There are a couple items that we need to pass along to you guys.
After the race on Wednesday, the admins have reviewed the incident that occured between the 55 and the 43 prior to crossing the start finish. We find that contact initiated by the 55 was avoidable. Thus due to repeated incidents of avoidable contact, the 55 is placed on a 3 race probation. Up until this point we have not clearly defined what “probation” entails. Probation will consist of 3 races. DUring the course of those 3 races, if incidents that result in a full course caution are caused by the driver on probation, then a further review and penalties may be charged. Hopefully everyone can be mindful of the incidents they earn. No one deliberately causes incidents but there is also a certain level of spatial awareness that will prevent incidents from avoidable contact.
Presently we have the Bravo Series running on Saturday nights. This race has been broadcast for free by ESBN. At this point the Bravo Series will not be broadcasted. The majority of the work involved with the Bravo Series can be credited to Sam. He has done so much for the series and without his efforts, the series would not be where it is at presently. Which is why we have to put the Bravo Series on hold temporarily. Any and all drivers that participate in Bravo who are not on the Alpha Series roster are invited to join us Wednesday evenings in the IR18. It is our feeling then and even now that we must build up the Alpha Series prior to developing a feeder series. Other things we will be exploring are a change of nights as well as a change of cars. It is a time consuming process to develop a good setup on a car that receives no support from the powers that be. Once we have worked out the teething problems with Alpha and build it to be what we all envision, then we can add a feeder series with a true feeder type of car.
Another item we wish to bring up is the absence of an active Race Controller during the race. We have been thinking for the last few days on how to handle RC. Many successful leagues have RC and many do not. Race Control is not a silver bullet designed to make the races better. Our feeling is that we first defer to iRacing’s sporting code and their on track rules first. iRacing will generate the immediate infractions. Our review post race will aim to resolve any instances of the things iRacing can not handle. Ie. avoidable contact, collisions, abuse of track surface.
We are exploring the use of a graduated penalty system that the service already has built in. We have the ability to automatically issue a drive thru penalty after “X” amount of incs, and then generate a stop and go after “X” amount of further points. Followed lastly but the end limit of 17pts.
The point of all of this is to establish and clearly define certain things that in our rule book we felt were left to interpretation. We do not wish to spend our efforts coming up with punishments for earned incidents. But yet needs to be addressed. We now will have more time and will be better prepared once the race is completed. If we make a mistake during the race, that is something that can not be made up. Post race is an entirely different story.
