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V8THUNDER PENALTY SYSTEM


February 2023 changes in Red.



Penalty Categories

Three categories of penalties have been defined - Minor, Medium (old Major) and Major (new level). Penalties were re-worded for Summer 2006 to emphasise two key points. Firstly, drivers should hold their line especially when being lapped - drivers must NOT mirror drive. Secondly, drivers should make sufficient attempt to avoid contact with other cars.Race analysis will be conducted after each race within the following terms:

Minor Penalty Offences Include (but are not limited to)...
* Weaving while pacing.
* Posting chat messages during qualifying.
* Failing to maintain pace speed within +/- 5mph
* Forcing an unnecessary 3-wide that does not result in an caution.
* Failing to remain within 3 car lengths of the pace car while pacing.
* Pushing another driver off of the racing surface.
* Causing minor damage to another car as a result of contact that does not cause a caution.

* Failing to drop to rear at restart if lapped.
* Posting a qualifying time where directed not to by an Admin or when joining the server with less that ten minutes to go of practice.
* Non race related text or voice chat while under green conditions during a race
* Excessive or overly aggressive defensive/blocking driving that does not result in a yellow
  (i.e. impeding a visibly faster car, pushing another car off the racing surface)
* Jumping the start/restart or laying back to gain an advantage
* Changing lanes on the start/restart before passing the start/finish line without good reason.
* Self-spin/crash WITHOUT contact with other car(s) that results in a yellow
* Self-spin/crash WITH avoidable contact with other car(s)
  (i.e. other car(s) made insufficient attempts at avoidance)
* Failing to hold line/speed causing contact with a car that is alongside and ALSO failing to hold line/speed
  (i.e. one car drifts up, the other drifts down)
* Failing to hold line/speed causing avoidable contact with car behind
  (example: overlap was established but ahead car did not give enough racing room, or starting to spin and getting run over)
* Making avoidable contact with car in front that is holding line/speed (that doesn't result in a crash)
* Making avoidable contact with car in front that has failed to hold line/speed.
* Creating an avoidable situation from which OTHER cars make contact or crash/spin that results in minimal damage
  (e.g. braking excessively early, getting sidways in the corner, changing lanes unexpectedly, brake stomping mid-corner, forcing a three-wide, taking a wall-ride etc.)
* Blown engine that could have been prevented (water/oil alert lights on) that results in a yellow
* Speeding through the pit lane in order to gain an advantage
  (this includes, but is not limited to, passing the leader of the pacing line in order to gain a lap lead or get a lap back)
* Causing a collison/crash/caution as a result of failing to hold line in the corner if no overlap was established prior to turn in by the overtaking car.
  (applies if overtaking car was on outside and got wrecked as result).
* Requesting and having a black flag incurred under green cleared without attempting to clear it as per the rules first.
* Pitting while the pits are closed as indicated by Race Control on a road course event.

Medium Penalty Offences Include (but are not limited to)...
* Self-spin/crash involving or causing contact with or between other car(s).
* Causing excessive damage to another car as a result of contact that does not cause a caution.
* Failing to call the tow-truck that results in a yellow (e.g. returning to track following a spin that didn't trigger a yellow)
* Causing an avoidable collision as a result of failing to, or being unable to, maintain full racing speed.
* Failing to give back a position or time gained, or position not lost, by cutting the course.
* Continuously excessive or overly aggressive defensive/blocking driving that does not result in a yellow
  (i.e. continuously impeding a visibly faster car, pushing another car off the racing surface)
* Failing to hold line causing contact with a car that is alongside and holding line (i.e. drifting up/down track into other car)
* Failing to hold line in a turn causing UNavoidable contact with car behind
* Making avoidable contact with car in front that is holding line and causing a crash or caution as a result.
* Creating an avoidable situation from which OTHER cars make contact or crash/spin that results in significant damage to others
  (e.g. braking excessively early, getting sidways in the corner, changing lanes unexpectedly, brake stomping mid-corner, forcing a three-wide, taking a wall-ride etc.)
* Making avoidable contact when the yellow is shown and hitting other car(s)
* Self-spin or causing a crash while approaching/entering/in/exiting the pits that does or does not results in a yellow
* Warp incidents where driver has NOT been made aware of warp, resulting in an accident
* Passing under yellow (except in the last 10 laps of a race)
* Causing a collison/crash/caution as a result of contact after NOT establishing substantial overlap with the car ahead before the corner's turn-in point
* Causing a collison/crash/caution as a result of failing to hold line in the corner after substantial overlap was established prior to turn in.
* Causing a collison/crash/caution as a result of failing to hold line in the corner after substantial overlap was established prior to turn in by the overtaking car.
  (applies if overtaking car was on outside and got wrecked as result).
* Causing a collison/crash/caution as a result of forcing a 3-wide.
* Causing a restart to be waved off by stopping/spinning on the racing surface or crashing.

Major Penalty Offences Include (but are not limited to)...
* Warp incidents where driver had been made aware of persistent warp and did nothing about it, resulting in an accident.
* Gross misconduct towards other drivers (for example, deliberately getting other drivers black flags)
* Deliberately causing a yellow or causing an unnecessary yellow (e.g. slowing or stopping on track)
* Deliberately wrecking another driver

* Wall Riding to gain an advantage (aka Chastain Move).
* Hitting or damaging other cars while pacing under caution or in pitlane.
* Stopping on the Racing Surface under caution (including grass, runoffs, apron etc.).
* Excessive or overly aggressive defensive/blocking driving (i.e. continuously impeding a visibly faster car, pushing another car off the racing surface)
  that results in a spin or crash or yellow.
* Causing a collision as a result of using pitstalls or the slow lane (where applicable) to attempt to overtake in the pitlane.
* Causing a collision or crash as a result of an unsafe re-entry to the racing surface.
* Causing a collision or crash as a result of faking a pit entry under caution or green conditions.
* Posting insulting or derogatory chat/messages to other drivers during a race or on a forum race thread.
* Pole Position winner failing to submit a complete qualifying replay within 48 hours of the race ending in Trophy/Truck Series event.

Force Majeure
In the event that the reviewer is unable to find one party to be more at fault for an incident that results in a caution than another, the review reserves the right not to issue penalty points at his/her discretion, this is also extended to penalties being downgraded, or upgraded under special circumstances. A penalty may be downgraded, or removed should the reviewer find that the penalty is overly harsh due to circumstances involved (such as a driver crashing themselves in order to avoid crashing another).

Penalty Points by series:

LITES SERIES:

Minor Incident Penalty - 10 Penalty Points
Medium Incident Penalty - 30 Penalty Points
Major Incident Penalty - 50 Penalty Points
Early Yellow Penalty - 10 Penalty Points

TRUCK SERIES:
Minor Incident Penalty - 20 Penalty Points
Medium Incident Penalty - 40 Penalty Points
Major Incident Penalty - 60 Penalty Points
Early Yellow Penalty - 20 Penalty Points

TROPHY SERIES:
Minor Incident Penalty - 30 Penalty Points
Medium Incident Penalty - 60 Penalty Points
Major Incident Penalty - 90 Penalty Points
Early Yellow Penalty - 30 Penalty Points

All Penalties are doubled from the third caution onwards.

Early Yellow:
A caution is considered to be an "Early Yellow" is the caution comes out before the completition by the leader of two racing laps after the start / a restart, or where by a restart is waved off due to someone spinning / crashing / or stopping on the racing surface without good reason on the one-to-go lap. Causing an early yellow will result in the additional penalty points as detailed above, secondary incidents after the caution has come out that are assessed, such as incidents under RBTL rules, or seperate incidents will not attract an EYP if applicable.

Exceeding the Penalty Points threshold:
Each Series has a threshold of rolling totals where drivers, once over, serve race bans, these are:

LITES SERIES:
225 Total Penalty Points - 1 race ban.
425 Total Penalty Points - 2 race ban.
600 Total Penalty Points - 3 race ban.


TRUCK SERIES (points are different due to double header nature of series):
450 Total Penalty Points - 2 race ban.
850 Total Penalty Points - 4 race ban.
999 Total Penalty Points - 6 race ban.

TROPHY SERIES:
225 Total Penalty Points - 1 race ban.
425 Total Penalty Points - 2 race ban.
600 Total Penalty Points - 3 race ban.

Race Bans will carry across seasons (so if you clock up enough penalty points in the final Spring 2022 race, you will sit out the designated number of respective race in the Summer 2022 series etc.). Penalty Points are reset to zero at the beginning of each new season, there will be no clean race credits or reduction in penalty points totals for clean races.

Policing
Every incident involving an admin will be assessed by an independent third party for post race analysis. Thhis will also apply where the reviewer is reviewing an incident that involves a team mate. All incidents causing yellows will be investigated and taken into account for penalties. Not all yellows will necessarily result in penalties. An incident that results in a restart will be assessed where possible and included in post race analysis.

In addition, penalties may be awarded for incidents that do not cause a yellow. However, these incidents must be brought to the attention of an admin as soon as possible following the end of a race, and certainly within 24 hours. This is also how races with yellows off will be policed. Where a caution is triggered due to a cascading series if events, the penalty for the caution will usually be applied to whoever started the series of events rather than the actual car triggering the caution.

Appeals
Drivers may appeal the outcome of any incident in which they were directly involved and received a Medium Penalty for that results in a caution, drivers may not appeal Minor or Major Penalties, penalties given for driving standards or penalties given where no caution was triggered or the incident resulted in a restart (as indicated by a red flag in race analysis). The appeals procedure is a vote based panel decision, each appeal vote lasts 7 days, if at the end of this period the vote is tied, it is considered to be deadlocked and the appeal rejected. If an appeal is upheld the penalty will be removed, if an appeal is rejected, the penalty remains.

The Penalty Appeal Board, and Reviewers provide their time to the league on a voluntary basis, this can often take up several hours per week, so in order to reduce the large amount of work involved a driver is limited to 3 appeals a season (or less if the season is shortened). The appeals procedure is available so that a driver may appeal a penalty if they feel that there may be extenuating circumstances that the reviewer was not aware of when making the decision, such as outside forces that affected their ability to drive, or warp client side which was not seen by other drivers etc. that led to the incident they have been penalised for. The appeals procedure is not there simply because you disagreed with the Judge of Fact decision made. In the real world there are no in-race appeals procedure in place for penalties given during a race, such as drive thoughts, time penalties etc. We do not have live Admins so post race penalties is the next best thing, however this does not mean you can or should appeal a penalty just for the sake of it. Drivers also cannot appeal a penalty that has bee given for driving standard or on-track conduct, so penalties received for, example, jumping a restart, changing lanes before the line or excessive blocking, can NOT be appealed. Members must show some evidence of having actually looked objectively at the incident in question and present some extenuating circumstances not known to the reviewer in their appeal. Using the penalties outlined above, members must explain in their appeal why, in their opinon, they feel the penalty is incorrect, the extenuating circumstances that they feel make this relevant and what penalty they would give instead. The Admin Team reserve the right to refuse an appeal should it not meet these requirements, appeals based solely on opinion of "but I don't agree" will be rejected immediately. In general, unless there is genuine extenuating circumstances which led to the incident a driver has been penalised for, then drivers are encourages to just accept the penalty and move on - nobody ever likes being judged as the cause of the caution, but when a reviewer looks at an incident they are not only looking for the cause, but other contributing factors, and also an incident may have been avoided, for example someone who left the other driver no other choice but to yield or crash, may well be penalised in the same light as someone who missed their braking point and took out five cars ahead of them.

Penalty Appeal Ruling
A ruling under appeal is final, and cannot be further appealed.