For the first of our ‘short’ series championships in 2022, we’ll be mixing it up with some stock cars on-road and oval courses.
2022 NARS SC2018x Championship
Since 1993, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and its predecessors have been providing the entryway for aspiring drivers to step up to the top tier of stock car racing, the NASCAR Cup Series. The racing whether on ovals or road courses, is exciting and dynamic, proving to be a real crowd-pleaser as well as intensely competitive for the drivers.
We will be using the free S397 Stock Car 2018x mod, which was designed to simulate the Xfinity Series and provide a first-rate stock car racing experience. Our version of the mod will be adapted with NARS liveries and two driver categories.
The Xfinity series is 26 races over the course of the year; the NARS championship will be much more modest in scope, but won’t be scrimping on the challenge or excitement! Our 8 race championship series will feature 4 road and 4 oval venues based generally on those to be used for the 2022 real-life Xfinity series and then tailored for the NARS time frame.
Race Night Format
To provide some real-world flavor to our race nights, qualifying will be limited to three laps, with a short warm-up, and then onto the race, which will be a lap event for both oval and road races. Events are expected to be approximately 60 minutes in length though yellow flags during oval races will extend total race time.
Oval Race Management
For the oval races only, we will be using a live race director and pace car driver to manage yellow flag situations. Driver instructions for these races will be included in the pre-race brief. Road races will be conducted in the normal NARS format (Black Flags only).
Race Schedule
The 8 races (plus one pre-season event) will be as follows:
| January | 13th | Pre-season * | Pocono | Oval |
| 27th | Cream Filled Delight 200 | Bristol | Oval | |
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| February | 3rd | Hot Properties 100 | Indianapolis | Road |
| 17th | Loose Screw 125 | Talledega | Oval | |
| 24th | Farm Machinery Coop 100 | Mid-Ohio | ||
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| March | 3rd | Hot Water Heater 250 | Atlanta | Oval |
| 17th | Strikes and Misses 150 | Watkins Glen | Road | |
| 24th | Downspout’s Friend 125 | Daytona | Oval | |
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| April | 7th | Greyhound Rescue 100 | Daytona | Road |
| 14th | CMS 200 Special Event ** | Daytona | Oval | |
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* To confirm drivers are familiar with the Series format and procedures.
** Note: the April 14th Special Event will be a non-points race using the updated Stock Car plugin developed by Matt Sentell at SCSR and is used regularly by that league. Providing a very realistic simulation of oval racing with NASCAR rules will give the ‘full fat’ flavor of racing these cars over the “2%” version that we will be using as an introduction to oval racing. The plugin needs to be on the server only and will provide the right instructions to the drivers during the course of the race.
Car and Track Mods
We’ll be using the “little brother” of the S397 Stock Car offerings, the 2018x. While not the full-throated Super Speedway machines of the SC2018 version, they are still packing an impressive 650hp under the hood, making the SC2018x a powerful, exciting and engaging racing machine that has been built solely to allow drivers the opportunity to race each other hard out on the track.
The tracks are drawn from a growing selection of rF2 oval and road courses simulating the venues that support stock car racing.
Drivers wishing to race must be subscribed to the NARS Steam Workshop item at:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2341079087
This will ensure that the drivers download and install the proper mod for the series as well as be linked to the tracks we will be using.
Driver Classes
There will be two classes of racing – PRO and AM as follows:
Both classes may use AUTO CLUTCH and AUTOBLIP/LIFT
PRO: (intended for more experienced drivers or those who are aiming to compete at the top of the field): may not use any other driver aids.
AM: (intended for those new to racing, still working on their skillsets or finding that ‘finding the time’ for preparation is a struggle): may also use AUTOCLUTCH, AUTOBLIP/LIFT as well as ABS and TC on LOW. NO other driving aids are permitted.
Settings will be verified post-race using LiveRacers. A driver who has used aids in excess of those permitted for their class will be penalized 2 class positions in the race for each additional aid or level of aid used.
Drivers will be able to choose a class and car from within the CMS SC2018x mod as we will have adapted it for this purpose. Once racing has started, a voluntary change of class or car during the series after the second event raced by the driver will forfeit all points accumulated to that time.
Choosing your Driver Class
Drivers are free to enter either class of racing and are strongly encouraged to use the preseason race as an opportunity to assess their abilities with the cars and thereby confirm the choice of PRO or AM.
Drivers will automatically be entered in the championship appropriate to their choice of class when they pick their car. Changes of class may be made once and points recalculated if the change occurs no more than two races after the driver joins the series. Changes after this time will incur a complete forfeiture of points.
Custom Liveries
CMS standard liveries will be provided and drivers are encouraged to paint their own custom liveries. Templates will be pinned to the #sc18x-info channel and will contain a number of required elements (CMS/NARS banners, numberplates, and nameplates) that must be respected.
Liveries with car #/team name that are submitted to Don Fryman BEFORE 1800 EST 21 Jan 22 will be added to an update that will be distributed before the first points race of the championship. Please ensure that you have used the right elements for your chosen class and that you have your last name in place where required on the livery!
The use of the NARS numbering system is required for custom liveries. Drivers not yet holding a NARS racing number may choose from those available, as listed here, and advise the series admin of the number they would like.
For drivers that miss the livery submission deadline, custom livery loading for existing CMS cars through the use of ‘loose’ .dds file will always be available, but please log onto the server a couple of days before the race so your file will get uploaded properly and avoid clogging the server on race day.
General Information
Event Schedule
| 7:00 PM / 1900 Eastern | Server Reboot / Practice |
| 9:00 PM / 2100 Eastern | Driver Brief / Announcements |
| 9:05 PM / 2105 Eastern | Qualification (10 minutes) |
| 9:15 PM / 2115 Eastern | Warm-up (10 minutes) |
| 9:25 PM / 2125 Eastern | Race |
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Points
Points will be allocated separately in each class as follows:
Pole Position from Q: 0
Race: 40-35-34-33-32-32…1
Lead a lap in the race: 1 (may be earned only once)
Hard Charger (gained the most positions from starting grid to chequered flag): 3
CMS LiveRacers will be used for race positions.
Start
Oval: Pace car controlled double-file rolling start. Racing starts on the green flag – don’t pass the pace car before the S/F line!
Road: Pole-sitter controlled double-file rolling start. Racing starts as designated in the driver pre-brief.
Orange Zone (OZ)
There will be an OZ designated for each road race in the driver notes that will be posted to the NARS #sc18x-info channel and noted again in the pre-race brief. There will be an automatic review of the OZ post-race.
Pit Stop
There will be no mandatory pitstops.
Settings
- We will use the latest stable build of rFactor 2.
- The damage setting is 75%.
- Crash Recovery is off. That means your car can fly off the track and land upside down. Drive carefully!
- Driving View is open.
- Open setups, but we encourage everyone to share!
- The weather will be live.
- The server name will be “CMS SC18x Track Name”.
- The practice server will be active 7 days before race day, no password.
- The race server will be password protected and the password will be available on the CMS Discord NARS #sc18x-info channel prior to server reboot on race day.
Race Communications
We will use the CMS Discord rFactor 2 voice channel for race communications.
CMS Discord is available at https://discord.com/invite/4ckmjPX
The voice channel is only required to monitor race control during the event. You do not need a microphone if you do not want to speak.
If you have a microphone, please set it to “push to talk”. If that just doesn’t work for you, PLEASE set the voice-activated audio level up considerably so your coughing, wheezing or sim controls grinding isn’t “shared” with everyone else. Don’t be “that guy/girl”.
Chatter during free practice is permitted and encouraged! For qualification and races, please be brief in your communication on Discord and talk only if absolutely necessary. One sentence then quiet is requested. No text chat AT ALL during qualification or race.
Abusive and/or profane in-game chat, Discord, or forum post language may lead to that driver receiving a sanction up to and including a ban from CMS.
Should a driver join the event server without being in the Discord channel, they will be sent 3 text prompts in rFactor 2 text chat to join the CMS Discord server. After the 3rd prompt, they will be removed from the race server by race control until they rejoin with Discord active and monitoring the race channel
Competition Rules and Stewarding
This series will conform to the CMS General Competition Rules. All drivers are expected to know the GCR and shall be required to abide by them.
There are no live stewards. A post-race Incident Review Request may be submitted for adjudication with any resultant penalties to be served in the next race competed by the driver(s) at fault. The IRR form may be found here.
NARS recommends the use of the Crew Chief app to provide enhanced road and oval spotter capabilities.
rFactor 2 system assigned penalties during races must be served. The Race Director will only have the capability to clear penalties and driver DQ during practice on the race server and then AFTER qualification but before the race.
Connection Notes
Drivers are strongly advised to reboot their computers just before joining the server on race night.
Don’t use a WiFi connection. Only Ethernet cable connections are permitted for NARS events.