◆ SNAIL Incident Report & Review, Penalty Guidelines & Last Chance List Policy

[JLBowler]

How to file a Racing Incident Report​

• This process has been adapted from the GTP OLR Rules (Section 17), but simplified, automated and made more applicable to our league. Failure to use the The S.N.A.I.L Incident Report (IR) Submission Form will result in your IR not being accepted as "official". Therefore, do not expect any action to be taken, if you don't use the form.
  • If the data you provide is inaccurate in any way (i.e. round, race, lap number, but especially, timestamp) we reserve the right to invalidate your IR.
    • Note: All drivers who are racing are eligible to file an IR against any driver in the division in which they are currently assigned whether or not they are involved in the incident.

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• Instructions on how to accurately report time stamps in an IR.
  • The Form asks for time in Hours, Minutes and Seconds. No tenths, hundredths or thousandths are required.

• From a replay, the race time is in the bottom left corner of the screen. You must select the "replay options" button and then select "display race info." From there you must select either "Display Race Info" or "Display All."
  • It is important to note that the time you need to enter will never be located in the center of your screen above the play button. Enter this value from as close to the beginning of the incident as possible.

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• SNAIL Sunday races will never exceed an hour. That field should always be 0. The race time of 6:26.123 would be entered as shown in the next picture.​
  • If reporting an incident from qualifying, please use 00:00 as the time of the incident. (Only if a qualifying session is used)​

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• All racing / qualifying incident reports must follow this procedure:All incident reports must be submitted at The S.N.A.I.L Incident Report (IR) Submission Form, by 11pm Eastern / 8pm Pacific on Monday night (the form will open for driver submissions at approximately 11PM Eastern Sunday night and close at 11PM Eastern on Monday night).

Multiple incidents will be entered as separate submissions. Do not group separate incidents together, in one form entry. Ex: contact with another driver and an unsafe track reentry immediately following the contact should be entered as two IRs.

• Filings for out of bounds may be grouped in a single IR for each race but may not be combined with any other incident.
• When self reporting an incident, enter your ID in both driver fields.
  • If you like, you may forward a copy of your notification to the driver you committed an infraction against. Recommend using GTPlanet's messaging system.
• Our stewards will then review the reported incident(s) and determine what penalties (Section 1.3 below) if any, are appropriate.
  • The Division Steward for D1 drivers is - @JLBowler
  • The Division Steward for D2 drivers is - @JLBowler
  • Additional stewards not currently assigned a division are - @Akzl298, @DublDee, @Oshawa-Joe, @radliffracing & @Dragonwhisky.

In case the procedure regarding race incidents is not followed and / or the driver decides to discuss the racing incident in public here on the S.N.A.I.L. forum, and as defined by this policy, the driver may be given a warning or an infraction (in case of repetition or blunt accusations) by the S.N.A.I.L. BoD. Should a driver wish to check the status of an IR before the steward summary is released, they may do so by checking this link.

Should a driver wish to receive an explanation of what the stewards saw in their review and why they arrived at their decision, they must make this request to their division steward via GTPlanet conversation after the summary for the week has been posted.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are the driver an incident report is filed against, feel free to tell "your side of the story" to your Division Steward, via reply to the email that notifies you of the IR filing, so that he can relay it to the rest of the stewards who will be reviewing the incident. There is no need to reply to the driver who filed the complaint against you unless you want to and are able to do so in a completely non-confrontational manner.

Any response to an IR filed against you should address your division steward and should include nothing more than your take on the incident. This is not the place for personal attacks against the driver who filed an IR against you, nor is it the place for arguments about the incident. This holds true for the driver filing the IR and the driver being filed against.

Failure to follow this policy will be treated the same as personal attacks and arguing in the main thread, divisional conversations, and race lobby.

Sadly, the preceding two paragraphs have been added on 17 August 2015 in an effort to encourage others to behave in a civil and factual manner when reporting or responding to incident reports. This change is effective immediately. Dragonwhisky.

 

[JLBowler]

SNAIL Penalty Guidelines​

Level 1 (1 - 4 point penalty) - Likely caused by a lapse of concentration.​

• A bump
• Passing through a ghosted car (1 pt. /car)
• Violation of the track boundaries (1 pt. /incident)

Level 2 (5 - 8 point penalty) - Showed a lack of situational awareness.​

• A shove
• This may be the result of carrying too much speed into a corner or braking too late, causing moderate to major contact.
• An unsafe track re-entry without contact with any other cars. (6 pts. cannot be halved for concession)

Level 3 (9 - 12 point penalty) - Demonstrates a lack of good race craft.​

• The offending driver was likely too aggressive in a pass, creating a situation where his car met another at a drastic difference in speed.
• Excessive blocking or weaving.
• This is the lowest level that a pass attempt without sufficient overlap, a.k.a. a "dive bomb" would be penalized at.
• An unsafe track re-entry that involves contact with one other car. (10 pts. cannot be halved for a concession)

Level 4 (13 - 16 point penalty) - Clearly showed a lack of judgment and a disregard for the tenets of good race craft.​

• This is an incident from which complete recovery is realistically impossible.
• The offending driver likely came on an overtly aggressive line or made a move that directly put others in jeopardy.
• An unsafe track re-entry that involves contact with more than one car even if the car you contact comes in contact with another car. (14 pts. cannot be halved for a concession)

Level 5 (17 + point penalty) - Intention may be believed or even known.​

• Incidents of this caliber are race-ending and reputation-scarring.
• This level of penalty would require extensive discussions by the Stewards, and would be open to any penalties as we see fit up to and including placement on the last chance list, suspension from SNAIL events, or removal from SNAIL.

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• These levels are guidelines for us and you, and other penalties may be assessed as deemed necessary.
• Any of these penalties except for level 5 and unsafe re-entry could be halved with the proper concession after the fact during the race. Ghosting violations and out of bounds violations can be eliminated with a proper on track concession. Penalties will only be assessed in whole point values. Example: A driver receives a 7 pt. penalty and makes a proper concession, they would be assessed a 4 pt. penalty (7/2=3.5 rounded to 4).
• A proper concession consists of a separate and deliberate act on the part of the offending driver to return any position gained or to negate any time gained during the incident. This includes any violations of the track boundaries. Ending up in the grass or sand trap and losing time because of your own action is not considered a concession.
• If a driver chooses to report a violation of the SNAIL OLR that they committed themselves, that action will serve to cut the value of the penalty in half. This would apply to all penalties including unsafe re-entry to the track. This would still not apply to any level 5 penalties.
• Each of these penalties will bring about a probation period based on the level. A level 1 penalty will bring a 1 week probation period; level 2 brings 2 weeks, etc. The probation period doubles the point value of any incurred penalties while on probation.
• Multiple penalties in one week will be added to create a longer probation period: i.e. Level 1 + Level 3 penalties = 4 week probation.
• Multiple penalties during one week will not double the penalty points for that week.
• Drivers earn their way off of probation by racing without a reported incident for a full race night. Each night raced will remove one week of probation. In order for a night to be considered a full race night, a driver must compete in at least 4 of the 6 races in a single night. If a driver is observed pulling off the track and / or not racing then that race will not be counted toward the 4.
• Penalties for out of bounds violations will be totaled for each race. Four violations in one race would equal a Level 1 penalty worth four points. Five violations in one race would equal a Level 2 penalty worth 5 points. Any time a valid OOB violation is reported and confirmed, the stewards will look at that driver's entire race for other possible violations.
• Stewards have the ability to assess penalties that are found during the normal course of reviewing a reported incident, but we will not actively look for things to penalize (except in rare instances and only by decision of the chief steward). Any violations discovered by the stewards during review will not be subject to the filing deadline for race complaints. As a result of this, any IRs filed by stewards will not affect prize winners for that week.
• Special note concerning the use of the in game "ghosting feature". Use of the ghosting feature is not permitted in SNAIL except in very specific situations. If the "ghosting feature" is used in a non-approved way, the following penalties will apply:
• Level three which is 9 -12 pts. Any movement while ghosted by a driver that has not quit the race, either on track or off track or parking while ghosted on track or near enough to the racing surface to create a distraction (defined as your triangle being on any portion of the track maps white line).
• 18 points or more - Use of the ghosting feature to avoid a collision or accident, use of the ghosting feature to gain any type of advantage either on track or off (ex: ghosting through a sand trap), or use of the ghosting feature that causes another driver to take evasive action or be distracted.
  • (note for GTS. The ghosting is currently not working as intended as the game will ghost cars that are involved in accidents. All rules from section 10 of the SNAIL OLR will be applicable in GTS. Any penalties regarding ghosting will be at the discretion of the stewards and / or BoD.)

 

[JLBowler]

Last Chance List Policy
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• Once a driver reaches the maximum six week probation period an automatic stewards vote is triggered to determine if the driver goes on the Last Chance List.
• Once on the Last Chance List, any penalty would trigger another vote by the stewards to determine what action should be taken.
  • Those options will be:
    • No action or,
    • Suspension of a duration to be determined by the stewards, or
    • Be banned from SNAIL.
      • In addition to the above options, the stewards will have at their disposal the use of any other stipulation to membership they wish to assign to a driver on a case by case basis.
• If a driver is found to have used a glitch or cheat while racing
  • The stewards will have the option to place that driver on the LCL or,
    • Suspend the driver for a duration to be determined by the stewards or,
    • Ban the driver from SNAIL upon the first offense.
• In the event that a driver is suspended from Sunday night competition, for any reason, that driver will not be permitted to enter the race lobby while they are suspended.
• During any stewards vote, the stewards would have until the start of the next Sunday race night after the vote was triggered to cast a vote and the majority of those voting would make the decision.
• In order for a driver to work their way off the last chance list, they must race without incident for how ever many number of weeks of probation they have.