TORA US Spec Miata Cup Rules and Regulations

Welcome to the 2015 TORAus Spec Miata Cup

Racing and Driving Etiquette:
Spec racing is a non-contact sport. But, some contact is expected or unavoidable. If you feel that you have been involved in intentional contact whereby you have lost ground in the race, please take 5 minutes to file a Report within 36 hours whereby the Stewarding team will privately review it and decide what action is taken,

We expect each and every competitor that attends any of the championship meetings to behave and communicate in a respectable manner to every single competitor, Steward and Race Marshall. If you feel a comment may be offensive, hurtful, or unnecessary then please don't say it at all.

Track Limits:
The track limits are determined by the solid white lines either side of the track. At all times, two wheels must remain on this part of the circuit, unless of an occurrence where it is near to impossible to keep two wheels on the track, like avoiding a collision. During a race meeting, each time the track limits are not adhered to, a warning will be given. Each driver will be allowed three warnings of all four wheels leaving the track via the inside of a corner, at any part of the circuit. If a fourth and subsequent "corner cutting" occurrences happen within a race meeting, then that driver will lose a position for each corner cut. Again, if a corner is cut to avoid a collision, this would not be given a warning.

The track limits must be adhered to in the event of gaining an advantage whilst having an on-track battle. If a driver overtakes a driver by getting all four wheels off the track, the driver must give that position back before they may continue the race. If the driver which was overtaken backs off heavily either through incident or "mechanical" failure, then the position will not need to be given back.

If at any point you leave the track, you must wait for a chance to return, at NO point may a driver return to the track into oncoming traffic. When coming back of please call out that you are returning onto the circuit.

Driver and Team Entry Rules:
You have the option to be a team of two or three drivers, or a single privateer entry. The TORA US Spec Miata Cup will have the use of Two championships. These championships are: Drivers and Teams.

Once you have signed up with your team and completed your first Qualifying/Race, you are then 'locked-in' with your choice and current Driver line up for the remainder of the series, however a new driver may be added to a spare seat in a team entry if they have not yet competed.
If at some point a driver 1 decides to give up his seat for any reason (e.g.  due to real life commitments. )
Then another driver can take that seat. The points that driver 1 totals will be lost and the new driver will start from zero.
However the teams total points will be unaffected.

Privateer entries may only become a team entry IF the original Privateer driver has not yet completed a round.


Championship Scoring:
Drivers Championship: All drivers are by themselves when earning these points. There will be one dropped round for the Drivers Championship.



Teams Championship: This championship is to determine the team with the most points at the end of the season. However, only the top two drivers will score points for their team in any given race in order to keep it fair for teams that choose to run just two cars. Dropped rounds for individual drivers do not factor into the Teams Championship.

Reserve Drivers: You may only use one reserve driver per Team over the course of the entire championship. The reserve driver can come from an existing team, privateer, or any other friend. A substitute driver may only score points for the team they are driving for in any particular race, and must remain in a single car/team for an entire race meeting.


Race Format Rules

Qualifying:
Qualifying procedure will be the following:
We ask that all competitors are on Xbox live 15 minutes prior to the start of the race meeting, and appear online. Where necessary, if each competitor could post "In" in the relevant race meeting thread on the TORA forums. Anyone who wishes to race without posting "In" will need to wait the race meeting organizers confirmation before being allowed to race.

TORA’s ‘Live Timing’ system will be updated prior to the race meeting with who your lobby host will be for qualifying, and will be updated during the meeting with the results. One invite will be sent out to all race entrants. This invite will also denote your qualifying lobby.

If a connection issue is apparent please contact the race director or lobby host as soon as possible and they will do their best to ensure you can connect to the qualifying lobby.

Competitors who are not connected to the host’s room at the start time without good reason stated before the start time of the race meeting will not be able to take part in qualifying. The qualifying session will start no later than 10 minutes from the designated race meeting start time.

The Qualifying lobby will be set to Six Laps. At the beginning of the final lap, all drivers must pull off to the first turn and away from the immediate track to allow anyone still qualifying to not be distracted, once all drivers are finished, the host will take down each driver's lap time; however, each driver MUST confirm their time with the host before leaving to minimize any errors.

If there is only one single lobby for the round, all drivers MUST finish the session and remain in lobby. Anyone who leaves the lobby in this case will forfeit their starting spot and thus will start from the rear of the grid.


Race:
TORA’s ‘Live Timing’ system will be updated after qualifying has taken place to update you who your lobby host will be. We ask that all competitors remain on Xbox live for the start of the race. ONE invite will be sent out to all race entrants. This will denote your race lobby. If a connection issue is apparent please contact the race director or lobby host ASAP and they will do their best to ensure you can connect to the race lobby.

Competitors who are not connected to the host’s room, or contacted a race official to explain a delay, after 10 minutes of the race lobby invite has been sent will not be able to take part in race.

Grid will be the results of the qualifying session. All drivers with "clean" laps in qualifying will be before all drivers who set "dirty" laps. Races will take place over a pre-determined amount of laps.

Race:
There will be two races per evening, a shorter "Sprint" race and a longer "Feature" race.

Race 1 grid will be based on qualifying results (lobby points). Race 1 will commence as a standing start, beginning when the game begins. The game will countdown 3, 2, 1, and upon completion of the countdown, racing will begin.

Race 2 will be lined up via Reverse finish order of Race 1, meaning that the Winner of Race 1 will start last. Race 2 will begin with a reconnaissance lap and a double-file rolling start. The driver starting first in Race 2 will have control of the field and may commence racing once everyone is formed at the rear of the pack and in the start zone (to be designated by the host on the night of the race).

The races will last for a pre-designated amount of laps (added to sign-in thread as well as series schedule thread), the races will NOT require a pit stop.

Safety Car/Restarts: Incidents involving three cars or more before the leader completes the first racing lap will result in a restart. After the leader has completed the first racing lap, incidents involving three cars or more will result in a Safety Car period.

Driver Aids/Assists:

- Collisions during all races will be on, and set with Limited Damage. TCS, ABS, Driving Line and Normal/Simulation Steering are the only allowed driving aids that may be used., STM, Auto-brake and Auto-gears are prohibited. Manual gears must be used but it is up to the competitor if they wish to use the clutch or not.

At the completion of the race the finishing results will be recorded and the points will be tallied up, If a person should lag out before the conclusion of the race their finishing position for that race will be counted as the back of the grid.

Above all please have fun, this Event is based around sportsmanship so we do hope no action is needed for intentional rule-breaking, Good Luck to all competitors and we hope you Enjoy the Championship!

Rules and Regulations Changes - October 5, 2015

The following changes were made to the rules and regulations today. Some of these are not necessarily changes but clarifying items that were not previous covered.

Changed qualifying laps to six laps:
One warmup lap, four flying laps, and one cooldown lap.

Clarified race start procedures for Race 1 and Race 2:
Race 1 grid will be based on qualifying results (lobby points). Race 1 will commence as a standing start, beginning when the game begins. The game will countdown 3, 2, 1, and upon completion of the countdown, racing will begin.

Race 2 will be lined up via Reverse finish order of Race 1, meaning that the Winner of Race 1 will start last. Race 2 will begin with a reconnaissance lap and a double-file rolling start. The driver starting first in Race 2 will have control of the field and may commence racing once everyone is formed at the rear of the pack and in the start zone (to be designated by the host on the night of the race).

Added Guidance for Dropped Rounds:
One round will be dropped for the Drivers Championship. No rounds will be dropped for the Teams Championship.

Added Guidance for Restarts/Safety Car Periods:
Incidents involving three cars or more before the leader completes the first racing lap will result in a restart. After the leader has completed the first racing lap, incidents involving three cars or more will result in a Safety Car period.