GT3 Season XVIII

You are expected to build a 2-3 seconds gap early in the out lap and maintain this gap. Manage pace to ensure no build up of cars is forming behind due to excessive slowing. It is not allowed to sit on the car aheads' bumper for the entire out lap to then create a gap in the final sector, due to the cars behind building gaps.

Overtaking is not permitted during qualifying while the cars involved are on a hotlap, with the exceptions of the car in front leaving the track completely, crashing or yielding. Should you wish to allow a car to overtake in this session, you must actively move from the racing line and yield in a safe and controlled manner.

In case you get spun by another driver or spin on your own close to other cars, you are expected to hit the brakes. If you get spun and hit the brakes within an acceptable time, you are protected from penalties derived by further collisions. If you do not hit the brakes within an acceptable time and get collected by other cars you will likely be penalized.

Stay within the white line when entering and exiting the pit lane. The game allows a small tolerance in speed limits while travelling in the pits. You are not allowed to exploit that tolerance while driving in the pit lane. We let the game enforce speed limits and penalties - within its tolerance - while cars are crossing the pit entry line and are still significantly slowing down, but once the car is slowed down the pit limiter speed must be observed. Failing to do so is a reportable offense which will lead to penalties. Pit entry speeding limits and penalties are at the same time, in the more extreme cases, enforced by the game and may lead to non-reversible penalties. If you cause a dangerous situation by crossing the pit entrance or exit line, or if this is done in a way that blatantly gains time or track position, you will be penalised. Taking out the pit-limiter marker is a punishable offense.

Spotters are only allowed to use the spectator password when live-stewarding is involved in a race. Spotters are not allowed to use the in-game chat at all. Abuse of this will result in spotters no longer being allowed as spectators for the remainder of the season. This will be monitored by the coordinators.

Respect the coordinators and stewards.

Listen to the coordinators if they are giving a message, and accept the decisions they make. If you feel any actions/decisions are wrong, address the issue calmly and maturely. Coordinators' decisions are final within the lobby, but may be reviewed later if you feel an error has been made. Please accept that making a call instantly can be tricky and the coordinators, even if participating in the race, are expected to be entirely neutral.

Don't be disrespectful towards the stewards or publicly make fun of them. Being disappointed about a decision made by the stewards is understandable, but there is no need to be disrespectful.

Uninformed no-shows (NS) - meaning you didn't sign-out of a race / inform a coordinator in time - do NOT count towards the drop result caluculation. This means you will lose the points of an additional race (your worst result of the season of the other races you showed up to). 

We have two systems in place to enforce rules and penalize on-track wrongdoing:

• Live Stewarding
• Stewards Panel system
  
  

During live stewarding, stewards will be spectating the race, investigating incidents and handing out penalties while the race is ongoing. The Stewards Panel system will be in place during every official league race where live stewarding is not in place.

What you can make a stewards enquiry for:
• Racing incidents: If you feel another driver has caused an incident - eg. hitting your car, forcing you off the track, or generally driving too aggressively - you should report this to the stewards for investigation.
• Track limits: If you witness another driver persistently gaining time by abusing the track limits by either running wide or cutting corners, you should report this to the stewards for investigation.
• Dangerous driving: If a driver rejoins the track 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 that you are directly involved in. A breach of rule violations such as abusing the maximum speed allowed in the pit lane, where no other driver may directly be involved, can be considered an exception to this rule. The stewards will in such cases on a per case basis determine,  whether an inquiry was rightfully made or if it is considered nit-picking. 

Reporting an incident that you heard about, saw behind you or in general had no influence on you at all, will not be accepted. This is to further lower the risk of a "nit-picking" environment. Two drivers may collide, shake hands and speak no more of it. If someone goes and starts causing trouble for the sake of it, the enquiries will be closed if those involved in the incident prefer it to go no further. Members of the @Coordinator ACC PC group, may open steward enquiries on any driver.

Uploading video evidence: Any video evidence submitted in a stewards enquiry must be uploaded to a video streaming site (such as YouTube and Streamable) before being embedded and/or linked to in the enquiry thread. Stewards should not have to download video files in order to watch your evidence.
The following elements, recorded from the race replay, are required in the video:
• Cockpit and Chase point of view of the driver submitting the enquiry, recorded at normal speed and with HUD activated
• Cockpit and Chase point of view of the driver who caused the incident, recorded at normal speed and with HUD activated
Any additional point of view can be added after the required elements. When the enquiry is related to ignoring blue flags, the cockpit point of views are not a requirement. If the video evidence is part of a longer video that also contains other parts of the race, a time stamp must be provided next to the video to guide the stewards to the relevant part of the video where the evidence can be found. Failing to do this may lead to the evidence being dismissed.

In case more than five drivers were directly involved in one and the same incident - the driver creating the inquiry is expected to upload the replay of the race and post a link to it in the inquiry description. Only the stewards are allowed to request addition of the replay file, as it adds no value for other drivers involved. This driver will be contacted by one of the coordinators.

The game offers an option to save replays automatically. It can be found in the General options of the game. Enable "Auto save replays" and change the "Replay max length" setting to the highest possible. It is then also possible to bind a button on your wheel/keyboard to save the replay manually.

The stewards have a variety of penalties that may be applied to punish drivers who break our racing rules, depending on the severity of the violation. The available penalties received in the stewards panel are sorted below, in order of severity and will depend on the Stewards decision. Penalty points may or may not be added to the Drivers License - see further down for more details. (Note that penalties may be added together in the event of multiple violations in a race, which could result in higher penalties than what is suggested below)

• 5-60 Second penalty for - Driving in a dangerous or unsporting manner.
• 5-15 Second penalty for - Causing a minor avoidable collision.
• tbd*-45 Second penalty for  - Causing a moderate avoidable collision.
• 45-75 Second penalty for - Causing a significant avoidable collision.
• 75 - Race Ban - Causing a major avoidable collision.

The above time penalties will be applied post race.

*subject to change, range for moderate penalties is currently under review and will be decided on and announced at latest before the start of the first race.

Driver’s License accumulations:

• If a driver accumulates 5 points, they will be awarded a Qualifying ban
• If a driver accumulates 8 points, they will be awarded a Race ban
• If a driver accumulates 10 points, they will be removed from the league
• If a driver accumulates 5 or more points during one event, they will be awarded a Race Ban.
  
  

When a driver accumulates more than 6 points during a season, at the end of that season the drivers' position in the league will be reviewed for future seasons.

Every second warning a driver receives, automatically results in 1 license point.

The available race penalties during live stewarding are:
● 5-10-15 second time penalty - Dangerous driving, driving in an unsporting manner or causing a minor avoidable collision.
● 0-45 second time penalty - Causing a moderate avoidable collision.
● 0-75 second time penalty - Causing a significant avoidable collision.
● 0-90 second time penalty - Causing a major avoidable collision.

● Disqualification - Intentionally trying or crashing into another car and other unacceptable behavior. Can also be used by the race director for various other reasons (which will be stated in Discord after the race).

The penalty points system will be implemented during live stewarding for Tier One races. 
No penalties carry over to the next race. Penalty points will be reset at the end of every season.

Penalty points will be added to a driver's record when they receive an in-game penalty.
● Receiving a 5 or 10 second time penalty for dangerous driving or a minor avoidable collision, will result in 0 penalty points
● Receiving a 15 second time penalty or more than one penalty for minor collisions or dangerous driving during a race, will result in 1 penalty point
● Receiving a penalty for a moderate avoidable collision during the race, will result in 2 penalty points
● Receiving a penalty for a significant avoidable collision during the race, will result in 3 penalty points
● Receiving a penalty for a major avoidable collision during the race, will result in 4 penalty points

Reaching the following amounts of penalty points will have additional consequences:
• 5 penalty points results in receiving a qualifying ban. You will not be allowed to leave the pit-lane during the next qualifying session.
• 8 penalty points results in receiving a race ban. You will not be allowed to attend the next qualifying and race session. Your position in the league will be reviewed by the coordinators.
• 10 penalty points results in being removed from the league.

After every race, an overview of penalties awarded during the race will be published.

In case an incident is overlooked by the stewards, drivers can still create an enquiry through the Stewards Panel. This will be looked at by the Stewards and a verdict will be posted before the next race. Any time penalty received through the stewards panel, will be added to a driver's total race time of the most recent race.

While the race penalties and penalty points systems are aimed at dealing with on-track issues, the reprimand system deals with issues that may occur off the track. If you receive 3 reprimands, you will be removed from the league. Receiving 3 reprimands would also see you placed on the blacklist, meaning you would not be allowed to return to the leagues in the future. You will receive a reprimand for the following:

● Deliberately crashing out of the session
● Showing abusive behavior towards another driver, either in the race lobby or in discord.
● Intentionally hiding/removing evidence and/or footage to avoid receiving a penalty in an enquiry

As an additional tool, coordinators can give drivers a timeout in Discord. Receiving a timeout in Discord equals a reprimand.

Note that if we encounter situations where someone's behavior gets completely out of hand and is extremely serious, a ban may be applied directly regardless of reprimands accumulated.