CMS NARS 2023
Virtual Modern Sportscar Championship

As has become the tradition here at NARS, we are very pleased and excited to be running the latest of the Storm Gang Simulation modern sports car mods – the WSC 2023 featuring the complete field of homologated Hypercars as well as the LMGT3 field.

The SGS ‘smart BOP’ for both fields ensures competitive racing within the classes while preserving individual car characteristics to afford drivers plenty of options in choosing a car that fits best with their driving style. Developed with broad support from the rF2 modding community, with this mod SGS has provided an unequalled opportunity to experience in sim racing one of the most exciting developments in real world racing as it rolls out during 2023.

As was the case last year, the CMS VWSC chapter will run a separate championship using this mod in parallel with NARS, but on the following Saturdays.

THE CARS

The specifications for this new breed of prototypes begin in 2018 and brought the two powerhouses of FIA/ACO and IMSA together on what they called Convergence. With this framework, the cars of their top classes would need very little change to be compatible with their respective series. After many ups and downs in the process, the WEC Hypercar class (LMH spec – Le Mans Hypercar) premiered in 2021, replacing LMP1. With only two manufactures fielding properly homologated cars, the first two years were mostly a dry run for things to come.
2023, IMSA would see 4 manufacturers emerge to start at Daytona under the GTP class (Grand Touring Prototype with LMDh spec – Le Mans Daytona hybrid). WEC would also expand to 4 makes in LMH spec for a total of 8 new Hypercars for the year. This will be the first time in a century that this many manufacturers will be eligible for top class honours at Le Mans; a fitting tribute to the centennial running of the Greatest Race.

Hypercar (All SGS)

• Acura ARX-06 LMDh
• BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh
• Cadillac V-LMDh
• Ferrari 499P LMH
• Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH
• Peugeot 9×8 LMH
• Porsche 963 LMDh
• Toyota GR010 LMH

Making their return to the VMSC are the GT3s, now named LMGT3, that were so successfully raced in 2022. With few changes to the class from 2022, these cars will again inspire some exciting driving for both PRO and AM drivers, the only difference being the ABS and TC available to the less experienced class.

LMGT3

S397 DLC

• Aston Martin Vantage GT3
• Audi R8 LMS GT3
• Bentley Continental GT3
• BMW M4 GT3
• Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTE
• Ferrari 488 GT3
• McLaren 720S GT3
• Mercedes AMG GT3
• Porsche 911 GT3 R

SGS

• Acura NSX GT3
• Ford Mustang GT3
• Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 GT3
• Lexus RC F
• Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3

Required DLC

GT3 Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/1001/
Corvette C8.R GTE
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/55/

The Tracks

We will use following layouts. You must own the respective track for each race to connect to the server.

Daytona International Speedway Road Course
January 19 – 2.4 Hours of Daytona (USA) (10x time compression)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/71/

Algarve International Circuit
February 09 – 60 Minutes Portimao (Portugal)
SGS in-house track

Sebring International Raceway
March 09 – 1.2 Hours of Sebring (USA) (10x time compression)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/18/

Long Beach
April 06 – 60 Minutes of Long Beach (USA)
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2803336225

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
April 20 – 60 Minutes of Spa (Belgium)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/51/

Circuit de la Sarthe
June 01 – 2.4 Hours of Le Mans (France) (5x time compression)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/37/

Watkins Glen International
June 15 – 60 Laps of The Glen (USA)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1508582012

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
July 13 – 60 Minutes of Mosport (Canada)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1885152462

Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
July 20 – 60 Minutes of Monza (Italy)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/59/

Road America
August 24 – 60 Minutes of Road America (USA)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244029375

Fuji International Speedway
September 07 – 60 Minutes of Fuji (Japan)
SGS partner track

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
September 21 – 60 Minutes of Indianapolis (USA)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=917386941

Road Atlanta
October 19 – 100 Minutes of Road Atlanta (USA) (10x compression)
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2632185735

Bahrain International Circuit
November 09 – 80 Minutes of Bahrain (Bahrain)
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/82/

Calendar:

19 Jan 2.4h of Daytona (24 hour cycle)
9 Feb 60m of Portimao
9 Mar 1.2h of Sebring (12 hour cycle)
6 Apr 60m of Long Beach
1 Jun 2.4h of Le Mans (24 hour cycle)
15 Jun 40L of the Glen
13 Jul 60m of Mosport
20 Jul 60m of Monza
24 Aug 60m of RdAm
7 Sep 60m of Fuji
21 Sep 60m of Indy
19 Oct 100m of RdAtl (10 hour cycle)
9 Nov 80m of Bahrain

Track mods will be announced before race week.

Event Schedule

7pm/1900 Eastern – Server Reboot / Practice
8:55pm/2055 Eastern – Driver Brief/Announcements
9:00pm/2100 Eastern – Qualification (10 Min GT/10 Min Hypercar)
9:20pm/2120 Eastern – Warm-up
9:30pm/2130 Eastern – Race

Start

Rolling start, single file by class.

Orange Zone (OZ)

There will be an OZ designated for each race in the driver notes that will be posted to the NARS #vmsc23-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 97% 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, plus a team championship in each car class.

Drivers will automatically be entered in the championship appropriate to their choice of class when they pick their car. Changes of car and/or class may be made once and points recalculated. Further changes will incur a complete forfeiture of points.

Teams will be composed of one PRO and one AM driver driving the same car (Hypercar or LMGT3) and must be declared to the race admin in order for points to be accumulated from that time forward. Teams are encouraged to make public posts about entering the championship as well! Points will be accumulated by teams as won by the two drivers in their respective classes from the point of declaration. Teams that no longer meet the same make/AM+PRO requirement for their championship after any changes will be eliminated from that championship and may be entered afresh for a team championship for which they then meet the requirements, scoring points from that point on only. Each driver must have participated

Points will be awarded each race for championship standings with two ‘drop’ races for each driver over the course of the year.

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

60 Min Races: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 point thereafter

80 minute – 100 minute races + Sebring: 38-27-23-18-15-12-9-6-3-2-1 thereafter

2.4 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans: 44-32-27-21-17-14-11-8-5-3-1 point thereafter.

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 Cup: 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.

Only drivers that complete the race will be eligible for points in either the championships or trophy/cup.

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 will be pinned to the #vmsc23-info channel and will contain a number of required elements (CMS/NARS banners and numberplates) that must be respected.

There will be announced updates throughout the season where liveries will be accepted for inclusion in the mod. If you miss those dates 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 and advise the series admin of the number they would like.

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.

There is no pre-registration for the competition. Just show up, pick the car and class, then drive and have fun!
The server name will be “CMS VWSC [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

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.