6.1 – Protests
6.1.1 – Stewards investigate incidents post-race and distribute penalties which are submitted by drivers via the penalty submission form available in Discord
6.1.2 – Protests must be submitted before 23:59 GMT on the Thursday after the race. Protests submitted after this will not be investigated
6.1.3 – Drivers must indicate their lap of the reported incident, not the other driver’s
6.1.4 – Anyone involved in a protested incident can receive a penalty
6.1.5 – The stewards reserve the right to review any incident, regardless if it was protested or not
6.1.6 – Drivers may only protest incidents that they were directly affected by
6.2 – Additional Lap 1 Rules
6.2.1 – All incidents on lap 1 are reviewed by the stewards regardless of protests submitted. Drivers are still recommended to submit lap 1 protests to ensure incidents are reviewed
6.2.4 – Drivers who start from the pitlane should not enter the race track (defined by the blue cone on pit exit) until all grid-starters from their car class have passed. If there is an incident causing grid starters to slow down significantly, the driver exiting the pits does not need to wait for those drivers to pass. Leniency may be given to drivers who, after entering the track ahead of one or more grid starters, slows to allow those drivers past. A driver breaking this rule will receive a level 2 penalty
6.3 – Driver Etiquette
6.3.1 – Drivers should maintain their normal racing line when there are drivers who are approaching to lap them
6.3.6 – The edge of the track is defined by iRacing’s off track limits
6.3.7 – Drivers should not use track cutting exploits such as using the pitlane exit on the final lap of the race to gain an advantage. The stewards will grant a suitable penalty for the amount of time gained by the exploit
6.4 – Penalty Levels
6.4.3 – The stewards can also award post-race time penalties. These post-race penalties consider the impact made to the victim(s) of the guilty driver
6.4.10 – The below are only examples of incidents that could yield each penalty level.
6.4.11 – Examples of actions that penalties can be awarded for:
6.4.11.1 – accidental blocking in qualifying
6.4.11.2 – forcing another driver to take evasive action due to a poorly executed overtake
6.4.12.1 – blocking in reaction to an attempted move
6.4.12.2 – causing contact or a driver to change their line by moving slightly before or in the braking area
6.4.13.1 – attempting a reckless overtake
6.4.13.2 – re-joining the track in an unsafe manner
6.4.13.3 – deliberately defending against a driver who is attempting to lap you
6.4.13.4 – brake checking
6.4.13.5 – causing a collision due to attempting to drive an excessively damaged car
6.4.13.6 – not escaping back to the pits when stationary in a dangerous part of the track
6.4.13.7 – Getting involved in an incident due to not slowing for yellow flags
6.4.13.8 – Weaving when there is a car within 2 car lengths behind
6.4.13.9 – Not allowing cars who are a lap ahead to pass safely
6.8 – Intentional Wrecking
6.8.1 – Intentional wrecking during the race will result in a driver being banned from the season (with no refund). They may be banned indefinitely from all future ARL events
6.8.2 – Intentional wrecking after the race will result in a driver being banned from the next race (with no refund), gaining 6 license points and potentially an additional penalty applied to the race the incident took place in. This includes crashes between teammates. Intentional wrecking does not include light contact, however the stewards may deem this to be worthy of a smaller penalty
6.9 – Driver Conduct
6.9.1 – Drivers are susceptible to penalties should they direct abuse to other drivers on the iRacing voice or text channels or on discord. Abuse could be in the form of racism, harassment, personal insults, inappropriate language and/or anything else the admin team deems to be unacceptable
6.9.2 – ARL reserve the right not to allow drivers into the series who could have a negative impact on the league
6.9.3 – Apex Racing League reserve the right to remove drivers with poor driving standards from the series. They will receive a refund based on section 8.0 of this rules document. They may also not be invited back to any future ARL seasons or events.
6.9.4 – The iRacing sporting code applies to anything not mentioned in this document