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 Friday 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

     6.1.7 – Drivers may have their number of available appeals for the season reduced or receive a penalty at the discretion of the stewards for submitting frivolous protests

 

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

     6.2.2 – Any penalties accrued during lap 1 will be upgraded by 1 level as described in 6.4

     6.2.3 – In the event of any significant incident ahead, any cars that are deemed to have not slowed sufficiently so that they could have stopped if needed, will receive a level 1 offence regardless of the outcome of their actions

     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

     6.3.2 – When a driver has another driver approaching within the same car class, looking to put lap on them, the lead driver must facilitate the pass by lifting off the throttle on one of the next two straights before the braking zones once the driver behind moves within .5 of a second

     6.3.3 – Drivers deemed to have defended their position when being lapped are at risk of receiving a penalty

     6.3.4 – Drivers should not weave when there is a car within 2 car lengths behind them

     6.3.5 – The edge of the track is defined by iRacing’s off track limits. The exceptions to this are on straights where you can move your car entirely over the white lines that separate a pit entry or exit from the racing surface. An example of this is the exit of La Source at Spa, or the start/finish straight at Monza. In this scenario, when an incident occurs, drivers are deemed off track and it is the drivers responsibility to rejoin the racing surface safely.

     6.3.6 – 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

     6.4.1 – Every incident is unique, therefore the stewards reserve the right to apply any penalty they deem necessary for a specific incident regardless of the guidelines laid out below

     6.4.2 – Incidents can be judged to be a level 1, 2, 3 or 4 penalty or worthy of a warning. These levels consider the action of the guilty driver

     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

     6.4.4 – If a driver receives a time penalty for an incident during the B final and advances to the A final, they will have their penalty applied to their A final result

     6.4.5 – A level 1 penalty yields 1 license point

     6.4.6 – A level 2 penalty yields 2 license points

     6.4.7 – A level 3 penalty yields 3 license points

     6.4.8 – A level 4 penalty yields 4 license points

     6.4.9 – Warnings yield no penalty, however, stewards may give a driver a penalty of their discretion if multiple warnings are accumulated through a season

     6.4.10 – The below are only examples of incidents that could yield each penalty level.

     6.4.11 – A level 1 penalty 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 – A level 2 penalty can be awarded for:

         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 – A level 3 penalty can be awarded for:

         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

     6.4.14 – A level 4 penalty is awarded when a driver has caused a level 3 offense on the first lap

 

6.5 – Appeals System

     6.5.1 – An appeal allows a driver to submit their rpy file, giving stewards information on their pedal and steering inputs (not mandatory) and send a worded account of the incident from their perspective (not mandatory). Stewards who did not initially review the incident, will review whether the correct penalty was given

     6.5.2 – Appeals can be submitted by drivers who submitted a protest or who received a penalty

     6.5.3 – An appealed penalty can be removed, reduced, maintained or increased

     6.5.4 – A driver can request an appeal of an incident within 24 hours of the announcement in discord that all incidents have been reviewed

     6.5.5 – Drivers have 1 appeal at their disposal. If they appeal an incident that is overturned in favour of the driver who appealed the decision, they will have their 1 appeal returned

     6.5.6 – Drivers should appeal decisions by putting in the championship’s relevant contact-an-admin channel – “I appeal” followed by whatever information they wish to include from 6.5.1

 

6.6 – License & Penalty Points

     6.6.1 – For every 6 license points a driver has at the end of the season, they receive 20 penalty points

     6.6.2 – Penalty points count towards the teams championship as well as the drivers

     6.6.3 – Penalty points will count, even if the incident was at a meeting the driver drops

 

6.7 – Qualifying Bans

     6.7.1 – If a driver has 6 or more points on their license, they will not be allowed to take part in qualifying at the next round they start a race in

     6.7.2 – Complying with the above subtracts 6 points from the driver’s license

     6.7.3 – Drivers must not leave the pitlane during qualifying when they are serving their qualifying ban. If this is not followed, the driver will still have 6 points subtracted from their license but also be penalised with a level 1 offence

     6.7.4 – If a driver is banned from qualifying but sets a qualifying lap, they will be banned from the next meeting (with no refund). They will not have 6 points subtracted from their license. If a driver realises they should not have set a qualifying lap after doing so, they should start from the pits to serve their penalty

     6.7.5 – If a driver breaks rule 6.7.4 at the final meeting of the season, they will have their points from the final round removed. They will not have 6 points subtracted from their license

 

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 – ARL reserve the right to remove drivers from the series. These drivers will not receive a refund and may be banned from future ARL seasons or events

     6.9.4 – The iRacing sporting code applies to anything not mentioned in this document

 

6.10 – Qualifying Rules

     6.10.1 – Drivers must not drop below a speed of 60kph in qualifying after they have left the pits besides moving aside to allow drivers past or driving through tight corners

     6.10.2 – Drivers should also not use any iRacing exploits to prepare their tyres before a fast lap