- 2,912
- Derby, UK
- TPC_Abarber95
Hello, I'm looking to/am interested in setting up a racing league here but am don't know where to start and would like some help and advice on the matter from the experts here. Thanks
Advice setting up a league
- Thread starter Adam Barber
- 7 comments
- 1,221 views
- 5,319
- Bel Air, MD
- NOVA-0479
The best advice I can give, is start by getting involved with established racing leagues and/or series that work within your times to play. Race clean and create a good reputation among your peers with good racecraft, and good competitive racing.
Next, browse the online section if the forum to try and present something different than the norm. If your looking to run GR3 or GR4 style racing, there are many leagues that are already established that will be hard to compete with.
I myself have been running with Snail Spec Racing League for 8 years, and the ARL GR3 league for around 4-5 months, along with racing many many pick up series along the way. Even with that built in friends base, it took me from June 2019 to the middle of August 2019 to establish a full grid for my Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series.
While you are racing with a league or series, take note of how their series is presented in the forum, how its organized, how its scored, rules, classing, schedule, frequency of races, etc. Get involved if you are able to help out. Some leagues like to spread the workload, others not so much.
From there, draft your ideas into a scattered list as they come to you. Then organize them to be easy for prospective drivers to navigate through. Once you have everything organized, create a new thread with a brief rundown of the series you are trying to pitch, and reserve the first few posts to utilize. Be sure to state what day and time you want to run. (Best to browse other series to avoid scheduling conflict before setting your race dates and times...very hard to pull dedicated drivers from established leagues and series) Also, tag all drivers you have a connection with or have raced with.
From there, its sit and wait. A great way to promote a series is to open "Recruitment" rooms in the lobby with an abbreviated version of what your series will be like...gives prospective drivers a taste of it before committing.
Lastly, dont be in a rush to push the series as soon as you get a few drivers...very likely to fall apart mid season. I like to get at least 16 drivers signed to the series before setting a start date, and dont be afraid to take on an extra 4-6 drivers on the roster.
Along side of being involved with Snail and the ARL Gr3 leagues, I run 3 Cup Challenge Series':
SNAIL-Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Event #6, Fri, January 3rd, 2020 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Lamborghini Super Trofeo Cup: Event #2, Friday Jan 17th, 9pm est at Nurburgring GP **Sign Up Now**
Vintage Porsche 911 Cup Challenge, 1 Friday/Month at 9pm est *Taking Signups*Ready Liveries for use*
Feel free to browse thru and pool ideas for your series, and join us if the time difference isn't to much a challenge for you.
Good luck, and I hope your first dive into a self organized series works out.
II-NOVA-II
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- 2,912
- Derby, UK
- TPC_Abarber95
- 4,480
- Gardner, KS
There are a few leagues here in the thread that are UK. Search around for it.
- 712
- Home
- sota__59
Cant recommend starting own league 
I also suggest just taking part in some other series, dedicating your time to that, maybe doing some one of events etc.
There is lot of EU-based leagues, new seasons starting almost every week.
Organizing your own league is not as fun as it sounds. If you show dedication, and build connections, you might become admin one day in some bigger series, but starting on your own is not something i can suggest.
I also suggest just taking part in some other series, dedicating your time to that, maybe doing some one of events etc.
There is lot of EU-based leagues, new seasons starting almost every week.
Organizing your own league is not as fun as it sounds. If you show dedication, and build connections, you might become admin one day in some bigger series, but starting on your own is not something i can suggest.
- 2,066
- San Antonio, Texas
- Obi-Tonobi
My 2 cents worth. I have been running leagues every week for 9 years now. Hard to find people who can commit to each week. Everyone very buzy with life. After all these years there are about 4 of us still from the beginning and only about 6 to 10 that make it each week for the whole league. I enjoy doing it which is why I put all the work into it. I sometimes have to run the league races in public lobbies to fill spots and find new people. It is tough to get a commited crowd. My recommendation is start running public lobbies the day and time you want to run your league and start building up your friends list. Don't make the rules and regulations to complicated. Have fun.
- 44,184
- Blackburn
- Furinkazen_54
Another UK fella here, 'ello 'ello.
Been doing this hosting lark 9 years. My first ever race I hosted had 7 cars (ToCA), within two years I had pre-qualifying for a series with over 20 attempting to make a grid and two-three hour enduros with conistently high grids.
So many go wrong here because they fail at the very basics:
1) Be original! Do NOT look at another established series and try to replicate it, especially if it's in a similar time zone. My touring car series ToCA used to have a near clash with an american series called ITCC on GT5 - the host had a decent concept at first of "run what ya brung and we'll BoP it", whereas mine was set cars BoP'd like a conventional series. His execution wasn't particularly good but could have worked. When my series started gathering pace, he just tried replicating the same formula as me. Series died after 4 seasons, with him blaming me and some of my drivers despite us picking ToCA over his series, partly down to fact it was same thing - ToCA has just finished 16th season as well.
Same thing, i've got a classic sportscar series (WSC) in works that's been running for years, and it's totally unique for being historic LM and GT racing - being unique means it's been successful as no-one else hosts such a thing.
So when coming up with an idea, try and keep it unique - or have your own deviation on the formula to make it attractive to people - especially with GTS and it's narrower range of vehicles.
2) Don't expect full grids at the start! Set yourself a target (I say 8-12) and work from it. Get a loyal core of drivers over time, and your series will grow. Don't rush its development. The harder you look for things and go "recruitment" drives the more chance of missing something important in the details.
3) Know what you want and when you want. Do you want a super serious series? Bit of fun? Know your targets. Personally, I couldn't care less about groups with 3 or 4 race hosts and 5 or 6 series at once - I want to have fun and a laugh whilst also having a bloody good close race on Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes Fridays 1900-2200 GMT / BST.
4) Listen to criticism. If the BoP of a car is bad and half the grid are saying it, adjust it. Don't be afraid to consider opinions - even though you may disagree or may still want the final say (it's your series after all) never discourage others from speaking - without them you have no drivers for the series.
I should add finding drivers is so much harder now, as GTS and the eSports aspect has taken away a lot of the online community who just want to race in small clubs and leagues. Just plug away, it'll seem slow to begin with but when it clicks and you get onto a winner, you'll know it.
~Furi
- 474
- Jamaican living in UK
- Hygrade-B
Hi
Keep me in the loop I would like to join.
Would be nice to have a manufacturer race going through all the cars there make from old to new...
Good luck
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