GTP NASCAR with Cautions

[Peelster1]

I am hoping to get a full series of NASCAR that includes cautions up and running, and with the permission of MustangRyan and any other official parties, to become a part of the GTP NASCAR Association. I am hoping to get this series underway sometime in early 2013. This series will be a full length race series with oval races between 300 and 500 miles long, the more taxing road courses being between 100 and 200 miles long, as well as a couple of exhibitions races.

I have attached the 15 page Version 1 rulebook to this post as a .doc file within the zip folder because if I copy and paste it from Microsoft Word, the forums remove all formatting that I have done. If you have trouble reading the file, please let me know. (The rulebook was typed in Microsoft Word 2007 for Windows XP.)

The only thing so far that the rulebook does not mention, are tuning specifications. So far I have determined that the Horsepower Restriction (simulating Restrictor plate) for Daytona should be around 523 HP, making use of the Engine Power Limiter. I have not determined a Horsepower Restriction (if any) for Special Stage Route X races. As this is a virtual series we are not restricted by safety regulations. However, this will be a "heavy damage" series. As a result I do want to make reasonable speeds for racing without having a Caution every 2 laps. (I've seen it happen with unrestricted Daytona racing.) I have determined that all other courses that we would be racing on will not need HP Restrictions as drivers will not get anywhere near top speed. All other tuning specification are undetermined at this time.

The following is the possible course list that the series will be racing on:
Daytona International Speedway
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Twin Ring Motegi Speedway
Suzuka - East Course
Special Stage Route X
High Speed Ring
Deep Forest Raceway
The Glen (A fairly accurate Watkins Glen remake in Course Creator)

Without further delay, I present the NASCAR Polyphony Digital Cup* V.1 Rulebook! Questions, comments, suggestions and overall feedback are very much appreciated.

Driver Sign-Up List (Each player can reserve one car from each year of NASCAR.)​

Make______Car #___2010___2011
Chevrolet__14
Chevrolet__24
Chevrolet__42
Chevrolet__48
Chevrolet__88
Ford______43
Ford______99
Toyota____11
Toyota____18
Toyota____20
Toyota____83

NASCAR PD Cup Officials Sign-Up List(Not actual officials, just a sign-up list.)​

Pace Car
Back-up Pace Car
Race Official
Race Offical
Race Offical

*Name not official.

 

[cgr-10]

I probably won't be doing much GT5 racing after the end of this year, but good luck with this anyway.

I've always been an advocate of cautions and heavy damage, if you make it so that people still get penalised slightly (almost as much as they would under green) for pitting under caution in some way, it works brilliantly. I'd advise you to drop SSRX off the schedule and replace it's date/s with Motegi races because it's just boring for everybody involved and turns into a fuel saving exercise where one wreck completely decides the outcome of the race.

 

[Peelster1]

SSRX is incredibly long. The main reason I would want it in the schedule is for a night race on an oval as well as a 4th oval track. Hopefully with a pace speed of 55 mph, and restarts when the field is able to regroup, one wreck wouldn't decide the outcome. I do plan on running a couple of pre-season exhibition races on it, to see how things go.

Thanks for the advice, and if you change your mind about the amount of GT5 racing you'll be doing next year, feel free to sign up when I get the signup thread going. I'd love to have someone of your reputation around.

 

[m8h3r]

This seems alright. I don't currently have SSRX, but if you do keep it I can buy it. Only 4 quid.

I'll keep an eye out on the thread.

 

[cgr-10]

No worries, nice to know that a year of racing gains you a little bit of respect If you need any advice or help etc. don't hesitate to drop a PM to myself or Droptop, we've both got experience of being a series admin, me for IndyCar and him for the Sprint Cup.

Rulebook looks quite good from first glance too.

 

[Akmuq]

This is what NASCAR on GTP should be like(apart from the caution procedure Tom has mentioned)

👍👍👍

 

[james6653]

I am very intrested what day would we race?

 

[cgr-10]

This is what NASCAR on GTP should be like(apart from the caution procedure Tom has mentioned)

👍👍👍

Well it wouldn't have to be identical, I'm just saying that being able to wreck and then fight for the lead within two laps having had a free pit stop is slightly unrealistic.

Haven't studied the rulebook properly so this series' procedure may avoid this, I don't know.

 

[Akmuq]

Nope, just a normal caution procedure.

 

[Peelster1]

I am very intrested what day would we race?

Well, I'm thinking 2 practices sometime mid-week. (Probably separate days.) It would only be required to attend one of the two practices. Either that or having a practice an hour or two before qualifying on race day.) We would probably go with the former, considering a practice, qualifying and a full length race in one sitting might be too much.

I'm thinking Friday's, Saturday's or Sunday's for race day. It really depends on what works for people schedules. (Not to mention I wouldn't want to interfere with the actual NASCAR schedule, as no doubt people racing in this series would also want to be watching the NASCAR races on TV.) We figure out the season schedule after a few pre-season exhibition races, closer to the actual season start. The reason I'm shooting for an early 2013 season is because I'm going to be quite busy until January, as well as this will give us plenty of time to smooth all the kinks out of the V.1 rulebook.

Rulebook V.1.1
Now that this is gaining in interest, what I would like to discuss, are any changes that need to be made to the rulebook. (Organization, rulings, wordings, procedures etc.) So far I can already think of a section that I did not add that should be added to the Racing Etiquette section. Which would be about tire warming during pace laps. I'll include that in V.1.1. When people get the time to do a thorough read-through of the V.1 rulebook I would love to hear all feedback about changes I could make, as well as answer any more questions.

Concerns Over the Caution Procedure
It is a realistic procedure to have the field group up again. The pit stop wouldn't exactly be a "free pit stop" either, as those who stay out of the pits would gain precious positions. Not to mention that it is a key strategy to pace yourself wondering it there will be a Caution soon. Also remember, that the Lucky Dog rule only allows the first car off of the lead lap to gain only one lap back per Caution. I hope that clears everything up; if it doesn't, please let me know and we'll discuss it more. I will make a point of reviewing and discussing the Caution procedure during early practices as well.

About Tuning
Tuning regulations also need to be discussed, however I propose that we discuss them after testing the current regulations in some practices. So far, all I have is a good idea about HP Restrictions. If you're an expert in realistic series tuning regulations, please help me out.

Once again, all questions, concerns, feedback, suggestions, and comments are very much wanted and appreciated.

 

[Carbonox]

This does look nice, however with the cautions in play, there should be some sort of a 'penalty' for those who caused the wreck, especially if it's a big one.

 

[cgr-10]

In real life, 'track position' on the restarts at Daytona and Indy matters but unfortunately due to the draft in this game and how easy it is to just draft straight back up to the front, being at the back of the pack for the restart is no disadvantage at all. That's why we do it differently in IndyCar making it so that the cars that stay out get a 10ish second head start; not saying you have to put this into practice, but if you want to check it out and get an idea of what I'm talking about, the link's in my signature.

It's unfortunate but otherwise you end up with everybody pitting under every caution simply because they'll get free tyres and stay with the lead pack so there's almost zero incentive to staying out, save leading a few laps maybe.

 

[m8h3r]

This does look nice, however with the cautions in play, there should be some sort of a 'penalty' for those who caused the wreck, especially if it's a big one.

Stop and goes? Race bans if you cause loads of crashes?

 

[Peelster1]

Stop and goes? Race bans if you cause loads of crashes?

We can't do an effective stop-and-go penalty through the pits. The only way to do a stop and go would be manually and on the shoulder of the track. I'd rather not do it that way. We can easily do a drive-thru penalty by having a driver enter pit road in reverse. GT5 will automatically make the driver go through the pits without performing a pit stop. (I describe this under the Black Flag segment of Section B in the rulebook.) Now that I think more about it, that actually is an effective stop-and-go penalty because you need to stop in order to turn around to back into Pit Road. (It will still be referred to as a Drive-thru Penalty however.)

I also have penalties listed in the rulebook under sections G.2a and G.2b. I agree that they may need some work; such as rewording and perhaps being more specific. In addition, I have added a great penalty for drivers if they cause an accident during a caution. That penalty is that the driver will have to take a Drive-thru Penalty as the Pace Car goes in for the restart. This could possibly be applied for other penalties as well. (It's listed as C.13 in the V.1.1. rulebook. I have not published it yet. When I do I'll update it in the OP.) So far, thanks to your feedback and some additional thinking I've been doing, I have 3 new additions in the V.1.1 rulebook; which I have marked in red, underlined text.

In order to avoid many accidents during the main season. We will be running a few exhibition races in which we will hopefully be able to pick out drivers that are causing too many accidents.

I've also added a sign-up list to the main post.

 

[james6653]

How do the sign ups work can we be a driver and a official or do we have to be one or the other?

 

[Peelster1]

How do the sign ups work can we be a driver and a official or do we have to be one or the other?

One or the other. It wouldn't be fair if someone was officiating in a race that they are driving in after all. We'll probably have Officials drive NASCAR Stock Cars during certain practices to test rules and specs so we can make them as smooth as possible. Other than that, Officials will be driving the Pace Car or watching the race and calling out penalties, Cautions, writing qualifying times, etc. All Officials will Save replays of races for review. More details about that will be in V.1.1 of the rulebook. (Speaking of, I plan on releasing it sometime next week.)

Requirements for being an official are a lot more strict then for a driver. Drivers just need to be able to hold a line and race clean. Officials don't need to be good at racing. However, they need to understand procedures and rules very well and will be put under more training and demand than drivers will. That being said, there is obviously a need for both drivers and officials and there are way more spots open for drivers than officials. Also, even if someone fails a test to become an official, they can still sign-up to be a driver and vice-versa.

The only way to not be allowed to race in this series is if you can't hold a line and make clean passes though. Driver applications will pretty much be automatically accepted and will only be rejected if it's determined by the officials that said driver can't hold a line or make a clean pass. Pretty much, if a driver causes too many accidents, they're out.

One last thing, when signing-up, be sure to include your choice for both 2010 and 2011 cars if you'll be racing. If you want to tryout to be an official, then include Pace Car or Race Official.

 

[james6653]

I would like to be a official then please.

 

[Peelster1]

I would like to be a official then please.

Send me a FR over PSN, and we'll do an officials training when we get more sign-ups. I'm not saying that you can be an official. I'm saying that you can try-out. Remember, even if you can't be an official, you can still be a driver. You also didn't include Pace Car or Race Official as I clearly put in my last post.

 

[Peelster1]

UPDATE: The V.1.1 rulebook has been added to the OP. New sections are in red underlined text.

I would also like to point out that I have added a sign-up list to the OP. To sign-up, just include your choice for both 2010 and 2011 cars if you'll be racing. If you want to tryout to be an official, then include Pace Car or Race Official. Also, send me a friend request over PSN.

Once the sign-up list has a few people, I would like to get a group together in-game to test out car specs for the season, as well as to enact how certain rules and regulations would play out. Once we have discussed the car specs, I'll add them to the rulebook in addition to any other changes that might need to be made. Over time, we'll probably have a few pre-season races as well, besides the opening exhibition at Daytona International Speedway.

 

[Peelster1]

UPDATE: The rulebook has been updated from V.1.1 to V.1.2.

I've added Section C.9d which is about pit entry and exit rules for specific tracks that have a procedure a little more complex then "enter the pits at this speed." I've also lowered the "S" license required age from 17 to 16.

More changes to come including HP Restrictions. (Even though that will probably be added after some testing races are done once people sign up.)