Rules & Regulations

Last updated: Mon. September 2, 2024

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Section 1: Sim Racing Alliance Mission Statement

The goal of the community and the purpose of this document is to establish a friendly environment where everyone can experience the best online sim racing has to offer. It is our mission to create a collaborative and encouraging community where everyone can improve and enjoy this shared hobby together.

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Section 2: Community Code of Conduct

Sim Racing Alliance (SRA) Racing League is an inclusive sim racing community. Discussion of politics, religion, and/or other controversial topics is prohibited. Incidents of racism, discrimination, or hate speech will not be tolerated and will result in an immediate ban.

Life in a community is about being part of something greater. You owe it to anyone on this server to be respectful, courteous, and humble. Accept that others may have different opinions, and be open-minded. We condemn disrespectful behaviour such as harassment, -isms, hateful content, insults and name-calling, bad-faith towards moderators, etc.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for toxicity. This includes (but is not limited to): excessive trolling, persistent negativity, personal attacks, flaming, harassment, behaviours intended to provoke or offend others, etc. These actions are prohibited and can also be grounds for a ban from the community. Refrain from calling out other drivers, staff, or stewards in public channels, including post-race reviews or direct messages.

To report race incidents, please use the Submit-a-Ticket ticket tool in the Stewarding section to open a ticket. Any concerns may be brought to the attention of the administrators using the Admin-Help ticket tool.

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Section 3: General Rules

3.1 Custom Liveries

We allow custom liveries made outside of the in-game livery editor. Drivers must upload the livery file with a unique name to the Awesome Simracing tool. Further instructions for uploading and downloading liveries can be found in the Graphics & Liveries channel in the Discord.

3.2 Assists and Cheating

Included assists except auto-steering and stability control are allowed to be used on the practice and race servers.

Sim Racing Alliance administrators reserve the right to request telemetry data from any driver should they suspect use of a third party software for a performance advantage. If a driver is unable to provide data for the session that it was requested for, they will be required to submit data for the rest of the season. Failure to comply or a guilty verdict may result in a season or league ban.

3.3 Scoring

Sim Racing Alliance races award championship points based on finishing order with bonus points for pole position and fastest lap during the race. Check the points reference tab in the championship tracker for a more detailed scoring breakdown.

3.4 Driver Divisions and Classes

3.4.1 Driver Classes

For the GT3 Team Series, Drivers are divided into divisions with 50 maximum drivers. Within each division, there will be two splits: Gold and Silver.

The organizers will determine each driver's classification based on available race and lap data gathered from a dedicated hot stint server and previous Sim Racing Alliance GT3 Team Series races. New drivers will be assigned a provisional division based on their qualification results. The organizers reserve the right to adjust any driver’s classification to improve the competitive integrity of the racing divisions.

Except for extreme cases, all division adjustments will be made after the second race of the season. Split classifications will be adjusted after the third race of the season, then locked for the remainder of the season.

3.4.2 Driver Names

Driver's name in ACC and Discord MUST match. The use of one's real name is NOT required. The name should be readable and pronounceable. Use of numbers and symbols is discouraged. Register your name by creating a profile at https://www.simracingalliance.com/profile.

3.4.3 Driver Numbers

Driver number 1 is reserved for Division 1 drivers champion of the previous season.

Driver numbers 2-999 are for all other drivers. Register your car number by creating a profile at https://www.simracingalliance.com/profile.

Driver numbers can be claimed on a first come, first served basis. Claimed numbers by a driver can be held under the following conditions:

1. For a period of two (2) months as a new community member of Discord.
2. For a period of two (2) months after last participating in an Sim Racing Alliance-hosted championship race (GT3 Team Series, Multiclass Mayhem, League in a Week and endurance races hosted on Sim Racing Alliance servers). Exhibition races including weekend sprints, public lobby races, time trials and endurance races externally hosted do not count towards this retention condition.
3. Indefinitely for the most recent GT3 Team Series drivers' champion, along with retaining driver number 1. The driver number previously held by the current GT3 Team Series drivers' champion is also reserved.
4. Indefinitely for any current Sim Racing Alliance sponsors.
5. Under special cases based on Sim Racing Alliance administrators' discretion.

Note that driver numbers are locked and cannot be changed during an active GT3 Team Series championship schedule.

3.5 Practice

Free practice sessions are available throughout the week with the same weather conditions as qualifying and the race. Drivers are encouraged to practice the track and make adjustments to their setup. Feel free to socialize with other drivers in chat during these sessions. While there is no stewarding for practice sessions, please be courteous to other drivers.

3.6 Drivers Briefings

All race nights will begin with a drivers briefing hosted in the Drivers Briefing channel in Discord before the official servers go live. Attendance is mandatory for all drivers participating in the race. Respective race details including addendums to rules, league announcements, and the server password will be shared by the series managers in the drivers briefing. If a driver is not able to attend the drivers briefing for any reason, they are expected to reach out to fellow community members (such as their teammates) to be informed of important changes or notes for the event. Do not direct message administrators or series managers after the drivers briefing has ended. All drivers will be assumed to know the enforced rules on any given race day.

3.7 Race Delays Due To Server Issues

Should there be a problem with ACC servers, the organizers will provide LAN join instructions for official Sim Racing Alliance events.

If there are problems with Sim Racing Alliance's servers and the problem is not solved within 30 minutes, the Staff will delay the event to a later time. The organizer reserves the right to modify these rules if the attendance will not be affected.

3.8 No Chat During Qualifying and Racing

Use of the in-game chat at any time in official race servers is strictly prohibited. Its use is reserved for Admins or Staff for communicating critical information. In particular, keep in mind that while a driver may be done with the session, others may still be racing. This may result in a penalty warning from the Stewards. Any questions or concerns may be raised in appropriate Discord channels.

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Section 4: Qualifying Rules

Qualifying is held prior to race start and sets the starting order for the race based on each drivers' fastest lap time.

Qualifying will typically be split into two halves where the lower class drivers will set their times first, followed by the upper class drivers. For split-qualifying, drivers may finish their valid hot lap if the lap was initiated before their alotted time runs out. All other drivers who cross the finish line after their allotted time must pull over and return to the pits.

If a driver has been issued a qualifying ban, the driver is prohibited from participating in the qualifying session and must stay in their pit box. Failure to properly serve a qualifying ban may result in a disqualification in the qualifying session resulting in a pit lane start for that race, or the qualifying ban will carry over to the next race at the stewards/series managers' discretion.

4.1 Blue Flags During Qualifying

After invalidating a lap, a driver is then required to yield and leave sufficient space on track such that they do not hinder any driver behind on a flying lap. Drivers are required to make a clear and obvious effort to slow their car off of the racing line so as to not hinder oncoming drivers on flying laps, and only return to the racing line given a sufficient gap to the next driver behind.

Making a concerted effort to slow on a flying lap is construed as abandoning that flying lap, even if the lap is still valid. That driver is then required to yield and leave sufficient space on track such that they do not hinder any driver behind on a flying lap. Drivers are required to make a clear and obvious effort to slow their car off of the racing line so as to not hinder oncoming drivers on flying laps, and only return to the racing line given a sufficient gap to the next driver behind.

4.2 Overtaking During Qualifying

A driver is not allowed to overtake cars ahead that are on a flying valid lap unless it is clear and obvious that the car ahead has abandoned their lap and is leaving sufficient space to pass. Every driver is responsible to make sure there is a sufficient gap ahead at the start of a lap such that they will not overtake a car ahead on a flying lap.

4.3 Yellow Flags During Qualifying

Drivers on flying laps do not need to slow down or yield for yellow flags, but have the responsibility of avoiding collisions should there be an incident ahead. Do not report incidents where a lap was compromised due to avoiding a driver who has spun out and is stationary on track.

4.4 Pit Exit Line During Qualifying

During qualifying, drivers on a flying lap have the priority over cars exiting the pits. Take care not to impede those on a flying lap when exiting the pit lane. Note that the priority is reversed for the race in which cars exiting the pits and cars on track are both required to leave space for each other and all other racing rules apply.

Not observing these rules may result in qualifying warnings leading to a qualifying ban in a driver's next race.

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Section 5: Racing Rules

While we want to maintain fair and clean racing, accidents will happen. We will not tolerate abusing a driver that makes a mistake. Unless otherwise specified, we have a stewarding process to handle all on-track incidents through private tickets. Communication about tickets in public channels or direct messages to drivers, staff, and/or stewards will not be tolerated. Concerns may be brought to the attention of the administrators using the Admin-Help ticket tool. Harassment of others may result in a league ban.

While not mandatory, Sim Racing Alliance strongly suggests keeping the radar and a partial circuit map enabled while racing to prevent incidents.

5.1 Overlap

Overlap is defined by the front axle of the attacking car being alongside the rear axle of the defending car at the turn-in point of the defending car. This is not an exact science, so there is some leeway for drivers and Stewards to judge overlap.

5.2 Overtaking

In general, it is the responsibility of the car behind to choose a safe point to attempt an overtake, and to do so without causing an incident. Once the car behind establishes overlap, it becomes the responsibility of both drivers to avoid an incident.

While cornering, the driver behind must have established overlap to the car in front at the lead driver's turn-in point for the corner before they should attempt an overtake. If there is no overlap at this point, the leading driver has the right to their racing line and does not need to leave space for the attacking driver.

Any collision during an attempted overtake may be subject to a penalty. If a rear-end collision is predicted in a braking zone, it is recommended to aim for the outside of the corner to avoid contact. Note that the turn-in point is not the start of the braking zone; drivers can still out brake each other to establish overlap before turn-in.

5.3 Overtaking and Violating Track Limits

If an unfair advantage is gained from an off-track event, and an unfair advantage is gained from going off-track during an overtake (either as an attacker or defender), the position should be yielded to the other car, except if the off-track was made to avoid an incident. Stewards reserve the right to penalize keeping an unfair advantage from track limit violations.

5.4 Defending on the Straights and Squeezing

The car in front can choose any line they like to drive, as long as they are ahead of the car behind. However, they are only allowed to change direction once before the braking zone to defend, and can only defend one side of the road: either the inside, or the outside (i.e., weaving is not allowed). Any reactionary move to cut off the trajectory of cars behind after the first defensive move is made is construed as blocking and subject to penalties at the steward's discretion.

On a straight, any amount of overlap entitles a car to side-by-side space (unlike corners where axle to axle overlap must be achieved before the turn in of the lead/defending car). After overlap has been achieved on a straight, both the attacking and defending cars are entitled to their current line and are not required to move away from their current line as they approach the next corner. A driver attempting to guide or squeeze a car across the track while overlap is established will be found at fault for any resulting contact.

5.5 Incidents During the Race/Failure to Hold Brakes/Unsafe Rejoins

If a driver has totally lost control of their car in an incident, they are required to hold their brakes until control is regained and there is a sufficient gap to rejoin the racing line. The goal is to be as predictable as possible so other drivers do not cause additional incidents.

If a driver is off-track, they must return to the track in a safe and predictable manner, and yield to cars that are on the racing line. More often than not, this means rejoining parallel to the track, off of the racing line. Unsafe rejoins and/or failure to hold brakes may result in a penalty at the discretion of the stewards.

5.6 Avoiding Incidents

Stewards will review incidents and assess whether or not more cars were indirectly involved. Actions such as forcing 3-wide, risky defending, and risky overtaking in the immediate vicinity of other cars can lead to such incidents. If cars that were indirectly involved are found to be at fault, they may be penalized by the stewards.

5.7 Yellow Flags

Under yellow flags, drivers are advised to drive cautiously and approach the incident prepared to reduce speed and take evasive action, if necessary. Stewards will penalize incidents caused under yellow flags more severely.

5.8 Black and Orange (Meatball) Flags

In most cases, drivers are shown the black and orange flag when they need to pit for repairs or turn on their headlights. If repairs are needed, drivers may attempt to drive back to the pits. If they do so, drivers are recommended to activate their flashers (left and right turn signals) and do their best to stay off the racing line to allow faster traffic to overtake safely.

If drivers find they can not drive back to the pits, they can stop their car off track and teleport to the pits. This will result in ACC holding them in their pit stall for approximately 2-4 minutes. There is no additional penalty for teleporting to the pits. Note that the game will automatically disqualify any cars that finish a race under the black and orange flag.

5.9 Blue Flags

In a race, a blue flag being shown means a car is about to lap a driver. When under blue flags, a driver is not allowed to defend from the lapping car when the lapping car makes an overtaking attempt. This does not mean the blue-flagged driver has to immediately slow down to let the lapping car through. Instead, it is up to the car behind to make a safe overtake, and for the lapped car to make sure they do not defend going into the next corner. Blue-flagged drivers should drive predictably and hold their line to avoid an incident with the lapping car.

With that being said, it is still advised that blue-flagged drivers make it easy for lapping cars to pass them as this most often leads to the least amount of time lost for both cars. The best way to accomplish this is to lift while off of the racing line in the middle of the straight.

Drivers must yield the position to the lapping car within one full lap starting at the first marshal post to wave blue flags, regardless of pit strategy.

5.10 Unlapping

Drivers are allowed to unlap themselves from cars that are laps ahead. Please only do so if you are confident that you are significantly faster than the car ahead and can pull away from them. After you have unlapped yourself, remember you are still not allowed to defend as long as there are blue flags.

5.11 Pit Lane Etiquette

Once cleared of the white line, drivers are free to race. Dotted white lines may be crossed freely. Incidents resulting from pit line infringements will be punished more severely.

During qualifying sessions, drivers exiting the pits must not interfere with drivers currently running hot laps. During a race session, drivers leaving the pits have priority, therefore, must be left space by drivers on track.

Drivers are expected to adhere to pit lane limits at all times. Stewards may enforce pit entry/exit requirements during the race defined by failure to keep 4 wheels within the white lines on pit entry/exit.

Drivers are not required to signal entering the pits (although it can be helpful at some circuits).

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Section 6: Penalties

Penalties are announced in the weekly incident report and remain subject to appeals for 24 hours after the report is published.

Sim Racing Alliance officials will not tolerate on-track retaliation of any kind. Any on-track retaliation will result in a race disqualification or a one-race ban. Depending on the severity, it may be escalated up to an immediate ban from the league.

6.1 Qualifying Penalties

Qualifying penalties are noted separately from race penalties. Stewards may apply qualifying warnings which include, but are not limited to pit exit infractions, hindering/impeding, overtaking, and causing a collision. Two qualifying warnings will result in a qualifying ban, but no penalty points are applied.

6.2 Race Penalties

6.2.1 Penalty Tiers

No Further Action (NFA): When the stewarding team believes there to be no incident, or no need to apply a penalty onto a single driver (i.e.: a racing incident).

Warning: The smallest penalty denomination that stewards may issue. Warnings may be issued to call attention to aggressive or unsafe driving behaviours such as excessive bump and runs, excessive weaving, moving under braking, etc. One penalty point will be issued for every two warnings awarded within the span of two races.

Penalty Points (PP): For mild to severe infringement of the sporting regulations, the stewards will issue penalty point(s) against the infringing driver's License. Penalty point(s) will remain on the license for 8 races.

Time Penalties: For mild to severe infringement of the sporting regulations, the stewards will issue time penalties that will be added to the total race time of the offending driver in the respective race.

Post-Race Penalties: For severe infractions, the stewards will issue additional penalties that must be served in future races after the infraction occurred.

Penalty Tier Summary:

• NFA
• Warning
• Warning +5s
• 10s + 1pp
• 20s + 2pp
• 30s + 2pp, qualifying ban next race (lap 1 upgrade only)
• 0s + 1pp (downgrade)
• 10s + 2pp (downgrade)
• 20s + 2pp (downgrade)

6.2.2 Penalty Point Structure

Multiple penalty point infractions acquired in the same race or consecutive races will result in an additional penalty point being applied. This behaves similar to the "warning" system, where two infractions result in a full penalty point. For example, if two penalties for 1pp each are earned in consecutive races, a third penalty point will be automatically applied. See section 6.2.1 for further information regarding warnings.

Penalty points will be calculated on an 8 race rolling basis, including between seasons. Penalties for each tier of penalty point accrual will only be administered once per season (i.e.: one qualifying ban (4pp), one pit lane start (6pp), one race ban (8pp)). However, the penalty points are not cleared after serving a penalty. Additionally, the penalty must be served in attendance of an official race, meaning failure to attend does not count as serving a penalty. See below for further details.

Post-race penalty summary:

• (4pp): Qualifying ban
• (6pp): Pit lane start
• (8pp): Race ban
• (10pp): Season ban

6.2.3 Serving Penalties

Time penalties will be retroactively applied to the respective race results by the organizers. Stop-go-30's are the exception and must be served during the following race.

Qualifying bans and pit lane starts will be enforced by the organizers at the start of the driver's following qualifying session. Enforcement will be issued in the form of in-game disqualification during the qualifying session.

All penalties that affect future races will remain active for TWO races, meaning the driver will have to serve the penalty even if they voluntarily skip one race. If a driver skips two races, the penalty will be cleared. Penalties will not roll over to the following season.

Note that all stacking penalties must be served. If two qualifying bans are earned, they must be served across two races. The attendance rule above still applies, however.

6.2.4 Returning Position

If a driver waits to return the position after causing an incident, the time penalty will be reduced by one tier. However, penalty points issued will remain the same.

6.2.5 Lap One Incidents

All lap one incidents will be automatically reviewed by the stewards and will be classified as L1AUTO in the penalty report. It is still encouraged to submit tickets for lap 1 incidents to provide further context for the stewards to consider.

All lap one incidents will have the penalty escalated by one tier because lap 1 incidents often detrimentally affect the race outcome. For severe cases, an additional penalty may be administered in the form of a 30s time penalty applied to the offending driver's next race.

6.2.6 Returning from a Season Ban

If a driver accumulates 10 penalty points over an 8-race span and receives a season ban, they will no longer be allowed to participate in the rest of the current season. They will be allowed to return for the next season but must begin the season under probation. Previously banned drivers must not accumulate 2 penalty points in the first 4 races they participate in. If 2 penalty points are earned in the 4-race probationary period, the driver will receive another season ban and will not be allowed to race until the following season.

6.3 Reporting Incidents

Sim Racing Alliance stewards use the ticketing tool in Discord. A driver must create a new ticket for each incident that they wish to report using the Submit-a-Ticket ticket tool in Discord. Drivers MUST review their own incidents via replays before submitting a ticket. The ticket must include the information requested in the prompt provided by the ticket tool. This includes screenshots or videos for each incident.

While not required, if a driver causes an incident, the league strongly recommends our community members to reach out to the involved driver(s) via direct messages to apologize.

6.4 Post-Race Stewarding

A driver must submit incident reports within 24 hours after the respective race ends. Tickets are to be strictly limited to submission by the cars involved, or by teammates of the cars involved in an incident. Reporting a third-party incident is strictly forbidden.

Stewards will go over all tickets and post a penalty report in the penalties channel of the Discord. If a steward or a steward's teammate was involved in an incident, they will not be involved in the ruling for that particular incident.

6.5 Report Format

Ticket submissions are required to provide the information requested in the prompt provided by the ticket tool. If a ticket does not follow the format or fails to provide all information requested, the ticket may be deemed invalid and may not be reviewed by the stewards.

6.6 Appealing

Drivers can appeal post-race stewarding decisions if they feel that the penalty issued in the penalty report was unfair. Only the penalized driver may submit an appeal.

To submit a post-race appeal, the penalized driver must submit a new ticket within 24 hours after the stewards post the penalty report in the Penalties channel of the Discord. In the new ticket, it is required to reference the original ticket number for which the appeal is opened and include justification for a different ruling.

Stewards will have a fresh look at the incident and post an appeal report later in the week.

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Appendix A: Changelog

Season 12 Changes

• Updated and clarified Section 5.4, defending and squeezing on straights.

Season 11 Changes

• Added details to Section 5.11 regarding consequences for removing pit boards.
• Changed the harshest lap 1 penalty from 30s in the following race to a qualifying ban in the following race. See Section 6.2.1.
• Tweaked penalty point application, adding an additional penalty point for any two infractions during the same or consective races. See Section 6.2.2.

Season 7 Changes

• Added details regarding driver number selection and availability.
• Added the admin right to request telemetry data if a driver is suspected of cheating.
• Changed the 4-penalty-point tier from a pit lane start to a qualifying ban.
• Implemented an absolute blue flag rule, active regardless of pit strategy differences.
• General condensing and clean-up.

Season 6 Changes

• No changes.

Season 5 Changes

• For races with greater than 50 drivers, priority goes to drivers with teammates instead of fastest practice times.
• Included LAN server clause if Kunos servers are down or causing delays.
• Added "Drivers' Briefing" section.
• Included clause for qualifying bans in the "Qualifying Rules" section.
• Clarified all qualifying rules, no major changes.
• Clarified all racing rules, no major changes.
• Clarified grounds for qualifying warnings.
• Removed penalties that award 3pp for a single incident, removed the SG30 penalty, created a warning +5s.
• Replaced qualifying ban for 4 accrued penalty points with an additional pit lane start.
• Added "Serving Penalties" section for race-to-race rollover.
• Added "Returning from a Season Ban" section.
• Added clause limiting drivers to submitting tickets on their own or their teammate's incidents in the "Post-Race Stewarding" section.
• Removed limit of 3 failed appeals.