple then the first race of that meeting will be started from
the pit lane)
One Race Ban
Multiple Race
Ban
Immediate and
permanent exclusion from the championship.
10. Penalty Points
The penalty points system is a
way of keeping track of a drivers record of breaking the rules of clean
racing. The more severe the endorsement,
the more severe the points awarded, and also ensures
repeat offenders are noted and
punished. The Stewards reserved the right to award penalty points
alongside or instead of the
Standard Penalties noted above in section 4.
Typically these would be:
5 points – driving in a dangerous or unsporting manner (including
but not limited to unsafe rejoins).
5 points – causing a minor avoidable collision.
5 points – failing to wait for an affected driver following a
collision (in addition to the penalty above)
– however, the overall incident
will be reviewed.
10 points – causing a moderate avoidable collision.
10 points – failure to provide streamed footage when requested by
the stewards
15 points – causing a major avoidable collision.
15 points – failure to race without withdrawing from the round on
Sim Grid
THESE PENALTY
POINTS ARE TAKEN FROM YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS TOTAL.
10. Sanctions for point accumulation
There is a maximum penalty points
before a driver is disqualified from the Championship is 65 points. Should any
driver receive this many penalty points they will automatically be disqualified
from the championship.
All DSQ’s will be manually
reviewed by the Stewards and a driver may still be allowed to compete ‘under
review’ whereby the stewards will review the behaviour of the driver at the
next race meeting. This is purely at the Stewards discretion.
11. Be respectful of the Stewards
No-one likes a Karen Horner! The
Stewards give up their time to investigate and review incidents
which are reported to them. They
make judgement calls based on the evidence provided to them.
They remain as impartial as
possible and nearly all the decisions made in the past by The Stewards
collective have been unanimous.
Stewards may also contact drivers
to offer feedback on incidents which have been reported but ultimately deemed
to be a racing incident. This is designed to enhance a driver’s experience and
to help develop them as a driver and should not be taken a criticism.
12.
Importantly Have fun
Race Club has been set up to
enable like-minded people to have fun with clean fair and firm racing.
While this rule list exists, it
is hoped that the majority of it is never used and the standards for the whole
group have been of a high standard. This rule set is designed to complement
this rather than stifle it.
