EDF Motorsports GT4/TCR Challenge

Season 3

Rules Package

 

Content

About The Series

This is a championship for people who want to experience multi class racing, during European friendly time slots, in a controlled friendly league.

Our races take place on Wednesday evenings.

The cars we use are the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR, BMW M4 GT4 & the Audi RS 3 LMS. If further cars are added to these classes, we will add them to the league.

This is an open setup series where faster drivers are encouraged to help slower drivers with help, advice and hopefully the sharing of setups.

There are no minimum requirements for iRating or Safety Rating.

All of our races are shown live by Backfire Simsport TV.

The league is limited to 60 drivers, 30 in the GT4 class and 30 in the TCR class.

To secure your place you will need to sign up at https://backfire-simsport-tv.com/league/backfire-simsport-gt4tcr-challenge-season-3 and pay your fee (see below).

As a league driver, please let us know if your circumstances change and you can no longer race with us. We can then offer your place to another driver.

 

Fee

The fee for each 12 week season is £10.00 GBP, this covers the broadcast cost and also the hosting fee’s.

Fee’s are payable to backfiresimsporttv@gmail.com via PayPal and need to be in GBP. 

 

Liveries

Paint packs are used for the series. You are required to submit your paint in plenty of time to backfiresimsporttv@gmail.com

 

You will need to re-submit your paint if you make any changes.

 

A decal layer will be added to each paint by the admins. This will cover the front windshield banner and custom number blocks so please leave these area’s blank.

 

TCR cars will have neon green windshield banners and number blocks. GT4 cars will have neon orange windshield banners and number blocks,

 

Any driver that does not submit a paint will be given our league default paint.

 

We have a number of BSTV logo’s that we can share if you want to help to advertise the broadcaster on your car.

 

We do ask that you have permission to use any logo’s on your car from the owner.

 

Communication

We have our own Discord server for race nights and general chit chat.

We know most teams and drivers run their own voice comms so it is not mandatory to use our Discord. However, the broadcast and post race interviews will be done using the BSTV Discord server. 

A link to join our Discord server is on our website.

 

Championships

Both classes have separate championships.

At the end of each season, champions will be crowned in both the GT4 class and the TCR class.

Drivers are allowed 1 drop week to allow for any unforeseen circumstances, so your total points in the championship will be calculated from your best 11 results from the 12 races.

Teams Championship.

 

Teams are made up of two drivers and both scores will count towards the championship.

 

Independents Championship. Another championship for teams with only 1 entry. TCR and GT4 have separate Team & Independents championships.

 

Race Sessions

Our servers start at 7pm GMT on race days.

Practice = 40 mins

Qualifying = 20 mins

Race = 60 mins

Race fuel is limited to 30% of a full tank for all cars.

We strongly suggest that you join any session through the LEAGUE > LEAGUE SESSIONS tab on iRacing as some drivers have had issues in joining sessions through the HOSTED tab.

 

Safety Cars

During each race there may be a safety car with a full course caution. The caution will be thrown by the admin team for the following reasons. Random Safety Car - Before each race, a random yes/no will be generated to decide if the random safety car will be a part of the race or not. If YES is generated, a random number between 15 & 45 will then be created by the broadcaster (camera man). The drivers and commentators will not know the outcome of the random number. The number relates to the minute of the race and if a caution has not occurred (blocked track) before this minute, the admins will bring out the yellow flags and normal caution rules apply. Blocked Track - At any point during the race that the admin team feel that the track is blocked due to an accident, the admins will bring out the yellow flags and normal caution rules apply. Notes - If a caution comes out before the random safety car minute, then the random safety car will not be implemented. If the track is blocked after the random safety car, the caution will still take place. All restarts are single file, lapped cars to the back.

 

We operate a manual safety car system, driven by one of the admins. If a caution comes out, you will not receive any notification from iRacing (yellow flag on screen), you will receive a voice message over the race control channel and an in game chat message, so we strongly advise that you have at least one of these enabled when racing. Once a caution happens, the pit lane remains open and the safety car will pick up the current leader by waving all other cars past the SC. As soon as the racing order is established, and the admins are happy for the race to continue, a further voice and in game text message will be sent to inform drivers that SC is entering the pits on that lap, the field will be in the hands of the leader, and the race will continue. At the start of the race and during any restart, overtaking is not permitted until you cross the start line.

 

The manual SC has a large element of trust in the drivers to not try and gain places unfairly. The admins will take a dim view on anybosy trying to do this. Where possible we will get cars to give up/take positions under the SC but in some circumstances that we miss, it will be up to the affected driver to protest to let the admins view it after the race. All black & white cases of gaining an unfair advantage under the SC will result in a DQ for the race affected, and also a 1 race ban for the next race. If the unfair advantage gain is less obvious, this will be handled with warnings and possibly point deductions, however we hope that in most circumstances the drivers can self police the rule and sort themselves out on track.

 

Point Scoring

 

Position Points

Bonus & Penalty Points

Pole Position - The driver gaining pole position from the qualifying session will receive 5 bonus points. (per class)

Fastest Lap - The driver with the fastest lap in each race will receive 5 bonus points. (per class)

Incident Points - Each driver will receive 1 penalty point for every incident point they collect.

Drive Through Penalty - On reaching 15 incident points in any race, a driver will receive a black flag drive through penalty.

 

Schedule

Time of Day

Each 40 minute practice session will start at this time of day :-

Spa - Sunrise

Watkins Glen - Morning

Long Beach - Sunrise

Oulton Park - Afternoon

Silverstone - Late Afternoon

Twin Ring Motegi - Sunrise

Daytona - Sunset

Okayama - Morning

Zolder - Afternoon

Interlagos - Sunrise

Sonoma - Late Afternoon

Bathurst - Sunrise

 

Steward Reviews

From time to time things can get heated and/or mistakes may happen.

If you feel aggrieved by a situation, we ask that you do the following.

  • Allow a 12 hour cooling off period before protesting
  • View the incident from different angles and different cars
  • DO NOT abuse any other drivers involved via voice or text
  • If after reviewing the incident, you feel that you need to protest it, please use the protest form stating which race, which lap, and which cars were involved.
  • The race control admin team will review the incident, give you an honest view on the incident, and apply penalties where required.

All decisions are final.

Drivers gaining a position using unfair means are expected to give places back.

We pride ourselves on sportsmanship and clean racing so if you recognise that you have unfairly gained a position, then please allow a position reversal to take place at your earliest opportunity.

Any driver found to be abusive towards another driver, on any of our media platforms, Facebook, Discord or iRacing, via chat or text will face a pitlane start for the next race they attend. A second offence will be penalised with a race meeting ban, and a third offence will result in the driver being excluded from the league. No arguments.

 

General

Black flags will only be cleared during practice sessions, and only if an admin is available

We use iRacing dynamic weather so bear in mind that the weather conditions will change from session to session.

You will get 1 free repair per race. Please note that any slight damage, even from taking a curb too vigorously can result in your free repair being used. You can turn this off and decide when you want to use your free repair.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact one of the admins or email one of us from the contact list below.

 

Admins

Clyde Whiting (Membership & Commentary)

Pete Bingham (Driver)

Sam Buzin (Race Control & Camera's)

Bill Switzer (Race Control & Commentary)

Ryan Walker (Commentary)

 

By entering any race you are agreeing to have read and understood the above rules.