Fundamental Rules

1. Reading and understanding the Rules: Every driver participating in any event of the Caribbean Sim Motorsport is agreeing to having understood the rules and is agreeing to obeying to the rules. By entering the Driver bound to the rules. Failure to understand the rules is not an excuse.
2. Cheating and usage of external software: It is not allowed to use external programs or data that alter the functions of the simulation in order to gain a competitive advantage. Drivers caught cheating in any part of the championship will be excluded from all parts of Caribbean Sim Motorsport events. In case no usage of software can directly be proven in the files, but due to video evidence, it is still obvious that the driving behavior of the car cannot be explained with normal game functions, a ban on video evidence is also possible. However, allowed 3rd party software that do not alter driving behaviour:
   • MoTeC i2 Pro Data Analysis
   • CrewChief
   • ACC Results Companion
   • PitLink
   • Second Monitor (telemetry tool)
   • Dashboard apps
   • Broadcasting and Streaming Software
3. Accounts: Drivers must enter their real names in their ACC accounts in order to participate. Fake names or names with clan tags are not allowed. Multiple accounts or deliberate creation of new, lower ranked accounts are not allowed and will result in a permanent exclusion from Caribbean Sim Motorsport events.
4. Decisions by the Stewards/Staff: The decisions made by the stewards/staff are binding. If a situation is not covered by the rules, the Staff will have the final decision on it. Any statements made by the Staff on the Discord, In-Game at Events by In-Game Text Chatting or in In-Game Voice Chatting, that are specified as rules, also count as rules and must be accepted by all Drivers.

Participation

1. Classes: GT3
2. Categories: None
3. Teams: None
4. Car Assignment: Choice of 10 GT3 Car options. See registration form.
5. Maximum entries: 50
6. Series Participation: Registered drivers should do their best to complete their hot lap by August 22nd and attend the Sprint and Feature race on August 21st.

Server Settings

Please refer to the Simracing.GP event configuration pages Sprint and Feature Race settings.

On Track Race Rules of CSM

1. General Sportsmanship: Drivers must respect the sport, the competition and their competitors. Drivers must always aim to achieve the best result for themselves in each race, while driving within the rules and obeying to fair play.
2. Basic car control: Drivers and Teams that are taking part in the series must make sure they are always in control of their cars. Inability to control their cars is not an excuse if they cause an accident.
3. Drivers Briefing, Protest and Results: A driver’s briefing will be conducted with 10 minutes to go in Practice. All driver’s should return to garage and be joined to the Rum Shop voice chat in Discord
   • Protest Time: Drivers have 2 hours from race finish to make a protest using an incident report (Incident Reporting)
   • Release of Results: Results will be released to #events-and-results in Discord when made official.
     
4. Start Phase: In the start phase, Drivers must be extra careful. It is very easy to cause an accident affecting many cars. Start phase accidents will be penalized more harshly. Please be advised tires are in a cold state, with low pressure at the start of the race, so going slower will be required to maintain control of your car.
5. Overtaking and defending: Overtaking is one of the most crucial parts of racing. All drivers involved in an overtaking maneuver must show respect and drive with care. Drivers are not allowed to force a chasing car off the track by leaving too little room. Drivers are not allowed to change their line twice before a corner. If the attacking car is alongside going into a corner, drivers must adjust their line to avoid contact. Blocking a car that has an overlap is not allowed. An overlap is defined as the front of the attacker’s car is at least ahead of the rear tires of the of the defender’s car. When exiting a corner and the car on the outside has an overlap, the other Car must leave enough space for the overlap car so that it does not have to leave the track. Excessive Divebombing is also not allowed. Divebombing is defined as where an attacking car suddenly takes the inside line of a corner in a braking zone.
6. Track Boundaries: The track boundaries will follow the In-game penalties.
7. Race Line: Drivers can protect their position by changing their line once. Excessive weaving and blocking is not allowed. If a Driver needs to re-enter the track, he must be extremely careful, and the Driver is not allowed to affect other Drivers.
8. Qualifying: In qualifying, it is the Drivers responsibility to find free space on the track when starting a hot lap. A Driver on a hot lap does not have to yield for a faster Driver approaching from behind when the slower Driver is gaining on his personal best Time. It depends on General Sportsmanship to let faster Drivers pass under special circumstances. If a Driver is on an in- or out-lap the Driver must let faster Drivers pass without blocking them. If a faster Driver is on a fast lap approaching a slower Driver, flashing lights is a way of notifying the slower Drivers that they are on a fast lap.
9. Lapping: When being lapped the Driver must have a predictable trajectory and keep a regular trajectory and speed. Excessive maneuvers such as braking earlier/harder or changing lines to try and facilitate the lapping usually end up in misunderstandings. Drivers are not forced to use their Indicators, but it makes Lapping Situations easier for each affected Driver. The Lapped Driver can use the Indicator to the side where the lapped Driver will stay to let overlapping Driver pass. The Participants need to be aware of their surroundings and yield to a car lapping them by simply not fighting for position. Blue flags will be signaled in game. Ignoring blue flags will lead to a penalty.
10. Retirement: Drivers are allowed to return to garage to retire from the race. Please find a safe spot off the track to do this if your car is still controllable
11. Connection: It the Drivers responsibility to make sure to have a stable internet connection. Gaining an advantage due to a bad connection is not allowed. Incidents caused by lag will be deemed to be the fault of the lagging Driver. Drivers with a repeatedly bad connection can be excluded from the competition. We have no formal region restrictions defined for the championship, but the race server is located in the US-EAST (New York) zone. You will need to be able to connect with a ping below 175.
12. In-game chat: Drivers using in-game chat during an active session of qualifying and race is not allowed. 
13. Discord Voice Channel: For this series, there is no dedicated voice channel that is required to be joined. Drivers are free to use voice chat in other channels/discords for team communication. Drivers may optionally join the Rum Shop or ACC voice channels if they want to.
14. Rolling Start: A Rolling Start with a full formation lap will be used

Flag Signals

Yellow Flag: A yellow flag indicates an accident or a dangerous situation on Track. Drivers must be extra careful in a yellow flag situation.

Blue Flag: A blue flag indicates a faster car approaching from behind. The slower Lapped Driver must let the lapping Driver pass safely to avoid a penalty. Ignoring blue flags will result in a penalty. Only exception to this is when a slower class car (GT4) is being lapped by a faster class car (GT3). The slower class should maintain driving line, and the faster class is responsible for a clean overtake.

Green Flag: The start of the race. Please be cautious as mention in the ‘Start Phase‘ of the racing rules

Checkered Flag: The end of the race. Please wait for all drivers to receive the checkered flag before exiting the server. This will help eliminate any discrepancies in result collection by organizers.

Red Flag: End of practice or qualifying or when there is imminent danger to spectators or competitors, signals the suspension of the current session. Also will be used to signal GT4 drivers to return to pits at end of their qualification session.

Incidents

1. Definition of Incidents: “Incident” means any occurrence or series of occurrences involving one or more Drivers, or any action by any Driver, which is reported to the stewards by another Driver or Drivers which include (but is not limited to):

• Causing a collision which disadvantages competitors.
• Forcing a driver off the track.
• Illegitimately preventing a legitimate overtaking manoeuvre by another driver.
• Illegitimately impeding another driver during overtaking.
• Dangerous driving.
• Using in-game text chat during qualifying or race sessions
• Lack of respect, foul language or bad attitude towards other drivers, staff, or the spectators
• Violations of track boundaries.
• Unsafe track entry

2. Reporting Incidents: Drivers involved in an incident have the right to report it to the Stewards. The form for incident reporting is: Incident Reporting . The form will have the following format:

• Name of the disadvantaged Driver:
• Offending driver:
• Event and race:
• Lap and corner:
• Short description of the incident: 
• Youtube link:

The Youtube link should be a link to an Unlisted Youtube video of the incident. The video should capture both driver’s perspective. A combination of Cockpit cam or Chase cam can be used to give the best perspective of the incident.

Separate incidents must be covered in separate reports. Stewards will not investigate without a report, unless in case of extreme circumstances of misbehavior by a Driver or Drivers. Incident reports must be sent within 2 hours of race finish. Reports sent in after will be ignored.

Any reports that contain disrespectful or discriminatory comments towards the race directors or other competitors in any way will be ignored, and the offender will be irrecoverably excluded from future CSMTC events.

If a Driver or Team repeatedly reports incidents that have not happened, the Driver or Team will be penalized.

Penalties

1. Introduction to penalties: In cases a Driver gets clearly disadvantaged by an incident , CSM uses Time Penalties (but not limited to) to penalize Drivers or Teams such as Time Penalties to the Total Result or Drivethrough Penalties in the Race. Either the Penalties will be added to the Total Race Time after a respective Race or in additional for the next Race the Driver or Team will compete in. Under extreme circumstances the Race Direction has the right to change the type of penalties at any time.

2. Penalty Catalogue:

In cases where a Driver is clearly disadvantaged by an incident the regular penalty for the Driver causing an incident is a 20 second Time Penalty (but not limited to).

In cases where no driver is disadvantaged, but the Driver causing the incident still broke the rules, such as (but not limited to) careless driving, contact with no position loss, track limit infringements with no advantage gained or unintentional contact with small time loss, the penalty may be reduced to a warning or the point penalty may be halved.

In extreme cases, qualification bans, race bans, and expulsion from the championship can be utilized. This is especially the case for repeat offenders.

3. Announcement of Penalties: Penalties will be announced in the series penalty channel prior to the release of results.