General Information, Rules and Regulations
V1 APR-2023
These are to be used as reference material in preparation for any race managed or held by Simracing.GP racing across any Community they are assisting with such as the Next Level Racing GT3 Cup 2023.
1.Foreword
The Next Level Racing (NLR) GT3 Cup 2023 will be held on Simracing.GP using Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) as its title of choice, and its GT3 Machinery.
Drivers can register for the competition via the NLR GT3 Cup 2023 Hub on Simracing.GP, found here
This competition is managed by Simracing.GP and its SGP Racing Team and will be subjected to this rule book for its standards for driving, stewarding and protesting.
SGP Racing is not reported or governed by any third-party organisation, so SGP Racing is using a mixture of this rule book as well as the implemented rules and mechanics of Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC).
This also means that SGP Racing is not accountable for penalties resulting from bugs in the game
Organiser - Simracing.GP Ltd
Promoter - Next Level Racing
1.2 Eligibility
In order to participate in SGP Racing’s ACC Events & Championship, each driver must:
1.3 Next Level Racing Discord
All competition relevant communication will be handled in the Simracing.GP Racing DISCORD SERVER.
Access to this server can be obtained via this link - https://discord.gg/3sBVC98WaD
This will be the main hub for the competition when it comes to communication and support.
1.4 Scrutineering
To ensure a fair playing ground for all participants, the organiser reserves the right to request replay footage and MOTEC data from drivers at any point of the tournament, to which the participant must adhere within the time frame specified in the request. Failure to do so may result in the participant’s removal from an event or the entire competition and any other subsequent competitions held by the organiser.
1.5 Driver etiquette and code of behaviour
The organiser considers the code of conduct a fundamental aspect in every competition. It is precisely for that reason that if any Driver involved in SGP Racing acts in any of the following ways, the organiser has the right to disqualify the player and/or team with immediate effect as well as removing them from the community on a permanent basis.
1.6 Liveries
To upload your livery, please complete the following steps:-
i) Head over to the Awesome-Simracing livery sharing platform
ii) Create an account, and follow the instructions in the FAQ
iii) Add your livery to the SGP Racing Community Collection relevant to your competition.
1.6.1 Livery & Team Name Expectations
No names, images or descriptions relating to anything of an obscene, harmful or hateful nature are permitted. Failure to comply will result in a removal from the competition. This includes driver and team names on ACC for the livery selected.
2. Qualifying for events and Championships
Round 1 of the competition will be acknowledged as the ‘Preliminary Round’ of the competition, drivers are required to take part in the Preliminary Round in order to progress into Round 2 of the competition. Every Driver who completes the full race, will progress, and also earn 5 tickets into the Random Prize Draw.
Drivers who took part in the NLR GT3 Cup 2022 Final will be given a ‘BYE’ for Preliminary and Round 2 and start the competition at the Quarter Finals. Those drivers will be contacted by Simracing.GP Staff to organise how this will happen.
Each round, SGP Staff will communicate with the drivers to inform them how many drivers will progress to the next round 48 hours before the round is due to take place.
2.1 Organising ‘Splits’
Drivers can register for any heat within a round that they wish to take part in, should heats be uneven in the amount of drivers registered to take part, drivers will be randomly selected from the participants list, and moved from their selected heat to a new heat. Those drivers who are moved, will be informed via the competitions discord server.
3. Competition Standards
Competing in a race weekend
Drivers will attend a pre-race drivers briefing if supplied by the admins. No car is allowed on track during this drivers briefing unless permitted by the Race Control Team
In the race itself, Live Stewarding & Post Racing Stewarding will take place for any incidents that our tools detect. Drivers are awarded warnings & penalties for any incidents they are deemed to be guilty of causing.
4. Incidents, Reporting and Stewarding
Drivers will be issued the following penalties during any competition race. Please make yourself familiar with these. They are designed to be severe so that drivers are more safe out on track.
The Race Director will not remove any penalties issued by the software for issues including, but not limited to, being out of position at race start, or exceeding the warranted 3 track cuts during an event
Drivers will be awarded a variety of penalties should any of their actions become noticeable to our stewarding team. The stewarding team can issue any penalty they feel fair after reviewing the incident. The penalty is not expected to reflect the outcome, but punish the decision making of the driver to cause the incident in the first place.
Warnings: Drivers can be awarded up to a warning for any minor contact. Multiple warnings can lead to a penalty being given for an incident that would usually reward a warning.
Major Incident penalties include, +5, +10 +15 Second Penalties and +30/+60 Second Penalties added to the drivers total race time. These penalties will be given as a result of review of an incident, the penalty is not an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ penalty to directly reflect the outcome of the incident, but as a deterrent to cause further incidents.
The Race Control team also have the ability to give a driver or team a Drive Thru Penalty, or Stop & Go Penalty of either 10 or 30 Seconds should they feel that a driver caused an incident that warrants a severe penalty such as this. An example of this may include causing avoidable collisions with multiple cars or deliberate attempts to affect another cars race
After 3 Major Incidents, The Race Director has the right to DSQ your car from the race should any further incident occur.
Blue Flagged Vehicles are not to fight drivers on the lead lap. They can continue to race as normal and drivers on the lead lap are to ensure they make a safe overtake on any cars that have been blueflagged.
Cars are allowed to get a lap back if they are faster than the car in front. Drivers must be civil and respectful if a lapped car is attempting to gain a lap back and not go out of their way to defend from them.
Any driver committed to performing un-sportsperson like conduct, will be subject to race penalties, and potential disqualification from the competition. This includes, but is not limited to, messaging using in-game text chat during live race track, deliberate removal of any of the braking markers or pit boards or abusing game mechanics to gain an advantage.
Should you wish to protest a penalty on your car, you can do so using the Protest Form.
The protest must include video footage of the incident with all of the following views:
The protester must make sure to include 15 seconds before and after the incident and that the footage is normal 1x Speed. The video footage may be recorded with a screen capturing software (OBS, ShadowPlay, etc.) or a smartphone and uploaded to YouTube. If any of the named criteria are missing, the protest will be dismissed.
The Race Director will make a decision before the next event and will announce it publicly in the relevant channel on Discord. Should the Race Director decide in favour of the protester, they will not lose this protest attempt. If the stewards decision was upheld or the decision is against the protester, the protester will therefore lose this protest attempt.
Cars are allowed 2 Protests during each a single event; or 2 protests during an entire championship, they must be submitted on the official discord server.
5. Disconnecting during a live race session
Should a driver or a team disconnect during any session on the server, they must contact a steward to request to rejoin the server. The steward will inform you when you are allowed to join the server so that you do not affect any other team's race.
5.1 Full Course Yellows & Red Flags
In the very rare occasion that we would need to initiate a Full Course Yellow (FCY) or Red Flag situation in the race event, we will communicate this with the drivers via the in-game text chat.
During a FCY we ask drivers to drop down to the pit-limiter speed and apply your pit-limiter by the end of the FCY Countdown. Cars can return to full speed at the end of the FCY Countdown.
Examples of when we may use FCY would be for reconnections of cars.
We will only issue a Red Flag to the race should 2 reasons happen, the first is simple, any major impending server related issue, the race will be red-flagged and restarted with the grid order at the previous hour mark set.
The second would be for a major incident during LAP 1 of any race event that involved 33% of the cars taking part. This decision will only be made by the Head Steward for the start of the race. The race will be restarted using the starting grid.
6. Prizing
The Competitions Promoter is responsible for fulfilling prizing requirements for the competition. Any drivers who win a prize during the competition should contact the promoter regarding their prizes should they have any issue.
Simracing.GP is not responsible for any extra charges relating to prizing including and not limited to localised tax duty charges and additional shipping costs. Those will be the responsibility of the prize winner.
7. Final Points
Simracing.GP Racing was established as a place to learn and experience sim-racing, sometimes, for the very first time. Some events will have a larger skill disparity hence why we try to use ‘Splits’ within our races to have ‘races inside the races.’ Please be aware that some cars may be slower in places that are unexpected by the majority or braking in different places.
Any action deemed by the stewards to represent unsportsmanlike conduct may be penalised at their discretion.
