GCCC - Racing Championship - Sign-Up and Info Sheet

Welcome to the brand new GCCC - Racing Championship, designed to pit the very best pure racers in GTA head-to-head on some of the finest contact suitable racetracks our talented community of creators has to offer! Each week we shall race on FOUR tracks from a pre-determined seasonal roster observing proper contact racing etiquette and sportsmanship. This championship will be a completely separate entity to RaceWars and will offer a stand-alone championship table to compete within. Points will be awarded after each race as follows:

1st: – 15 Points
2nd: – 12 Points
3rd: – 10 Points
4th: – 8 Points
5th: – 7 Points
6th: – 5 Points
7th: - 4 Points
8th: - 3 Points
9th: - 2 Points
10th: - 1 Point

Fastest Lap – 1 Point

If this sounds like your kind of event then be sure to read on for a full breakdown of how this new event for serious racing enthusiasts is going to work and how YOU can get involved!

Event 1 - Sunday 28th February
Event 2 - Sunday 6th March
Event 3 - Sunday 13th March
Event 4 - Sunday 20th March
Event 5 - Sunday 3rd April
Event 6 - Sunday 10th April
Event 7 - Sunday 17th April
Event 8 - Sunday 24th April
Event 9 - Sunday 1st May
Event 10 - Sunday 15th May

Sign-Ups

This will be a 'sign-up' only event. The season will consist of 10 rounds, with each round consisting of 4 races, with an average time of 10 minutes total for each. The event will be run BEFORE RaceWars on Sunday evenings with an estimated start time of 7:30PM GMT. If you wish to register for the event then you will need to reply to this topic with your PSN account ID as well as 'liking' this post to show that you have read, understood and agreed to the rules and regulations of the event. Ignorance will NOT be an acceptable excuse once the championship has begun, so make sure you are fully on board with everything that you are agreeing to beforehand! If you have not participated in RaceWars regularly in the past then signing up to the championship will NOT guarantee you a place at the table as priority will be made for those players with a clear experience of clean contact racing and all the many ways in which it differs from the non-contact form. This means that representatives from other pure racing crews (such as Red Rum Racing and Nonchalant Dominance) will be more than likely accepted to take part provided they are also a member of GCCC. If you are signing up to the event and are NOT know to the many racing veterans within our crew then kindly tell us of your past racing experience and why you want to compete. Failure to provide these sorts of details will likely see you 'veto'd' from the selection process or even ignored completely. If anyone has any concerns or queries about a prospective racers involvement then please PM me directly via these forums so I can be made aware of potential problems that may arise.

PSN Community

In order to help support this event I shall be starting a PSN Community entitled 'GCCC - Racing Championship', on which I will post the specifications for each race of the forthcoming week in advance. This means that even if you do not have access to your phone or laptop at the time you can still easily access the basic information prior to the start of the event, minimizing potential confusion. I will invite players to this group once I create it and you have expressed your interest in participating in the championship event.

Tracks

The tracks used for the championship will consist of around 15-20 chosen from GCCC member created tracks deemed suitable for contact racing in our ongoing Approved Contact Races forum thread. Each track will be used 2-3 times during the season, each time with a different class to keep things varied. It is expected that ALL participants have at least a basic knowledge of the track layouts beforehand, particularly in regards to the location of potential 'trouble spots' such as tight hairpins, chicanes etc that will require additional care and attention to be taken to prevent needless race incidents and collisions from occurring. Again, ignorance is NOT an excuse and if you cause issues with careless driving you may be disqualified from that weeks event, with repeat offenders running the risk of being 'blacklisted' from the entire championship. You have been warned.  

Hosting

In order to try to eliminate the unfair advantage that the host has in always starting in P1 on the starting grid I will introduce a method to hopefully mix things up. Before we begin the event we will gather in a crew-only lobby. I will host each race individually so as to have maximum control over removing any undesirables who happen to join as well as to minimize the possibility of disruptions. Once I host the job I will make sure all the settings are correct then invite ONE person already in the lobby to the race. Once they are in I will back out to the pre-lobby, thereby placing that person as the new host instead. They will then invite ALL from current session to get everybody into the race lobby, myself included. This will be repeated for each race of the event, with a different player selected each time and 'Invite ALL from last job' used for races 2,3 and 4 of the night. This will mean that each race players will occupy different starting grid positions and ensure a much fairer event for everyone. 

Racing Etiquette

Proper, gentlemanly racing etiquette is expected from ALL championship participants. I do not expect to see underhand tactics such as 'kerb-hunting' to gain an unfair advantage. Not only is this against the spirit of racing but it also causes untold havoc for those behind you as you can hit debris and even pedestrians on your way through. While riding kerbs on entraces and exits to corners is acceptable, continuing to do so after the corner is certainly not. Anyone witnessed to be racing in this way will be disqualified from the current race and persistent offenders may be banned from the event altogether. Whilst I will try to eliminate issues related to lag this cannot unfortunately always be guaranteed, so if in doubt the golden rule is 'wait', allow the wronged racer the opportunity to recover their position from you. Try to ensure that if you are going to slow down or stop to wait for them that you choose an area that does not cause an obstruction for other racers. If you do crash out then take care when rejoining the track, observe approaching vehicles and wait for a gap to rejoin the fray. If the incident occurs in the middle of the raceway try to remain still whilst other cars nearby go around you, far easier to avoid a static object than one wriggling all around the track! Far too many needless collisions occur simply because of carelessness on the part of racers failing to pay their fellow racers notice after an accident. A good spacial awareness should be observed at all times, try to avoid lane switching and over-zealous swerving, particularly on approach to corners. While it is acceptable to try to protect your position from a pursuing opponent take care not to cause a collision by inappropriately cutting them off at the last minute, this is a sure-fire route to a BIG crash incident! In short... Always show respect for your fellow racers. Be careful. Show some patience. Understand the limitations of your car and yourself and drive accordingly. Most importantly... HAVE FUN!

Tiers

As you can see below, I've split the vehicle classes in GTA: Online into different tiers, reflective of their overall average performance. I do realise some vehicles have hit and miss tendencies, but by and large this has been compiled thanks to a great deal of help from Broughy1322's invaluable vehicle spreadsheet as well as plentiful discussion and debate with other seasoned racers within the crew. To mix things up there will be at least ONE Tier B race per week and, on occasion, I will employ a GTA race duplication format so that we can enjoy a Tier C race with the most obscure and rare vehicles just to make things interesting.  Also, please pay attention the 'blacklisted' vehicles. These are disallowed as they are either vastly overpowered in their class, which creates an uninteresting and/or stacked race experience or else they exhibit attributes that would provide them with an unfair advantage (i.e. the size and mass of the Insurgent or Liberator in Off-Road class). If you do not have a custom vehicle in the tier stated then please use a stock option. If you finish a race in a vehicle in a tier higher than that stated then you will be disqualified from the next 3 EVENTS so if you choose the wrong car by accident please pull to the side of the road and retire from the race.