5. Rule Enforcement
The coordinators and stewards can't possibly control all the actions of the drivers on- and off-track, but the instruments mentioned below are there to help take care of everything.
5.1 Saving Replays
As a means of helping the stewards with their inquiries, all drivers are required to save their race replays and keep it stored for at least one week after the race has taken place. If possible, it's better if you can record your race so we can see a live view of your screen, although this is not required.
5.2 Stewards Panel
The
Stewards Panel forum can be used to report incidents and other rule violations that occur in a race. A proper explanation and/or evidence of the incident must be provided in order for it to be investigated. This will then be looked into by the stewards and appropriate action will be taken.
5.2.1
What you can make a stewards inquiry for:
●
Racing incidents: If you feel another driver has caused an incident - eg. hitting your car, forcing you off the track, or generally driving too aggressively - you should report this to the stewards for investigation.
●
Track limits: If you witness another driver persistently gaining time by abusing the track limits by either running wide or cutting corners, you should report this to the stewards for investigation.
●
Dangerous driving: If a driver rejoins the track in an unsafe or dangerous manner, or drives in a way that is a danger to other cars, you should report it to the stewards.
You should report incidents that you are involved in. Reporting an incident that you heard about, or saw behind you for example, will not be accepted. This is to lower the risk of a "nit-picking" environment. Two drivers may collide, shake hands and speak no more of it. If someone goes and starts causing trouble for the sake of it, the inquiries will be closed if those involved in the incident prefer it to go no further.
Members of the
@ACC Coordinator group, may open steward inquiries on any driver.
5.2.2
Time limit for inquiries: Note that inquiries need to be submitted
before Thursday 23:59 PM UK time for incidents you have been involved in. If any new rule violations come to light through videos released after this time, it is still possible to report this, but only if this violation is something that was not visible to the other driver(s) in the race at the time it happened.
5.2.3
Uploading video evidence: Any video evidence submitted in a stewards inquiry must be uploaded to a video streaming site (such as YouTube and Streamable) before being embedded and/or linked to in the inquiry thread. Stewards should not have to download video files in order to watch your evidence.
The following elements, recorded from the race replay, are required in the video:
-
Cockpit and
Chase point of view of the driver submitting the inquiry, recorded at normal speed
and with HUD activated
-
Cockpit and
Chase point of view of the driver who caused the incident, recorded at normal speed
and with HUD activated
Any additional point of view can be added after the required elements.
If the video evidence is part of a longer video that also contains other parts of the race, a time stamp must be provided next to the video to guide the stewards to the relevant part of the video where the evidence can be found. Failing to do this may lead to the evidence being dismissed.
5.3 Race Penalties
The stewards have a variety of penalties that may be applied to punish drivers who break our racing rules, depending on the severity of the violation. The available penalties are sorted below, in order of severity and will depend on the Stewards decision. Penalty points may or may not be added to Drivers License - see further down for more details.
(Note that penalties may be added together in the event of multiple violations in a race, which could result in total time penalties of a higher number than what is suggested below)
●
0-10 race results points reduction - Causing a minor avoidable collision.
●
0-10 race results points reduction - Driving in a dangerous or unsporting manner.
●
0-20 race results points reduction - Causing a moderate avoidable collision.
●
0-35 race results points reduction - Causing a significant avoidable collision.
●
0-50 race results points reduction - Causing a major avoidable collision.
The above means that the winner of a race
could receive fewer points than the driver who finished in P2. This would mean that the winner of that race was to blame for causing a collision, while the P2 finisher had a clean race.
5.3.1
Modifiers to Race Penalties
● Returning the position after an avoidable collision may result in the points deduction being
reduced.
Stewards encourage giving the position back or an attempt at waiting.
● Causing an avoidable incident in the opening lap may result in an
increase of result points deduction.
● If the consequences of a penalty are worse or not as bad as the contact itself, the points reduction may be higher/lower than the usual punishments mentioned in the overview above.
5.4 Drivers License Penalties
The Drivers License points system is a way of keeping track of a driver's record of breaking the rules of clean racing, and to more severely punish repeat offenders. Drivers License Points will not be influenced by external circumstances related to an incident, they will only be given for the severity of an incident. Driver License Points may or may not be applied
alongside race penalties, as per the list below.
●
5 points - Driving in a dangerous or unsporting manner.
●
5 points - Causing a minor avoidable collision.
●
10 points - Causing a moderate avoidable collision.
●
15 points - Causing a significant avoidable collision.
●
20 points - Causing a major avoidable collision.
5.4.1
Modifiers to Drivers License Penalties
● +5 points - Causing an avoidable incident in the opening lap
5.4.2
Clean Racing Award
●
-5 points - Completing a race without any penalty. (Note: points balance won't go below 0)
IMPORTANT
If you accumulate
15 points, you will be awarded a
Race Drive Through *
If you accumulate
25 points, you will be awarded a
Stop&Go 30 Sec *
If you accumulate
40 points, you will be awarded a
Race Ban
If you accumulate
50 points, your league status will be put under review, with the likely outcome of being removed from the league.
* Penalties will be applied by coordinators via ACC admin commands at the start of the formation lap of the next race. DT's and SG30's must be served after the race starts, not the formation lap. ACC allows three laps to serve the penalty. Drive Through and 30-second stop/go penalties, must be served after you cross the start/finish line starting your race and at the end of a race lap.
●
Drivers License Penalty points will carry over to a new season
● Any penalties will be aimed at the person who has done wrong - we cannot compensate anyone else as a result of someone's actions. All penalties are discussed by the Stewards Panel (consisting of the members of the AOR ACC Team - Admins, Moderators and Coordinators - from all platforms) before being issued and the driver will always be informed of the outcome. The Stewards Panel is completely neutral and will not include anyone who may be affected by the incident in question with race results or championship points.
5.5 Reprimand system
While the race penalties and penalty points system are aimed at dealing with on-track issues, the reprimand system deals with issues that may occur off the track.
If you receive 3 reprimands, you're out. Receiving 3 reprimands would also see you placed on the blacklist, meaning you would not be allowed to return to the leagues in the future.
You can receive a reprimand for the following:
● Deliberately crashing out of the session
● Showing abusive behavior towards another driver, either in the race lobby, discord or on the forum
● Intentionally hiding/removing evidence and/or footage to avoid receiving a penalty in an inquiry
● Being inactive on the forums for a longer period of time and repeatedly failing to respond to inquiries
Note that if we encounter situations where someone's behaviour gets completely out of hand and is extremely serious, a ban may be applied directly regardless of reprimands accumulated.
5.6 Blacklist
The blacklist contains the names of drivers who have been removed from the leagues - either through accumulating 50 penalty points, due to not attending races regularly - and drivers who have left the leagues during an ongoing season with no good reason.
Having your name applied to the blacklist generally means you will not be allowed to rejoin the leagues in the current and next season.