Official 2014 HDSR RULEBOOK. These rules are subject to review and edits, as Administration sees necessary, to ensure & maintain the integrity of the League.

• Participation in HDSR events implies knowledge of and consent to follow, all the rules. Irresponsible driving or abuse of the rules will result in administrative review and possible expulsion from competition in our League.
• Keep your contact information, specifically your email address, up-to-date in the members list so other members and league Admin can contact you.
• Each driver is responsible to maintain their computer system and game install to be able to run the League versions of SCE and rFactor. Do not wait until race night to make sure everything is working properly. If you are not ready on race night, by the halfway point of the Official Practice Session, you will be asked to leave and have your system ready for the next event you race in. Do not hesitate to ask for help from league Admin or your fellow drivers ahead of time.
• It is the driver's responsibility to know the format for any events they participate in. See the Series designated section in our Forum for these details and familiarize yourself with this information. Servers will open at a designated time for Practice. Immediately after Practice, we will go to a Qualifying Session. Any drivers that do not make the Qualifying Session, are NOT guaranteed a start in that particular event. We will follow Qualifying with a Driver's Meeting, in which, attendance is required! Attendance of the driver's meeting is considered logged into the race server and Teamspeak 3. Following the Driver's Meeting, we will have a 5 minute Warm-up session. After Warm-up is complete, make sure you are ready to move onto the race. If you have any questions pertaining to the event, ask the race officials during the Drivers Meeting.
• We request all participating drivers to be in the voice and game servers 30 minutes before the qualifying session, to allow for needed preparation time. We understand that this will not always be possible & just ask for a strong effort to get into the servers, in a timely manner.
• Provisionals: The number of Provisionals allowed will be 5 during the regular season and 1 during the last 10 Chase races. Drivers will be awarded last place points minus 2 points for the missed event. Refer to the Series section of the Forums for these details.

Teamspeak:

• During practice, keep public TS chat to an absolute minimum. If you want to discuss current events, etc, there will be a separate TS room for those conversations. Use whisper to communicate with teammates.
• Voice and text chat during qualifying is not allowed!
• During the race, there should only be race related chat. Again, use whisper to communicate with teammates, etc. An example of acceptable public chat in TS3 during the race is : "Pass the #1 low" or "#1 is pitting this lap".
• When a caution comes out, Chat is closed until race admins have the incident under control and open TS. The only chat allowed immediately after caution flag is the car number by the individual/s involved. If you were not involved in the caution incident, please stay off of public chat until admins open TS. Once the admins announce open TS, the only chat should be race related and pertinent to all participants, in the race.
• There will be no profanity on public TS. Consider that you are a guest in each drivers home and behave as such. First offense will be a warning by race officials. Continued offenses will result in penalty points, lap penalties, or removal from the server. If you are removed from a race by an admin, you will have to appear before a race committee before any further participation in league events will be allowed.
• Flaming on TS may result, at the Administrators' discretion, in an ejection from the race and possible removal from the league. Flaming entails a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt, insults, bigotry, name-calling, or any outright hostility directed at a specific driver. If you are not happy with something a driver has done, it is best to keep quiet and deal with it after the race, in a private setting. Do not get yourself in trouble for something someone else has done.

Race:

• There will be atleast 1 race administrator at each Series race event. We will have in-game rules turned on and use the SCE Rules Plug-in. The race session rules, using the SCE Rules Plug-in, will mirror the real Nascar rules.
• Race Admin's rulings are final and are not to be openly questioned or criticized. The only acceptable method to question an Admin's ruling is via private email or private conversation in Teamspeak, AFTER the event is completed!
• Admins to complete race review and announce penalties by Saturday following the Sunday Race. All appeals must be submitted within 72 hours of Admin's initial decision (Penalty). Review Panel to complete review and make decision within 1 week of appeal request.
• Ruling's Appeals can be submitted via HDSR Homepage/Top Menu. All appeals will be reviewed by the HDSR Appeals Board, in which no involved Board Participants can be part of the appeals decision. During the appeal process, no public discussion of an incident is allowed either on TS or in the League forums.
• Restarting Races: We will not restart a race other than the exceptions below! Drivers must be on the grid when we go to race. If you are not there or late getting on you must stay in the back.
  Exceptions: 1)If someone causes a wreck on the initial parade lap, Admins will review and may ask the driver that caused the incident to leave and then restart the race. It is totally unacceptable to cause wrecks during a parade lap or caution laps. 2)If a driver falls out of server when we switch to race.(This is allowed once per driver. So if it happens a 2nd time to the same driver we will not restart the server.) 3)Server issues causing an early wreck or issue.
• You must race with the same in-game name profile as your RPM username to keep accurate stats for the imports of results. Required Format for RPM/Profile Naming: car#_First Name_Last Name example: 1_John_Smith_
• Although we participate in SIM racing, race as though you were actually in a real car, could be hurt, and damages are coming out of your pocket. Show the same amount of respect and courtesy you expect from other drivers!
• Caused Cautions: When a caution comes out, a race admin will ask for the car # of the driver or drivers responsible for the caution. The reponsible driver, if their first offense, should take an EOLL Penalty on next restart. If two driver's feel they were both responsible to some degree, both should take the EOLL Penalty on the next restart. If a driver is unsure about who was responsible, but he/she was involved in the caution, simply reply car# "involved, but unsure of cause". If a driver causes 2 cautions, in which they are the only driver responsible in one race, that driver will park it for the remaining laps of the event. If you cause a caution on a start or restart, you are required to pit and go down 1 Lap, while still under that caution. With any caution, if the Administration reviews the replay and deems that a responsible driver should have "owned-up" (because it was very obvious) to a particular caution and did not, 1)that driver will be penalized 20 seconds from their logged finishing position for a 1st Offense Caused Caution, 2)suspended for 1 race, if 2nd Offense Caused Caution or 3)DQ'd at point of unowned caution plus EOLL at start of two races for a Caused Caution Offense at Start or Restart! We will be looking at all incidents and specifically at this issue. Be Smart and just take your EOLL or "Park it" and limit the damage of any penalties for a Caused Caution incident. If you cause cautions on a recurring basis, the admins may suspend your Series membership for a certain timeframe. The suspension timeframe will be determined by a panel of 2 or more Admins. This is done to allow you time to improve and to maintain the quality of racing desired at HDSR!
• Qualifying: Qualifying will be private, with no other drivers sharing track with you and drivers will get 10 minutes to run as many timed laps as they can. Your best lap will be used as your official time to set your grid position. Drivers can reset to garage as needed during this 10 minute timeframe. Absolutely NO CHAT during qualifying. In the event that we have 35 or more drivers, this Qualifying Session will be one part of the format used to lock-in top 25 drivers for the Elite-Pro race.
• Starts/Restarts: No "jumping" or "Laying Back" on the starts. Stay in line and wait for the green flag to be shown or called out on TeamSpeak, if we have wave-arounds. Stay in your line high side or low side until you have passed the start/finish line. Remember that we ask that you be very smart with this, as we will not tolerate over-aggressive driving. The leader must take the green flag as the lead car and once the green flag is displayed, it is "race on", but cars are not permitted to change lanes until they pass start/finish line!
• Caution Procedures & Double-File Restarts: When the caution comes out, the field is frozen in regard to your position. No racing back to the start/finish line under any circumstances. Hold your position and maintain a safe speed until you cross the start/finish line. Stay behind the person you were behind at the instant of caution and under no circumstance do you STOP ON THE TRACK. Only lead lap cars & "Lucky Dog" may pit the first time by open pit road. The Pit Road is open to all cars upon second pass to open pit road. On the "1 to go" lap, drivers should line-up using the following format: Leader gets lane choice and should announce- top or bottom. 2nd Place goes to the line left vacant by the leader on the front row. Remaining drivers line-up odd positions to the inside line and even positions to the outside line.
• Caution comes out in the middle of Green-Flag pitstops: If a driver has crossed the line at the entrance to pitroad, before the caution flag is displayed; they are allowed to pit their car and rejoin the track, without penalty. The Sim will handle the proper procedure for any cars on pitroad, at the time of caution, once they rejoin the track. If a driver rejoins the track and a "blinking" caution flag is displayed on upper left side of screen, they should pass the pacecar and come around to rear of the field. If the leaders pit after the caution flag, this could put the guys that where on pitroad, at the instant of caution, to the front of the field! Important: Any drivers that rejoin the track and do not see the "blinking caution flag", must NOT pass the pacecar. The Sim will penalize any drivers that wrongly pass the pacecar, in this situation!
• The restart order is always: Lead Lap Cars > Cars 1 or more laps down > Free Pass Car > Wave Arounds > Cars who have received a penalty.
• The free-pass (Lucky Dog) will be identified and will pit with the lead lap cars via the SCE Plugin. The Lucky Dog will be awarded from start to finish throughout the entire race.
• The Lucky dog, upon exiting pit road, is to fall to tail-end of lead lap cars & lap down cars: this should be the car with the yellow tag marker above it.
• All lap down cars MUST be behind the lead lap cars on any restarts. At the "1 to go", any car that is ahead of the leader of the race will be waved around to the rear of the field when the game goes green, while the rest of the field paces under green/yellow condition. These "Wave-By" cars are not permitted to pit until after the race goes green and the racing has resumed.
• If there is any "wave-around" cars we will take the green flag, but the leader will announce and hold a suitable pace speed, as if still under caution. (ie.green/yellow condition) The wave around cars will then take their lap back and make their way safely to the back of the field. Then, the 5th place car will call the green flag on TS the next lap. The leader should announce pace car off at a similar place the Sim Pace Car would pull off the track. The 5th place car should call the green flag at a similar/consistent place as the Sim would call it.
• Double File Restarts Q & A:

  Q: If a car on the lead lap pits a second time with the lap-down cars, does he restart with the lap down cars?
  A: No, he will start in his respective track position how he came off of pit road. If you have a lead-lap car who makes multiple pit stops to work on his car, he is, likely, not in that lead-lap group that pitted the first-time by only. He’ll be scored where he comes off pit road, possibly with lap-down cars.

  Q: The lap-down cars that don’t pit, are between the leader and pace car at "1 to go" and take the "wave-by", do they get to come all the way around to rear of the field?
  A: That’s correct, but they will not be able to hit pit road for tires and fuel. Pit road will be closed for all drivers on the "green-yellow" condition lap, when we have "wave-by's". Any Wave-By driver that pits will forfeit their wave-around status if they hit pit road.

  Q: If multiple lead-lap cars stay out, do the lap-down cars that don’t pit still get waved around?
  A: The only way you can be waved around is if you are between the leader and the pace car, at the "1 to go". As pit stops take place, you need to be in front of the lead-lap cars. You can take advantage of the waved around regardless if you’re one, two or more laps down.



• Green, White, Checker: There will three attempts at a green-white-checker finish. If a caution should come out on any GWC attempt, the field is immediately frozen. On the third attempt at GWC, the field is immediately frozen and the race is over. All cars are to fall into line and continue around until the checker flag flies. If you are one of the cars involved in the last caution, your finish position is determined by when you safely re-enter the track, your car is under control and you are running atleast pace speed . You are then, frozen into finishing order.. Ie. You are 3rd place car, involved in wreck: Once you get your car under control, re-enter the track & atleast at pace speed, you are in-between 11th and 12th placed uninvolved cars: you get the 12th position finish.
• Passing: The passing driver has the best view & should take full responsibility for any passing attempt.
• Blocking: If you are racing for position, you are allowed to alter your line (block) one time and one time only. If the car in front of you is clear to change lines on the straightaway and it is clear that they intend to take this line in the next corner, they have all rights to do so and you should respect this move and attempt to pass in another line. This is not considered blocking!!!: You, as the driver, attempting to pass, should be able to secure the needed line on exit of the corner & down the straightaway to complete pass in the next corner. Dive-bombing is not an acceptable means to pass and making contact to move another driver is discouraged! We do understand that rubbing is racing, at some venues, but strongly suggest that if your intentions is to move a driver via contact that you have the ability to do so without wrecking them! Use common sense and understand your abilities in regards to this issue!
• Flags: Flags are Turned-on in the Sim. Flags will also be handled over TeamSpeak by the Admins, for special situations that may arise.
• Wrecks Under Caution: If you cause a wreck during a caution lap you will be asked to park it for the night and face possible expulsion from the series. It is unacceptable to cause a wreck under caution conditions. Connection Issues would be the obvious exception to this rule.
• Incidents: If you were the cause of the incident and brought out the caution, please call out your car # immediately after the incident to help the Admins and to avoid issues with penalties for not "owning-up" to the incident. Chat is closed except for this communication immediately following a caution. The admins will announce open TS, once they have the situation under control.
• Rejoining or Blending on the track: After a spin or incident with another driver, it is your responsibility to rejoin the track at a safe time and manner. Wait until all traffic has cleared before re-entering the track. Irresponsible Contact with another vehicle under these conditions will result in a review and penalty.
• The ESCAPE Rule: You need to come to a complete stop if you cannot make it back to pits. Let the whole field pass you before requesting to ESC. If you can make it back to the pits but are too damaged to continue racing and want to leave the game please do so. Get back to the pits if you can. Wait for 1 green lap to be completed and then you may request to ESC from the race. This will be penalized heavily if not done properly. The reason is to prevent Stop and Go penalties from hitting ESC before everyone passes by you. This is an rFactor Game engine glitch.
• Pitting: When going down pit road, position yourself in the right hand lane for entering & exiting the pits. No passing on the left while driving down pit road. When your stop is complete, exit the pits with caution! You may race out of the pits without speeding. You must maintain a reasonable speed while on pit road. ie. If pit speed limit is 45mph with 5 mph buffer, the you must maintain speed between 43mph and 49.999 mph. Note do not hit 50 mph in this example, as you will receive penalty for speeding!
• Team Racing: Teams are part of this sport and it is absolutely acceptable to work together on set-ups and race strategy. However, it is NOT ACCEPTABLE to block for one of your teammates, lay back on starts/restarts for a teammate or wreck another competitor to help a teammate. This is very hard to determine at times, but if a trend is present and the admins feel that these types of team (gang) racing techniques are being used, you and possibly your entire team can expect expulsion from this League. We have a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for this kind of unethical competition.
• Team Members: The limit is 4 members per Team. This subject to change, as the size of our members increase.
• Super-Speedway Racing: With the nature of the drafting in today's Nascar, it is unacceptable to move to block an approaching line of cars that is "push-drafting" at a much greater speed than your current speed. It is very obvious when a line of cars is approaching and closing fast and to move in front to attempt to block is just going to cause a big wreck. The faster moving line usually cannot check-up in time to avoid a wreck, with a bad block like this. We view this kind of action, as no different than a driver running into back of a competitor on corner entrance, so expect a penalty. Depending on severity and surrounding circumstances, the penalty could be severe.

Procedure for Server Balancing with high levels of attendance:

• All drivers should be in the "Pro-Elite" Server before the Qualifying Session at 7:50 PM EST. At that time, if we have 35 or more drivers, Qualifying will determine the "Pro-Elite" participants and the drivers that will participate in "Shoot-Out" Race in another Server. This Qualifying Session will also determine starting grid for Pro-Elite race. With 34 or less drivers in attendance, all will participate in the "Pro-Elite" Race.
• The Top 15 drivers in Points are "locked" into Pro-Elite race. We will use prior Season points to determine "Locked-in" drivers for the first 3 races of a new Season. After the first 3 races of the Season, we will switch to current point standings to determine "Locked-In" drivers.
• There will be 10 spots that drivers can qualify into, based on top speeds in the Qualifying Session. These 10 spots will be awarded to the Fastest 10 drivers in Qualifying Session, not "Locked-In" via the Points Standings.
• The drivers that do not qualify into the Pro-Elite race will leave the Pro-Elite Server and join the Shoot-Out Race Server. The Shoot-Out Server will be - same track,etc. There will be a race admin for the Shoot-Out race. Once all drivers have joined the Shoot-Out race server, there will be an "old style" Qualifying Session" to determine the starting order and quick Driver's Meeting before the race. Race length may be adjusted depending on the # of participants & any additional practice time needed.
• The top 2 finishers in the Shoot-Out races, excluding any admins, will join the "Locked-in" drivers in the next "Pro-Elite" Event! The 2 added "Locked-In" drivers will not affect the 10 spots available to qualify your way in, so the starting field would be 27 drivers for the next race, in this situation.
• All drivers particpating in the Shoot-out races will receive 26th or 28th place points, depending on the size of starting field in the "Pro-Elite" race.

2014 PRO-ELITE CHASE FORMAT:

• The 2014 Season will consist of 26 Regular Season Races, 5 Chase1 Races and 5 Chase2 races.
• After 26 regular season races, 16 drivers will make up the Chase 1 Field. The 16 Chase Drivers will be made up of:
• 1) All drivers with a win in the regular season, providing they attended 21 of the 26 regular season races.
• 2) Top drivers in points, without a win, to fill in remaining Chase Grid of 16 Drivers.
• ie. During the 26 race regular season, let's say there are 10 Drivers with a win, that meet the participation criteria. These 10 drivers would make the Chase 1 field and that would leave 6 spots open. These 6 spots would be filled by the top 6 guys in the points, without a win.
• The 16 Drivers that make the Chase 1 would have their points reset to 2000! After the first 5 Chase races the Chase Contenders would be reduced to 8.
• The 8 Drivers that would compete for the Championship in the last 5 races would be determined by:
• 1) Any of the 16 Chase 1 Drivers with a win in the first 5 races of Chase 1, providing they attended 4 of the 5 Chase 1 races, would make the Chase 2 Grid.
• 2) Of the 16 Drivers in Chase 1, without a win, the top Drivers in points to fill in remaining Chase 2 Grid of 8 Drivers.
• ie. During the 5 races of the Chase 1, let's say there are 3 Drivers with a win, that meet the participation criteria. These 3 drivers would make the Chase 2 field and that would leave 5 spots open. These 5 spots would be filled by the top 5 drivers, of the 16 Chase 1 Contenders, in the points, without a win.
• The 8 Drivers that make the Chase 2 would have their points reset to 3000! The top 8 for the Season would be determined by the final Points Standings in Chase 2, after the final 5 races. The Champion would be determined by the highest in points after the final 5 races in Chase 2, to end the Season!
• The 8 drivers that were eliminated, at the end of Chase 1 & do not make Chase 2; would continue to compete for the Season ending standings of spots 9 through 16.



2014 Duel Series - Each race will count in 2 Series & Additional Bonus Points for Chase in "Pro-Elite" Series:

• We will have two Series tied into each of our Sunday Night Races. One Series will be the "HDSR SCE PRO-ELITE SERIES", consisting of a 36 race Season and the second Series will be the "HDSR PRO-CUP SERIES", consisting of three 12 race Seasons. ie. A,B & C Seasons.
• The winner of each 12 race season in HDSR Pro Cup will recieve 6 bonus points for the Chase in the "Pro-Elite" Series!



Note to Drivers: Let's be smart and show respect to each other on and off the track. Race how you want to be raced and this will usually eliminate the need for Admins to hand-out penalties. The Admins would love to not have to be the "Bad Guys"! Remember, we are in this together and share a common interest in this hobby. With that said, the approach from HDSR Administration will be one of "Boys Have At It!", until it is obviously affecting the overall quality of the racing and the issue does not appear to be correctable, by the involved parties.

HDSR MANAGEMENT