Statement regarding current Driving Standards and Stewarding

Over the last few months the driving standards within TORA have gone rapidly downhill. Now, I don't know why everyone seems to have forgotton the basics of race craft, but some of the racing witnessed on here just now is worse than going into a random lobby online. It's pathetic.

Currently our numbers are extremely low. We have started off our first Forza 4 series and we are lucky to have a full lobby at maximum. We should be doing better than that. Maybe it's the series that aren't very attractive, for that I am sorry, but I firmly believe that our lack of numbers is because our quality of driving and stewarding has slipped and our series are turing into crash filled bitchfests between all the drivers and it results in a 12 person bumper car race.

Recently, across all our series, I have witnessed some utterly terrible driving both in official races and general practice. In our latest Forza 3 series we saw the Touring Cars turn into stock cars on some occasions with drivers simply bashing people out of the way or off the track to gain an advantage. We saw cars coming back onto the track at full throttle and wipe out the entire field. There has been a constant theme from some people in attempting moves that will never happen and the result is two cars being taken off the track. The major contributing factor in the current demolishion derby that is the TCC is, in my belief, thanks to cosmetic damage. This has given people a free pass if they run into another car or into a wall. They can just continue on as if nothing happened.

In the ISCC I have seen numerous examples of a complete inability to drive the fast LMP cars. Incidents in that series have ranged from dangerous driving, hitting walls at full speed and taking out other cars along with them, running straight into the back of GT2 cars at full racing speed and overtaking manouvers that puts the slower car at risk and prevents them from making the corner. This is completely unacceptable driving.

In contrast, our GT series was extemely clean and there were very few incidents, none that warrented further investigation anyway. The people involved in that series, many long standing TORA members but also numerous big named teams like VVV and GLR, understood how to race cleanely and were careful with their driving. It was ideal and that is the standard I expect from everyone at TORA.

Of course not all the blame can be directed at the drivers. TORA has taken a very lackadaisical view on Stewarding and Incidents over the last year. Up until recently, we have had very few incidents so we have not really had to carry out any investigations or check people's standards of driving. We accepted this and believed that people had grown up and understood how to race properly. Obviously we were wrong and have been proven so by recent events.

I have spoken to a number of drivers from other communities and the so called big teams, more out of interest as to why they don't race within TORA. Their answer mainly focused around out lack of Stewarding and seriousness about our series. I now understand where their views come from.

Our rules and regulations regarding Driving Standards and Incidents will be changing. We will be taking much more serious view of how our series are run and how we penalize people.

All of our series will now run with at least Limited Damage in an effort to prevent any further bumper car races. If you damage your car it's your own fault and you should be put off by hitting other people as you will not only ruin your race but theirs as well. The TCC and GTs will follow this whilst the ISCC will remain at Simulation Damage levels.

With regards to the LMP class in the ISCC, drivers will have to prove to us that they are competent to drive them well and can succesfully manage their way through traffic in a car with a high power and grip rating. Drivers who are either new to LMP or current LMP drivers who we believe are a risk to the GT cars must race in the LMPC class until they can prove they are capable of running in the top flight of LMP.

We will also be introducing a warning system for drivers, where if you recieve a set amount of warnings your will face a race ban and possible exlusion from the results. This will not reflect well on yourself, and it will not be series specific. Whatever penalties your accrue will be TORA wide.

We will be keeping a constant eye on the races being run and there will be stewards present throughout the meetings. We will not be waiting for anyone to come forward and report an incident. Instead, we will be reviewing the races during and after and penalizing people as we see fit. If you are found to be cutting corners or intentionally attempting to gain an advantage then we will pull you up about it.

Safety car rules will also be under review.

I understand that some people will not like this, but until I see an improvement of the Driving Standards within TORA, I will be taking a strict stand on this.