CMS NARS 2023
Super GT 500 Series

Our first ‘short’ series of the year will take us to the Far East for some exciting tracks that are rarely raced by our community. The cars are from the recently updated Apex Modding Super GT 500 mod and we’ll be racing venues that generally follow the 2023 real life schedule

THE CARS

While the Super GT series is multiclass with both the 500s and 300s, for our NARS championship, we will run the 500s exclusively – specifically the Honda NSX, Nissan Fairlady Z33 and the Toyota Supra.

Full details about the real life series can be found at https://supergt.net/

The cars we will be running are the Apex 2005-2006 mod found in the Steam Workshop at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879020038.

THE TRACKS

We will use following layouts:

Lester NJ
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660770506

Okayama
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1440574045

Fuji
In NARS Steam Workshop Item

Matsusaka
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=705367165

Sepang
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=922034184

Buriram
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1644154294

Sportsland Sugo
In NARS Steam Workshop Item and
https://mega.nz/file/YQRAkTaa#cFW_aPDRr2TcIe1il3XUNdc9GVxh7JLy5YVKY0keDQo

Autopolis
In NARS Steam Workshop Item and
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sGpZ-mS9BImQGQvZ8rm3svRxwvszsCxc/view

Korea
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1440572361

Make sure you are subscribed to the NARS item to get the non-Steam tracks automatically and check it to confirm the Steam Workshop tracks too!

Calendar:

23 Feb Lester NJ Test Race
2 Mar Okayama
16 Mar Fuji
23 Mar Matsusaka
30 Mar Sepang
13 Apr Buriram
27 Apr Sportsland Sugo
4 May Autopolis
11 May Korea

Event Schedule

7pm/1900 Eastern – Server Reboot / Practice
8:55pm/2055 Eastern – Driver Brief/Announcements
9:00pm/2100 Eastern – Qualification (20 minutes)
9:20pm/2120 Eastern – Warm-up
9:30pm/2140 Eastern – Race (Formation Lap plus 60 minutes of racing)

Start

Rolling start, double file.

Orange Zone (OZ)

There will be an OZ designated for each race in the driver notes that will be posted to the NARS #super-gt-500-info channel and noted again in the pre-race brief. There will be an automatic review of the OZ post-race.

Registration

There is no pre-registration for the championship or races and drivers are free to join the series at any point.

Regardless of driver class, each driver showing up on race night are expected to have completed all their preparations, including reading the series and race instuctions, d/l and installation of the required mods, confirmation that their system and connection are working properly plus have completed enough single player and on line practice on the CMS server to race competently and safely.

Pro & Am Group Settings

To minimize frustration and encourage drivers to participate for the full series, there are separate groups of drivers based on performance. Drivers are free to choose their class based on their skill level and ability to prepare.

The general ruling set to determine if a driver is outqualified for Am class is if his average lap time is faster than 99% of the average lap time of all Am drivers during a race. Repeated performance as this level will result in the driver being moved to the PRO class

This ensures that the two driver classes have strong levels of competition within the classes with drivers running in the classes most appropriate for their demonstrated abilities.

Admins still have the right to reassign a drivers’ class up or down if they are not correctly placed based on special circumstances or drivers’ performance.

Championships

There will be two individual driver championships, PRO and AM. Drivers must declare their driver class before entering their first race.

Points will be awarded each race for championship standings with one ‘drop’ race for each driver over the course of the series.

There are also two additional driver trophies – one “Hard Charger” per class to recognise drivers who make the biggest gains from their starting positions and the “In the Groove” to recognise the driver who drives the most consistently during their races, regardless of class. These trophies will be awarded at the end of the season.

Points

20-15-11-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 point thereafter
Pole in each class receives 1 additional point

Hard Charger Trophy: 2 points per class to be shared between the drivers in each class gaining the most grid-to-finish positions in the race. Minimum of 1 point to be awarded per driver.

In the Groove Trophy: Points are gained by drivers driving the most consistently in the race compared to their own fastest race lap as follows: 5-4-3-2-1.

Details on how to follow championship results are provided in the NARS Discord channels.

Custom Liveries and Numbers

CMS standard liveries are provided and drivers are encouraged to paint their own custom liveries. Templates are at the top of the #super-gt-500-info channel and will contain the numberplates that must be used.

If you miss the submission date for the start of the season and still want to run your livery, custom skin uploading is welcome and encouraged, but please log onto the server a couple of days before to mitigate server load from skin transfers on race day.

The use of the NARS numbering system is required for custom liveries and drivers not yet holding a NARS racing number may choose from those available, as listed at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13wo6t9tP2E1LCAUaJxE0osyKsnnnuyfh3N5T9Iv2WbQ/edit?usp=sharing

Settings

We will use the latest stable build of rFactor 2.
The damage setting is 75%.
Crash Recovery is off. Drive carefully!
Driving View is open.
Auto Clutch, Blip, Lift and Brakes/Clutch are the only rF2 global aids available.
2x fuel on all cars except when specifically noted in the pre-race notes.

Weather will always be live weather conditions.

The server name will be “CMS SGT500 [track name]”.
The server race password will be provided 24 hours prior to race day.

General

LiveRacers will be used to record the hot laps and race results with full championship results available on the #super-gt-500-info channel

The race will be live-streamed on YouTube at our channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Kdp07PvIeW47f0_sM0emw

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 that may be found on the CMS Discord Server. All drivers are expected to know the GCR and shall be required to abide by them.

Pit Entry/Exit Lines: On circuits that a white line is drawn at the pit road entry or/and exit, crossing this white line to entry or/end exit the pit is prohibited unless specifically permitted in a pre-race brief. Otherwise, it is permissible for tires to step on the white line, but crossing the line with one tire completely will result in a post-race Incident Review Request and penalty.

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 at https://cmsracing.com/incident-report/.

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 computer just before joining the server on race night.

Don’t use a WiFi connection. Only Ethernet cable connections are permitted for NARS events.