ACC RaceOnOz ACC [PC] Season 4 - Round 5 Sprint Nurburgring!

RaceOnOz Monday Night ACC League Season 4 - GT Challenge
Admin team: @Flamebadger, @krunch, @SteveDrivingSlowly, @nanlatt, @Rolz

Round 5 - SPRINT - NURBURGRING 2019

2nd November 2020 at 8:15pm
(AEDT - click for time zone info)​

REMINDER: NO CUSTOM PAINTED SKINS ALLOWED DUE TO JOIN LAG! PENALTIES MAY APPLY
We recommend completely uninstalling custom painted skins from your ACC folders to avoid the excessive join lag issue.

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DRIVER BRIEFING NOTES

• Wacky Wednesday League Practice - Every Wednesday night we are currently hosting a closed practice evening ahead of the upcoming Season 4 championship round. These are very informal and chilled out practice sessions where you can come in and try out set-ups, chat and have some fun racing without worrying about your championship points (this is separate to the 24/7 practice server which is always available). Importantly you can practice close racing moves with far less pressure and less consequence than Monday nights and we particularly encourage those newer to sim racing to join in. There are often excellent tips from some of our top pro drivers too. More info in the Wacky Wednesday League Practice thread.

• Lap 1 accidents - some drivers have expressed frustration at the number of lap 1 accidents that are occurring. Although that frustration is understandable there is evidence that things are improving. The race 1 lap 1 crash at Zolder was due to the wet conditions combined with a series of unfortunate small events that we almost got away with. An analysis of the replay shows all drivers were using an abundance of caution and were aware of other cars around them which is what we have been asking for. The race 2 lap 1 incident at the 1st chicane again involved caution rather than recklessness and was almost avoided. It is not realistic to completely eliminate such incidents but everyone seems to have the right attitude so we may not be too far away from cleaner opening laps. Note that being too cautious is almost as bad as not cautious enough and it can be a fine line. Doing more race practice (ie joining us on Wacky Wednesdays) is one of the best ways to improve close racing skills.
  
  So when in a tight pack (such as on the opening lap):
  • Expect cars to be much closer to you and varying in speed due to all the others around so try to leave a tad more space.
  • Assume there are cars in your blind spots and and on the other side of visible cars until the pack spreads out more.
  • In braking zones you must brake SIGNIFICANTLY earlier than you would in general racing.
  • Avoid sudden direction changes unless you are sure you are well clear.
  • If on a straight section don't drift - stay straight.
  • Approach each situation with caution but execute your driving with intelligence.
  • If you need to redress in this tight pack situation keep going until you can move out of the traffic safely before slowing down

• Continuing with new qualifying format - feedback from drivers after Round 4 has been positive and so we will continue with the new split qualifying format:
  • Qualifying sessions are 20 minutes long and split into two 10 minute segments.
  • Segment 1 is exclusively for GT4's.
  • Segment 2 is exclusively for GT3's.
  • The first race will start at approximately 9:20pm AEDT.

Drivers who's qualifying segment is not active MUST NOT exit the pits during that time. GT3 drivers may only cross the pit exit line when the time remaining ticks down to 10 minutes or less. At this point GT4 drivers can complete the lap they are on but then MUST move off track and immediately teleport back to pits. GT4 drivers who start a lap after the 10 minutes remaining mark, and GT3 drivers who cross the pit exit line before the 10 minutes remaining mark will be subject to the following penalties:​

• • 1st offence: driver will be teleported back to pits and warned (momentary DSQ).
  • 2nd offence: driver will be disqualified from the qualifying session.
  • 3rd offence: driver will be disqualified from the entire round (including any previous race).

NOTE: GT3 drivers on their first outlap must take extra care not to impede GT4 drivers on their final flying lap. Penalties may apply.​

• Discord voice chat rules and etiquette:
  • if you intend to chat you MUST use push-to-talk. No-none wants to hear your gear clicks, heavy breathing or barking dog in the background.
    
  • non-excessive chat and banter is OK in Practice sessions.
  • There should be minimal chat in Qualifying sessions - essential questions, statements, apologies etc. only.
  • There should be minimal chat in Race sessions - essential questions, statements, apologies etc. only.
    
  • If you become frustrated or angry at yourself or another driver DO NOT PUSH YOUR TALK BUTTON. Keep it private!
  • DO NOT CONDUCT ARGUMENTS OVER VOICE CHAT. Sort it out later!
  • ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. There's no place for that stuff at Rooz!
  • Please wait until ALL drivers have completed the final lap of a race before discussing your race.
  • Admins may speak at any time in any session for obvious reasons.

• Optional use of indicators - Should drivers wish to use indicators to assist with managing lapped traffic, they are to be used as they are used on the road - i.e. you should indicate which way you are going - if you indicate left, you go left. REMEMBER TO TURN THEM OFF AGAIN.

• All drivers should read the Rooz Etiquette guide and Rules & Regs linked below before the start of Round 1.

• Enjoy the battles with others and yourself

MULTICLASS BRIEFING NOTES

Spoiler: Click to Open

• Feedback from previous rounds has been very positive overall but has highlighted a few important things. We accept that GT3's will aggressively pass GT4's at times - multiclass is challenging for both classes - however there is a limit to what is acceptable.
  
  No matter how difficult it seems for GT3 drivers it is unquestionably more difficult for GT4's. Let us be clear here - GT3 cars have no superior 'rank' to GT4 cars. Blue flag rules apply only because of the speed differential. GT4's have the same 'rights' to the track as GT3's and must not be hustled out of the way. Even a very aware GT4 driver can miss spotting fast moving GT3's especially if battle packs are involved.
  
  On the flip-side GT4's must make sure their movements are predictable when GT3's are in their vicinity. They should also make good use of their mirrors, the realtime display, the trackmap, the radar, the spotter and glancing to ensure awareness (the Crew Chief app is also excellent).
  
  We do understand that incidents will occasionally occur however it is the careless or repetitive incidents that are unacceptable and will incur warnings or penalties.
  
  So in summary:
  • GT4's do not have to come off the racing line to let a GT3 through. It is up to the GT3 to find a CLEAN way to pass (hint - straights are best).
  • GT4's have to brake for corners earlier than GT3's but this is not an invitation TO DIVE BOMB TO THE APEX forcing the GT4 to delay their turn in. Please use care and respect.
  • GT4's may choose to give way to a GT3 early but must be clear in conveying that intention (eg. move off the racing line well before a corner).
  • GT4's must also use care and respect when GT3 drivers are trying to pass
  • All drivers are encouraged to report other drivers who repeatedly flout these rules and guidelines. A report does not need to be a protest and can be done via direct message to an admin on the forum or Discord.

RACE SERVER INFO

Spoiler: Click to open

Server Name:
"RaceOnOz.com 01 ROOZ [AUS:AEDT] RACE SERVER S4 Rnd5 60min of Nurburgring [Pit Req.] [FP 8:15pm] [Q1 9:00pm] [R1 9:20pm]"

• The race server will be available to join from approximately 7:45pm AEDT and will kick over to official practice at 8:15pm
• The server has a locked entry list and will only allow those who have signed up for the season to join it.
• Qualifying and Practice sessions are open for joining but race sessions are locked.
• The server won't show in the multiplayer lobby so you will need to search for "raceonoz" or "rooz"
• PASSWORD: season4

PRACTICE SERVER INFO

Spoiler: Click to open

Server Name:
"RaceOnOz.com 02 ROOZ [AUS:AEDT] Mon League [S4 Round 5] Closed Practice"

• The practice server is available now.
• The server has a locked entry list and will only allow those who have signed up for the season to join it.
• All sessions are open for joining.
• The server won't show in the multiplayer lobby so you will need to search for "raceonoz" or "rooz".
• All conditions are set to match those that will be used for the race server.
• PASSWORD: season4

RACE & SESSION INFO

Spoiler: Click to open

This round is a SPRINT:

• 1 x 60 min race.
• 1 Mandatory pitstop for tyres.
• 57 minute pit window.
• Fuel optional, fill time not fixed.
• 20 min qualifying session split into two 10 minute segments.
  • Segment 1 is exclusively for GT4's.
  • Segment 2 is exclusively for GT3's.
• Full formation lap with UI gizmo and car ghosting on. Getting too far out of position can result in being auto-sent to the pits for the start. Speeding as the lights go green will result in a stop/go penalty.
• Server time scale multiplier set at 2x for this round.
• SESSIONS:
  • Official Practice, 45 mins (in game Saturday 2pm) - OPEN for joining
  • Qualifying, 20 mins (in game Sunday 9am) - OPEN for joining
  • Race, 60 mins (in game Sunday 2pm) - LOCKED no joining
• Weather is set to an average of 24 degrees with a low chance of rain across all sessions so expect some variation.

CAR CHOICE
Season 4 is a fixed car per driver championship. Whichever car you start your first official round in will be the car you use for the rest of the season.

MORE INFO

• Season 4 is fully subscribed however a new driver can be put onto the reserve list by making that request in the Season 4 Sign up & Info thread
• Season 4 Rules & Regs
• The Rooz Guide to Courteous Driving
• Lodging protests post race

DISCORD & VOICE

Spoiler: Click to open

All important information for racing is available on our forums, however we strongly advise drivers to join our Discord server for for voice and text chat. Sometimes critical information such as server issues, race delays, last minute race format changes, instructions to a specific driver, etc. will be relayed only through the Discord voice channel and text chat. There is also a healthy dose of banter that just makes the round more fun . Once you sign up for any Season at Rooz you'll be given extra Discord permissions for text chat.

Discord voice chat rules and etiquette:

• if you intend to chat you MUST use push-to-talk. No-none wants to hear your gear clicks, heavy breathing or barking dog in the background.
• non-excessive chat and banter is OK in Practice sessions.
• There should be minimal chat in Qualifying sessions - essential questions, statements, apologies etc. only.
• There should be minimal chat in Race sessions - essential questions, statements, apologies etc. only.
• If you become frustrated or angry at yourself or another driver DO NOT PUSH YOUR TALK BUTTON. Keep it private!
• DO NOT CONDUCT ARGUMENTS OVER VOICE CHAT. Sort it out later!
• ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. There's no place for that stuff at Rooz!
• Please wait until ALL drivers have completed the final lap of a race before discussing your race.
• Admins may speak at any time in any session for obvious reasons.
• Feel free to hang around in chat after the race. Many of us like to have a laugh about things that may have happened in the race and it can be a nice wind-down

• ROOZ Discord Server

CUSTOM PAINTED SKINS

Spoiler: Click to open

Unfortunately due to the serious "join freeze" or "join lag" issue we are currently not allowing the use of custom painted skins for Season 4. Specifically we are talking about skins painted externally and saved as PNG files that are added to ACC.

We love the idea of custom painted skins and would dearly love to add this rich feature to our league but ultimately the quality of the racing must come first. We have discussed at length a number of ideas and methodologies to try to overcome the problem but these involve arrangements which add complexity for the admin team as well as all drivers involved in the season and still may not result in overcoming the problem. If the situation improves significantly either through better support within ACC or through the community arriving at workable solutions then we will certainly look at allowing custom painted skins into our Monday night league racing.

If you also love custom painted skins then please help us out by searching high and low for real solutions, and by all means feel free to do some testing on our servers including during our Wednesday fun practice nights.

At this stage we are not restricting the use of the in-game editor for creating custom colour schemes. This may change if we find that even that system causes serious join lag issues.

NOTE: As we cannot block the use of skins at the server level we strongly suggest all drivers who sign up to Season 4 remove all custom painted skins from their game installation folders as a precaution. If a custom painted skin has been accidently left selected on a driver's car when they enter the S4 server during a qualifying session causing join lag they will be immediately disqualified from the round. Any driver that has a copy of that joining driver's selected skin will experience a large join lag as that image is loaded into memory. Every other driver on the server may experience some level of 'join lag' even if they have zero customs skins in their game.

Thanks for racing at RaceOnOz
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Did really well in the quali and was about 2-4 tenths up on my time but got invalidated but started in a decent position.

I got unfortunate on lap 2 by getting turned around after trying to avoid the T1 incident and ended up stalled and stranded in the middle of the track facing backwards. Figured I might try and do an early stop 15 minutes in after throwing it off the track in the stadium area, then after my stop proceeded to throw the car into the wall and off the track a few times.

Oh yeah and I spun on the warm up lap.

I probably drove like a total ass around the GT4's, for that I'm properly sorry.

-16/10 bad race.

Last night was another fun round of multiclass excitement and at a track that had the potential to create a lot of bottlenecks for the GT3's (last Wednesday's prac night was very handy for better understanding that).

Once again this week we had 40 cars on track which is so damn cool. I wasn't quite on song last night but tried to stay on track and stay consistent which I achieved. The wet qual was an interesting curveball but I don't think it put me out of place compared to my dry pace.

After luckily avoiding the T1 incident I had a bunch of good battles with Mael, Talbot, Cesana, Mironenko, Wally, Vandelay and Jacobs (apologies if I missed someone). Every single battle I had was incredibly fair which makes the racing so much fun. All the while the GT3's materialised randomly and often in close battle packs of their own. There was never a dull moment that's for sure and there was a lot of respect being shown all round which was fantastic. I don't recall a single bit of contact whether in the GT4 battles or the GT3 passes! Apologies if I baulked any GT3's. I remember a few times where I was caught out of position by fast approaching GT3s but I tried to remain on a predictable path.

Driving a GT4 while being dodged by GT3's really is a new kind of sim racing experience and a pretty awesome one at that . I recommend the current GT3 drivers give it a go one day. I intend to try the flip side myself too.

Now that we are halfway through Season 4, the GT3/GT4 multiclass racing is taking a break for a week. Next Monday is the GT3 only Spa 2.4 hour special event so go sign up now if you haven't already (and team up with someone too if you want).

I can definitely see myself wanting to maybe do this next season if we stay multiclass

But they picked up on my right turn at left turn when we were beginning to battle

I think we were going to have a good fight but it seems like we collectively couldn't help but bin it.