MSA TORA GT Season 8 - Rules and Regulations

General Rules & Driving Etiquette

GT racing, as defined by TORA, is a non contact sport. It is understandable that on occasion some contact may occur that is not expected by either party, for example due to lag. Competitors with 'lag' issues will not be penalized, but may be asked to improve their connection, if the issue is persistently hindering other's experiences please see connection section.

TORA expects competitors who partake in its championships and meetings to behave in an appropriate and respectable manner. Insulting comments or behaviour towards fellow competitors and race stewards is unacceptable and will be dealt with severely.

Competitors who are being followed on a straight part of a track by another car may move their position on the track ONCE to defend, any further sufficient movement outside of cornering will be deemed as weaving and you may be reported to the race director or head steward after the race.

If a competitor leaves the track at any time, it is advised that extra caution is taken not to impede other drivers when rejoining, please check and look before rejoining the track. Common courtesy stipulates that a driver in a dangerous position on the circuit should alert oncoming drivers of their position to avoid additional incidents, (essentially the yellow flag rules.)

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 are allowed five warnings of all four wheels leaving the track via the inside of a corner, at any part of the circuit. If a sixth 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.

2012 TORA MSA GT Championships

The TORA MSA GT series will be fought over 10 race meetings, 20 races from January 2012 to May 2012. The series will have 3 championships up for grabs.

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

This will be a championship fought by each driver for themselves. The total amount of points at the end of the series, minus the lowest scoring round from their overall points will be their final points total and will result in their position in the overall drivers standing at the end of the year. This championship is for team and privateer drivers.

TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP

A team will be made up of 3 drivers, all driving the same car. This championship will be scored by the total points score for both team drivers over the course of the championship.

- Team Driver Changes
From the start of the series, the full time driver line up may have a maximum two driver changes for the entire series. If another full time driver change occurs, the total point score for the team will take a 10% reduction at the end of the year, and a subsequent 10% more for each further change. A fulltime driver change would need to be applied for via a new entry form as per championship sign-up.

- Substitute Drivers
For the length of the entire series, a team may make use of substitute driver if a full time driver cannot make a meeting. This substitute driver is eligible to score points for the drivers championship, and towards the points for the team they are driving for that meeting. A team has a maximum of 2 substitutes per season. Any further substitutes, and the replacement driver will not score points for the team they are driving for. Substitute drivers must be made aware to the series runners before commencing the race meeting itself.

The substitute driver can come from an existing supplied 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.

SUPPLIERS CHAMPIONSHIP (Customer Cars)

The aim of the Championship is for teams to fight for an extra championship, giving the quicker teams a slightly tougher challenge, whilst at the same time allowing teams and drivers less "fortunate" to be able to race at a higher competitive level.

Each series team have the choice to take part in the Suppliers Championship. Each can do this by acquiring and helping customer teams and Privateers who may wish to receive help with their series campaign. The cars for each of the teams and Privateers in no way have to be the same, simply that the Supplier team will give the help to their respective Customer team and Privateer through racecraft, tuning, liveries and any other part of the series.

Each supplier can have one team, and one privateer under their wing. This means that a supplier team can be scoring points up to 7 drivers to go toward their Suppliers Championship points. Applications for this championship should be made by the Customer team or Privateer to the series owners. Suppliers will only score points from the point it is made aware they have begun helping their Customers.

If a Customer feels they are not receiving the right amount of support from their Supplier, they may make an appeal to the series owners that they wish to leave their Supplier.

Important: A team whose members belong to a particular team, or "club" (eg VVV, EZT, F4H) maybe not be the supplier to another team or privateer who has a member belonging to either the same or a different Club.

Race Rules

Safety Car Rules

There will be no designated ‘safety car’ vehicle utilised in our championships. Due to the limited nature of online race lobbies. However TORA does operate general safety car regulations which provide a similar outcome, utilising the lead vehicle in the lobby to slow the cars to a safe speed whilst any obstruction is cleared from the circuit, or allowing affected competitors to repair any damage and catch up with the rest of the field.

When the Safety Car Is Used
The Safety Car will only be deployed if an incident or incidents occur between three or more competitors that severly impairs all competitors involved. Only a driver involved in the incident may request the safety car, and make the request to the Lobby Captain. The Lobby Captain may seek the opinions of other competitors, before making the decision to activate the safety car period.

The Safety Car may not be requested during the final two laps of a race.

Forming a Safety Car Period
In the event of a safety car period being called, the lead car takes the role of the Safety Car or Pace Car. The Safety Car must not exceed 80MPH and the pack must form in current race position in single file.

Conduct During Safety Car Period
Drivers involved in the incident should form at the back of the pack, in order of relative position before the incident, unless there is an obvious instigator. Competitors must keep a reasonable distance during the Safety Car Period. Brake testing during the Safety Car period will not be tolerated and may lead to penalties, either race meeting or championship. Warming of tyres is permitted but must be undertaken in a safe manner with due consideration given to other competitors. Competitors who leave the track by their own volition during the Safety Car period may be passed by the rest of the pack and the competitor will form at the back of the field.

Drivers not involved in the incident may pit during a Safety Car Period, but will become resume the race at the back of the field. If the grid has not formed by the time the pole sitter reaches the pit lane entrance, the safety car may continue for another lap. It is YOUR duty to ensure the safety of your fellow competitors.

Race Meeting Set-Up

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 for the race meeting organisers confirmation before being allowed to race. Certain factors may come into account, such as if there are 16 people racing, and one person who hasn't posted in would cause a split lobby of 9 and 8 in each lobby, in decision making for those not posted in before the event.

QUALIFYING

Event qualifying will begin at 8pm. Apart from if someone has already attempted to join a lobby but had connection issues, there are no exceptions to this start time.

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 reason stated before the start time of the race meeting will not be able to take part in qualifying. The qualifying session will should no later than 5 minutes from the designated race meeting start time.

Settings
- A 6 second roll off delay will be in effect to accommodate a greater opportunity for clean running and driving concentration. Collisions will be set off, and damaged will be limited.
- Qualifying is set to 5 laps, 1 warm-up lap, 3 qualifying laps, and the last is used for the lobby hosts to collect times before competitors cross the line to finish the session. "Clean" qualifying laps are over "Dirty" laps. A slower "Clean" lap will start the race ahead of a quicker "dirty" lap. Make it count!
- Once Qualifying is over, ‘Live Timing’ will be updated along with who will host the various racing lobbies. TORA will ensure that this process is completed as quickly as possible but please expect a minimum of a 10 minute break after the qualifying session for which the TORA team will set up race lobbies.
- Any driver who had not set a qualifying time will be able to join the race at the back of the field, upon the race directors approval.

RACE

Apart from if someone has already attempted to join a lobby but had connection issues, there are no exceptions to race start time.

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.

Race 1 - Start time - 8:45pm UK Time - 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. The race begins in this order by a rolling start.
Race 2 - Start time - 9:30pm Uk Time - Grid will be the results of the race one results. The race begins in this order by a rolling start.

Rolling Start
Competitors will perform a single Formation lap to set the grid positions, before a rolling start on lap 2 begins race conditions. We ask all competitors to listen to the lobby host for what speed they should drive on the parade lap. Competitors are asked not to move until the lobby host reads out the grid order and confirms when they can move off. We ask that competitors do not race one-another in the formation lap as to not interfere with the grid order, any resulting infringements will be reported to the race director and penalties may be given.

To achieve a rolling start the competitors may be led by the lead car until the start signal is given. All rolling starts must be in 2 x 2 formation. Once the lead driver reaches a pre-designated section on the track (usually the final corner), they shall let the pack bunch up side by side in a two by two formation. the lead driver is given the choice what side he wishes to begin the race on, and all following competitors must follow this lead.

When all drivers are in position and the field are all on the start / finish straight, getting confirmation from the last driver that all are in position, the lead driver may start racing conditions by shouting "Go" and accelerating.

Under no circumstance shall any competitor be allowed to pass the vehicle in front until they have passed the start and finish line. Should a car overtake another before the line, the offending driver must give the place back within 3 corners, or penalties will be given out.

Mandatory Pit Stops
There will be 1 mandatory pit-stop during each race. This pitstop must be taken no earlier than 8 minutes into the race, and no later than 18 minutes into the race. If they do not pit in this pit window, then penalties will be given out. Anyone involved in an incident may make use of the safety car to fix repairs, however this mandatory pit-stop must still occur within this 10 minutes time frame. The "pitlane entry" is marked by the first white line after the pitlane limiter and autodriver has been activated. If the line is crossed before 8 minutes has elapsed, this is not a legal pitstop and must be taken again.

Settings
- Collisions during all races will be on, and set with Limited Damage. All driving aids will be available, apart from ABS, STM and auto-brake. Steering will be a choice between "simulation" & "normal" due to issues made aware by Fanatec for wheel users.
- Each race will be approximately 25mins in length, denoted by a set number of laps. Racing conditions begin from the rolling start all the way to the chequered flag, racing to end the lobby race session.

Series Calendar - http://www.theonlineracingassociation.com/msa-gt-gallery.html

Bump -

With the Gt24 over I cant wait for the MSA TORA GT 2012 Championship to start our official 2012 MSA Championships off

I'm loving the new rules... Simulation steering is going to be a pain! Never really used it before but I think it speaks for itself!

Two races on a night will give me a lot of satisfaction... unless I have to endure a really bad car for both of them instead of one with 24 laps!

the two-race setup has been a staple for the GT series, since i've been here at least (when i joined, it was 1 sprint race, followed by a longer Feature Race, but i like this format better). And this way it'd be easier to get the commentary without the video feed to cut out mid-broadcast

Quick question about the no overtaking before you cross the line rolling starts, what if you're in a full 16 player lobby and qualify 14th and it's at Sebring or Indy and you've got good acceleration and top speed, why must you wait to overtake until you have passed the start/finish line when the point of a rolling start is as soon as the lead driver shouts go you start racing and can overtake?

I'm just thinking because in larger fields cars further back in the field will only cross the line a couple of seconds after the leader so can't overtake for a few more seconds and may have to back off if someone in front has a bad start.

Yes, you'd have to easy off if your going to overtake before the line. No overtaking before the line

What I fear is that too may restrictions in rolling starts just leads to unnecessary bickering between people on the same rows arguing over who overtook who before the line.

As I see it, as long as you don't overtake the row in front, you can place your car wherever, like a real rolling start. I hate having to constantly slow down to stay slightly behind the guy on the inside of my row. All it does is take away the advantage of getting a good start..

the simple way to do it is either let people overtake before the line or dont let them overtake before the line.

"TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP
A team will be made up of 3 drivers, all driving the same car. This championship will be scored by the total points score for both team drivers over the course of the championship. "

What does the 2nd sentence mean?

Means basically your 2 highest finishing drivers will score in a round for example -

Driver 1 - Fin 1
Driver 2 - Fin 5
Driver 3 - Fin 3

Driver 1 & 3 would score team points

Will turn 1 at Indy be an exception to "The track limit Rule" or will we use the grass as the limit since the whitle line is out in the middle of the road?

this came up in the GT24, and i believe the same ruling about Turn 1 @ Indy will apply, where we will use the grass as the track limit

Grass is the track limit. 2 wheels must remain on the track.

This will be my first time participating so please excuse the potentially stupid question.

The rules state: "Competitors will perform a single Formation lap to set the grid positions, before a rolling start on lap 2 begins race conditions."
and "This pitstop must be taken no earlier than 8 minutes into the race, and no later than 18 minutes into the race. "

Does that mean we can only pit after 8 minutes + the time it took for the formation lap, or once the in-game timer reads 8 minutes?

Very good question and something I was going to clarify, its when the race timer reaches 8 minutes, not the race time + formation lap lap as that may be difficult to calculate when in the heat of a battle.

This basically means that the pit window opens roughly 6 - 6.5 minutes into green flag racing.

So yes, 8 minutes on the session timer

Si, the pits for Indy is broken for the Wiesmann no matter what speed I enter. I'm losing loads of time as my car gets reset. This does not happen to most other cars no matter how fast they pit.

The pits for Indy make this race very unfair. I would lose a few places easily just from pitting. ;O(

No pit stops at Indy please or there is no point the Wiesmann entering.

I tried many cars last night at different grid positions and it seems to occur randomly but extremely infrequently. I'll try the Wiesmann again tonight, but I'm sure the computer isnt just picking on you personally

it happens everytime i have pitted in the wiesmann matey

happens when i pit also.Even very very slowly it resets car.Tried Lambo and LFA and they didnt do it.

is it happening when your in 'Test Drive' mode? i remember it happened once with my 458 while testing for the GT24 race, but the race itself, it hadn't happened

I'm having it in test drive mode in the audi.

I don't remember it happening to anyone in the race last time though?

After tonight's Race of Champions event, I'll host a practice session for tomorrows season opener, where we can try pitstops

so 10pm BST Gt Test session? ill be there

Three of us were running last night, and it was always the guy starting on the pole that got screwed while in the pits.

online races ;O(