CMS NARS 2025

World Touring Car Championship

NARS returns to the popular S397 BTCC mods, but this time will be leaving the confines of the United Kingdom for a world tour.  Race evenings will have a qualifying session and then two short sprints to evoke the real life racing series.

THE CARS

We’ll be using the full suite of BTCC cars available in the rF2 DLC:

BMW 330i

Cupra Leon

Ford Focus ST

Honda Civic Type R

Hyundai i30 N Performance

Infiniti Q50 (V37)

Toyota Corolla BTCC

Vauxhall Astra BTCC

We will also be using the CMS Safety Car, which is freely available at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965432751

THE CALENDAR and TRACKS

11 Sep  Vallelunga, Italy (included in the NARS item)

02 Oct Andersdorp, Sweden (included in the NARS item)

09 Oct Norisring, Germany (Steam Workshop)

30 Oct Trembling Mountain, Canada (Steam Workshop)

06 Nov Goiana, Brazil (S397 DLC from Reiza)

27 Nov Bathurst, Australia (included in the NARS item)

04 Dec Macao, China (included in the NARS item)

11 Dec  Sportsland Sugo, Japan (included in the NARS item)

18 Dec Isle of Man Time Trial, Isle of Man (Steam Workshop)

Event Schedule

7pm/1900 Eastern – Server Reboot / Practice
8:55pm/2055 Eastern – Driver Brief/Announcements
9:00pm/2100 Eastern – Qualification (15 minutes)
9:15 pm/2115 Eastern – Warm-up (10 minutes)
9:25 pm/2125 Eastern – Race 1 (20 minute race)
10:05 pm/2205 Eastern (approx) – Race 2 (20 minute race)

Time Trial Schedule

7pm/1900 Eastern – Server Reboot / Practice
9pm/2100 Eastern – Driver Brief/Announcements
9:15 pm/2115 Eastern – First Driver departs
9:20 pm/2120 Eastern – Drivers depart at 5 minute intervals

Event Start

Formation lap, standing start, double file.  Time trial will be a timed release with gaps between each competitor.

Tyres (or Tires, if you prefer)

Drivers will only have certain compounds available for a race night.  When a pair of compounds is designated, drivers MUST start each race with a different choice (ie R1 soft, R2 medium or vice versa when the choice for that night is s/m, for example) . All qualifying sessions will be completed on the medium compound, all races.  The sole exception is in the event of rain, when for both Q and races, the rain compound may be used.

Gridding

Race 1 will grid using the qualifying session results. Race 2 will grid using the finishing results of Race 1, with the first six places in the grid selected randomly from the cars finishing in positions 7-12 in that first race.

Orange Zone (OZ)

There will be an OZ designated for each race in the driver notes that will be posted to the NARS #race-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 online practice on the CMS server to race competently and safely.

Driver Classes

The CMS driver classification system will be used to determine in which championship each driver will compete.
PRO               Platinum and Gold
PRO AM        Silver
AM                 Bronze and Copper

Drivers new to CMS without a classification will automatically compete in the PRO category.  Dependent upon their performance, they may be shifted to a different championship after two race nights.

Championships

There will be three individual driver championships, PRO, PRO AM and AM.  Series standings will be managed through the rf2la app; details may be found on the NARS Discord channels

Points will be awarded each race for championship standings with two ‘drop’ races for each driver over the course of the series.  This means that each driver has 17 races to record their top 15 results to count towards their championship standing.

In addition to the individual driver championships, there will also be a team championship, with 2-3 drivers of any class, driving the same model of car.  Only the top driver in each class within a team will register points for their team.  Teams must register on the #btcc25-teams channel and will count points as a team from that point forward, using their individuals class standings (drop rounds will be in effect) for a team total.

There is also the “In the Groove” to recognise the driver who drives the most consistently during their races, regardless of class (except for the time trial). It will be awarded at the end of the season.  No ‘drop’ rounds for this trophy – drivers will always be able to compete for points in these trophies in each race competed.

Points

20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point thereafter
Pole in each class receives 1 additional point in R1

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: 10-9-8-7-65-4-3-2-1.

Details on how to follow championship results are provided at #links-nars.

Custom Liveries and Numbers

CMS standard liveries are provided and drivers are encouraged to paint their own custom liveries. Templates will be pinned in the #nars-race-info channel.

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.  Simply follow the directions contained in the #nar-links channel in the CMS Discord.

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 WTCC [track name]”.
The server race password will be provided when the server is rebooted on race day.

General

The rf2la app will be used to record the hot laps and instructions for following the series standings will be provided at #vmsc24-info.

All races 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. Additional track-specific instructions will be provided via a drivers race brief that will be posted on #btcc25-info and summarized prior to the start of the qualifying session on race night.

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.