Take It Easy Racing League Rules
Welcome! Our league promotes fair, competitive, but not too serious racing. We are trying to avoid the huge number of rules, restrictions and litigation that accompany serious leagues, however, we do have a few. The main and all-encompassing one is: do as you would like others to do to you. TIE Racing League is about competitive racing that rewards clean and fun driving without cumbersome detailed penalties.
1. Communications
1.1 All members of the TIE Racing community must treat all other members with respect on and off the track, including in-game communications via voice or text, on all discord channels, direct messages, streams and other social media. This includes public posting of private messages.
1.2 In-game radio and text chat must be kept at the minimum during competitive sessions. Discussions of driver etiquette or incidents should never take place during qualifying or race. Drivers are welcome to have a respectful discussion after the race. For some easy chatting during the race, welcome to Discord!
2. Liveries
2.1 Custom liveries via Trading Paints are very welcome, provided they are family-friendly and abide by iRacing’s livery guidelines. Drivers may be asked to change liveries which can be considered inappropriate, overtly political or offensive.
2.2 All drivers must ensure that their race number is clearly displayed on a number board on both sides of their car. Boards must be either a different colour to the panel around it or clearly outlined and the colour of the numbers must be a clear contrast to the board.
3. Qualifying
3.1 Any driver not on a flying lap (including out/in lap, invalidated laps or limping back to the pits) must not impede any driver who is on a flying lap.
3.2 All drivers must yield to cars already on track when exiting the pit lane.
3.3 The driver who qualified must start the race.
4. Rolling Start Procedure
4.1 All cars must keep their car in the appropriate line on their half of the track and at a maximum distance of 3 car-lengths while preparing to start. Any driver deemed to have their car outside of their line or be further than 3 car-lengths from the driver ahead without reasonable cause when the race begins may be penalised. Jump starts are prohibited.
4.2 The race will begin and the green flag will be deemed to be shown when the pole position car decides to accelerate after the pace car has entered pit lane or when the green flag is shown in-game, whichever comes first.
4.3 Once the pace car enters the pit lane, it is the polesitter’s responsibility to hold a steady speed until they choose to accelerate and begin the race or until the green flag shows. Under no circumstances should the leader accelerate to begin the race and then slow down causing a check-up.
4.4 Drivers opting to start from the pit lane must wait in the pit speed limiter zone and exit behind all other drivers (not including other drivers starting from the pitlane).
4.5 In multi class races green flag rules 4.2-4.3 apply only to the fastest class, the green flag indicates the start for that class only. The second and subsequent classes can only start after the moment when their class leader begins to accelerate.
The class leader must start the race between the penultimate turn and the start-finish line. At the same time, he must make sure that all classes of cars ahead have already started the race.
4.6 If the stewards determine there has been a clear manipulation or an attempt to gain an unfair advantage at the start, penalties will be applied.
5. Flag Rules
5.1 Yellow Flag: A yellow flag warns of danger, not a free position. Assess the situation and try not to make it worse. Be prepared for the car ahead to slow down sharply. It’s better to lose 2-3 seconds here than to get caught in an avoidable wreck.
5.2 Blue Flag: Follow iRacing Sporting Code implementation:
A blue flag with a diagonal yellow stripe indicates faster cars are approaching. This flag is informational only.
In all cases, it is the responsibility of the faster car to safely overtake the slower car. It is the responsibility of the slower car to maintain a consistent line. It is strongly recommended that a slower car being lapped makes every reasonable effort to facilitate a safe pass.
Additionally, both lapping and lapped drivers share the responsibility to keep lapping manoeuvres safe. A lapped car may choose to move over and let the faster car through but should never do it on corner exit and should never make any unpredictable speed or line changes. However the lapped car is not obligated to yield until an overtaking opportunity arises. All parties must expect to lose time in this scenario.
5.3 Black Flag: If you are given a black flag by the iRacing system for any reason, you must serve the penalty mandated on the screen. Admins will not clear any black flag penalty.
6. Driving Standards
6.1 All drivers must respect the iRacing Sporting Code.
6.2 Drivers must give sufficient racing room to others at all times. On a straight, a car having any overlap at all must be given racing room.
6.3 The defending driver is only allowed to change line if there are no overlaps and the attacking driver is a significant distance away (draft break is acceptable). If the attacker has a chance to overtake on this straight then more than one line change or reaction to a driver behind will be considered blocking.
6.4 While overtaking into a corner, the front wheels of the attacking car must be level with the rear wheels of the defending car at the point of turn-in to earn the right to be given space.
6.5 While defending into a corner, a driver must give racing room to an attacker if their front wheels are level with the defender’s rear wheels.
6.6 Drivers must not move under braking, must hold a constant line and avoid cutting off another car’s trajectory.
6.7 Drivers must not leave the racing surface as defined by the white lines, to initiate, complete or defend against an overtaking manoeuvre and/or gain an advantage.
6.8 If, for any reason, cars do end up overlapping sufficiently at other points during a corner, racing room must be given to all parties.
6.9 Any manoeuvres judged by the stewards to have caused a driver ahead to take excessive evasive action to avoid contact may be penalised.
6.10 Flashing of headlights is permitted to inform the driver in front or in the slower class of the intention to overtake. Repeated, inappropriate, dissatisfied, thankful or any other use of flashing is prohibited.
7. Incidents
7.1 During an accident, pushing a stopped car out of the way in order to continue may be penalised.
7.2 Any driver found guilty of retaliation or malicious driving will receive an immediate and permanent ban from the community and all future events.
7.3 If a driver loses control for any reason, the brakes must be held until the car comes to a complete stop and then rejoin safely in line with rules 7.4 to 7.7. Failure to do so may result in a penalty if it results in contact or forcing a car to adjust their line and/or speed to avoid a collision.
7.4 Rejoining the track refers to any car not going at racing speed inside track limits. This can be but is not limited to cars recovering from spins or rejoining from being off track. This includes manoeuvring in a safe manner when off track.
7.5 Drivers returning to the track must remain off the racing line until back up to racing speed.
7.6 Drivers returning to the track must give way to other cars until back up to racing speed.
7.7 Rejoining drivers must not impede or make contact with other cars while rejoining the racing surface.
7.8 Drivers receiving a slowdown penalty must serve this off the racing line at the first safe opportunity. Drivers must not attempt to hold up any drivers until the penalty is served and they are back up to racing speed.
8. Pit Lane
8.1 On pit-entry, all drivers are expected to approach the pit lane speed limit line at a reasonable and predictable speed. It is the responsibility of the following driver not to collide with the car ahead.
8.2 Drivers must keep to the fast lane until they approach their pit box and rejoin the fast lane on the opposite side of the pitlane to the pit boxes as soon as possible on leaving. Driving through all the pit boxes is prohibited.
8.3 Drivers must be prepared to adjust speed to avoid collisions in the pitlane, this includes areas where the cars are ‘ghosting’. Any car merging from pit box to fast lane must fall in behind any cars already in the fast lane to avoid overlapping.
9. Protest and Penalties
9.1 Protests for violations of the rules are accepted within 3 days after the race in the appropriate Discord server channel. Remember that people are not perfect and mistakes happen. Protests are necessary to prevent malicious unsportsmanlike violations and are considered subjectively by the stewards.
9.2 Penalties may include, but not limited to:
- Explanation and assistance in improving driver level.
- Warning.
- Adding penalty time to race results.
- Losing championship points.
- Ban in next qualification and start from pit lane.
- Disqualification for one/several races.
- Ban in the League.
9.3 The protest can be filled out by any league member, regardless of whether they were involved in the incident or not.
Remember that we are all about a friendly racing community and mistakes happen, take it easy and have fun!