ICS - That's Gentleman-Driving at it's finest!

General Rules

The ICS-Ruleset is covered by the following policy:

*) Each driver has to do his maximum to keep the number of yellows down to a minimum!
*) ICS - That's Gentleman-Driving!

Furthermore the ICS uses the general league-rules which can be found here, aside from a few changes that can be found here at the end of this section and the explicit rules on the following sections.

The ICS-Championship is based on the following Virtual Money System (VMS). At the end of the season the driver with the most virtual money is the champion. Race-Results and the current standings of the championship can be found in the ICS-Database (click the SHOW-Buttons on top of the page!).

To reach the goal of clean races we use the following Aggression Points System (APS) and Shared Penalty System (SPS).

The Shared Penalty System (SPS) makes each driver explicit resposible to do his maximum to keep the number of yellows down to a minimum.

Race-Replays are fully analyzed by 2 Replay-Commissioners ("ReCos"). They merge their individual penalties to get one definite penalty. There is normally no chance for a protest against a penalty except for significant reasons (Note: Pit-Stops under green are checked randomly).

ReCos and Admins can give appropriate fines and APs to further offenses not mentioned here.

*) Lucky-Dog-Rule (except for the last 10 laps)

Just like in real Nascar-Racing we use also the Lucky-Dog-Rule:

If a Yellow Flag comes out the first driver behind the leaders gets back 1 lap. Therefore he is called the "Lucky Dog".

The Admin uses the F2-Display "Absolute Standings" (here you can see how many laps some drivers are back) immediatelly after the outcome of the Yellow to find out the Lucky Dog. The driver most closest to the lead-lappers gets a lap back.

The detailed order of events:

Yellow Flag comes out.

Admin checks who is the Lucky Dog and sends out per example this chat: Lucky Dog #33     lap 123

The Lucky Dog has just to pit with the leaders. So he will get a End of Longest Line penalty (EOLL).
(if he couldn't come in with the leaders he has to do an intentional speeding in the pit-lane to get an EOLL-penalty; 
if he doesn't want to come in with the leaders nor do an intentional speeding in the pit-lane he can drive through the pit-lane (as often as needed) until he is at the end of the field (or at least very close to the end of the field)).

He chats to all others that he got an EOLL (it's recommended to do this 2 times so that the admin will not overlook it).

After this the Admin gives him back 1 lap (Keep in mind: Due to limitations in the sim the Admin can do this not before the restart!)

Special note 1: Due to the use of the Lucky-Dog-Rule it's not allowed for the leader to let someone pass on the way back to the line.

Special note 2: A Lucky-Dog cannot be carried over / passed to another driver.

*) Race Back to the Line (RBTL)

No Race Back to the line, except for the last 5 laps.

Just a note: If the racelength is 160 laps then the laps allowed for RBTL are: 160, 159, 158, 157 and 156. So no RBTL in lap 155 !

Some notes on how to behave immediately after the outcome of a yellow if some (damaged) cars are standing on / across the track:

All drivers have to reduce speed to prevent further damage / a further crash.

It's strictly forbidden to overtake other cars just from the time on when the yellow lights go on, but it's allowed to drive past other cars.

If some positions change at the scene of the accident (i.e. deceleration-phase respectively acceleration-phase) then you have to accept that. It's not allowed to drive back to your old position.

Note the difference between "overtaking" and "drive past":

"Overtaking": Both cars are on some speed (could be only 30 mph).

"Drive past": One car is standing across / on the track.

Driving cars have always priority against standing cars.

To make it short - it's always valid for the ICS: If you act as a gentleman then you will never get in contact with any APs and fines.

A note on cars driving on the pit-exit-road or apron when the yellow lights come on:

If a caution comes out, the field is frozen including the cars on the apron leaving the pitroad (=Key F2). The cars leaving the pitroad are allowed, if possible, to savely go around cars which overtook them after the yellow lights came on. This allowance to go back to the old spot is just a "gentleman-agreement" hence it cannot be claimed. "Racing" in such a situation is explicitly forbidden.

To reduce the risk of rear-end-collisions out on the track drivers have to ignore slower cars on the pit-exit-road / apron for the first seconds after the yellow lights come on.

*) Pitting / Pit-Rules

We use Pit-In as N2003-Built-In so it's up to the driver where he wants to slow down and go down to the Apron! (but it's strongly recommended to do this already on the backstraight!).

Anyway: If you decided to go down to the apron AFTER the backstraight and a crash happened for that reason then you can expect a penalty.

Pit-Exit is on the Backstraight! No exceptions!

Autochats have to be used if they could be useful for the oncoming traffic!

During Bumper-to-Bumper-Driving in a pack with 3-Wides (if a pitter is ahead) it's first the duty of the drivers at the back to increase asap the gap to the car in front so that the 3-Wide can be asap reduced to a 2-Wide.

In the pit-lane you should always to use the most outside (right) lane.

If there are more lanes then the left ones should be used only for braking (-> pit-entry) and speeding up (pit-exit) - max. about 3 pit-stalls long.

"Driving" traffic has always priority against "standing" traffic.

If you are speeding up on the acceleration-lane and wanna go / merge to the outside lane but you can't because there is heavy traffic, then the front-bumper decides who comes first -> The guy who has the front-bumper behind has to slow down. If there comes already an another car on the outside lane then the driver on the outside lane has to reduce speed and has to give space / has to allow to merge.

If it's after a short ride side by side not clear who comes first (-> the bumpers are side by side) then the left-one guy has to slow down and merge behind the right-side driver.


Overtaking in the pitlane: The following differences in speed are used as a guideline:

3 mph ===> overtaking not permitted (no helping hand in case of a pit-accident)
4 mph ===> border-case
5 mph ===> overtaking permitted (helping hand in case of a pit-accident)


You can download a replay showing the proper pitting here: Pitting under Green (1 MB) / Pitting under Yellow (4 MB) [Thxs @ our friends from Virtual-Racing.org for the Yellow-Replay].

*) Handling of the seats in the cup

Up to 42 drivers can join the race-server. These drivers are written on the Driver-List and the Extended Driver-List. Only these drivers will get the password for the race-server a few days before the race.

A note on the Extended Driver-List:

Drivers from the "Extended Driver-List" can proceed on the assumption that they can join the race-server and can take part on the whole racing action because there are always some of the 42 drivers from the Driver-List who are prevented for any reason (for example: vacation, work, ill, etc. etc.).

*) Training-Session ("Training-Cycle")

We have a training-session on the raceday at 11:00 AM EST = 5 PM CET = 17:00 CET.

If a minimum of 6 drivers shows up for the Training-Cycle then we will run a 10%-Race using the following time-table, else we will continue with Practice:

Practice: 11:00 AM EST = 5:00 PM CET = 17:00 CET
Quali:    12:00 PM EST = 6:00 PM CET = 18:00 CET
Race:     12:10 PM EST = 6:10 PM CET = 18:10 CET

The Practice for the 60%-Race will start immediately after the 10%-Race ("Race-Cycle"; Quali at 1:30 PM EST = 7:30 PM CET = 19:30 CET; Race at 2:00 PM EST = 8:00 PM CET = 20:00 CET).

*) Not used or changed rules from the general league rules:

*) Rule 3.7 (" Less than 10 to go"): Noone is forced to pit at the ICS.

*) Rule 3.11 ("Time to park"): You should park your car at the ICS.

*) Rule 3.13, Section 3.1 ("Jump-Starts"): The penalty for a "Jump-Start" is just 0,75 APs / 10.000$ at the ICS (nothing else).

*) Rule 3.13, Section 3 and 3.1: This rule is not used at the ICS.

*) Rule 3.13, Section 3.9 ("Blocking"): The penalty for a "Blocking" is just 0,75 APs / 10.000$ at the ICS (nothing else).

*) Rule 7.6 ("Provisional for Connection Issues"): Not used at the ICS.

*) Rule 11 ("Re-Connecting"): Re-Connecting is always allowed at the ICS.

*) Rule 12 & 12.1 ("One and Done"): Not used at the ICS.

*) The ICS uses no race-restarts (except for the case of a mass-disconnect).

*) Where to meet? (Race- and Communication-Servers)

Races are run via direct-IP. The needed IP-address comes via Grid-Mail on Friday evening before the race-day.

Details for using of our Communcation-Servers (TeamSpeak and Ventrilo) can be found in the ICS-Subforum.

*) Further Infos (Carfiles, Server-Replays etc.)

*) Different carfiles for different leagues / How to setup different N2003-Desktop-Icons:

Open the N2003-Desktop-Icon and enter the following for "Target" if you want to use these 2 Carfiles per example: GNL_066_JS.cup.car and ICS_152_JS.cup.car :

For the 1st league: "C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2003 Season\NR2003.exe" -ko"20:cup:SelectedCarFileMulti:GNL_066_JS.cup.car"

For the 2nd league: "C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2003 Season\NR2003.exe" -ko"20:cup:SelectedCarFileMulti:ICS_152_JS.cup.car"

*) Server-Replay and Server-HTML-Export:

You can find them here about 1 hour after the race:

www.virtualracing.org/nascar_gnl_downloads.html?&no_cache=1&dlpath=autoupload


1 or 2 days later they will be moved to:

www.virtualracing.org/nascar_gnl_downloads.html?&no_cache=1&dlpath=Replays_und_Exports%2FICS_2008

Thxs to our German friends from VR ... Virtual-Racing.org (www.virtual-racing.org) for this service. :wink:

*) Further infos can be found in the ICS-Subforum (see the "Sticky" marked threads).

*) Last but not least: What is "Gentleman-Driving" ?

"Gentleman-Driving" - Everybody knows it, but how to describe it?  Here are some hints:

*) A Gentleman-Driver waits and sees for a good chance to take the position in front, or in other words: A Gentleman-Driver will not push into each smallest gap ahead him.

*) A Gentleman-Driver will not open a 3-Wide directly before a turn, in particular not against semi-professional drivers or a driver who's racing-skill he doesn't know.

*) A Gentleman-Driver takes care for semi-professional drivers around him e.g. by enlarging the gap in side-by-side racing and neck-and-neck racing.

Virtual Money System (VMS)

The ICS is based on a Virtual Money System to help increase authenticity as well as to police overagressive driving.

You can earn virtual money from qualifying success and race success (and from provisional money).

On the other side you can loose virtual money from damage to your car ("damage-costs") and from fines that you get for crashes.

*) How to earn Virtual Money:

*) How to lose virtual money:

*) How much money can you expect for the race-weekend? :

The following table shows the money that different experienced drivers (very good driver; good driver; average driver; bad driver; very bad driver) can expect on a race-weekend with 20, 30 and 40 drivers on the race-server:

Aggression Points System (APS)

The ICS uses the Aggression Points System to penalize overaggressive driving.

If a driver continually damages his stock car and/or continually has accidents his APs-score will grow, leading to probation and potentially suspension.

In other words: If you act as a gentleman then you will never get in contact with any APs and fines.

The following table shows the number of Aggression Points ("APs") given for specific offences:

Note on the 10,000 $-penalties: They are applied only once per race as long as they were not intentional and the driver didn't gain any advantage of it.

*) What are the limits on the number of APs?:

*) Any driver to occur 6 APs or more in one race will not be allowed to post a time in qualifying in the next race.

*) Any one to occur 8 APs or more in one race will get a one race suspension for the following race.

*) Anyone to that gets a total of 12 APs anytime during the season will receive a one race supension.

*) Each driver is himself responsible to serve his penalty (suspend qualifying or race). If he didn't comply this regulation he will get the written fines (see table above).

*) How to reduce your Aggression Point-count:

*) You will drop 1.5 APs for every clean race, where you have run all laps of the race. If your race was clean but you couldn't reach the checkered flag you will receive a partial reduction depending on the number of laps you completed (e.g. 90% of the laps run = -1.35 APs).

*) You will drop 12 APs for a suspended race due to the 12 APs-rule.   Note: An 8 APs-race-suspension DOES NOT reduce your APs-count.

*) Example of the AP-calculation:

The following example shows how the AP-calculation works.

Assume 3 drivers: Driver 1 has rarely a crash; Driver 2 has sometimes a crash; Driver 3 has often a crash.

Note: The table uses only the values 0 and -1 for the reduction of the AP-Count (to make it more readable). The definite calculation uses an exact value between 0 and -1.5 depending on the number of laps you drove clean).

Note: The column "Total" shows the current number of APs after the current race.

Shared Penalty System (SPS)

The ICS-Ruleset is covered by the following policy:

*) Each driver has to do his maximum to keep the number of yellows down to a minimum!
*) ICS - That's Gentleman-Driving!

Based on this policy the Shared Penalty System (SPS) makes each driver explicit resposible to do his maximum to keep the number of yellows down to a minimum. That means per example to give other drivers enough room or to run a predictable race-line and race-speed ("trust-principle").

As a short example: If the driver inside you changed the line and a crash was the outcome it will be inspected how much space you have given to him. If you gave him too little place you will have to take over a reference value between 10 and 20% of the penalty (fines and APs).

Note: As a recommendation the penalty (fines and APs) should not be shared between more than 5 drivers. If there are more than 5 drivers involved there will be no fines and no APs for that crash.

Generally the penalty for a crash is 40,000$ and 3 APs.

Examples for typical crashes and the given penalty:

*) Crash-Example 1: Unforced Spin (UFS) of a single driver

The driver will get a fine of 40,000 $ and 3 APs.

*) Crash-Example 2: Crash because of a Change Line (CL; the innocent driver gave enough room)

The guilty driver will get a fine of 40,000 $ and 3 APs.

*) Crash-Example 3: Crash because of a Change Line (CL; the "innocent" driver did not give enough room)

The more guilty driver will get a fine of 36,000 $ and 2.7 APs.
The less guilty driver will get a fine of 4,000 $ and 0.3 APs.
(assumed that the innocent driver gave only a little to less room).

*) Crash-Example 4: "Rear-End-Collision" (the innocent driver ran a lap like the laps before)

The guilty driver will get a fine of 40,000 $ and 3 APs.

*) Crash-Example 5: "Rear-End-Collsions" (the "innocent" driver in the front did not run a lap like the laps before)

The more guilty driver will get a fine of 28,000 $ and 2.1 APs. (=70%)
The less guilty driver will get a fine of 12,000 $ and 0.9 APs.
(distribution of the penalty according to the percentage of guiltyness!).

Explanation of an example: Crash happened in Turn 2. Normally the driver in front runs this turn with 150 mph. This lap he drove for some reason only 135 mph. So this could be more or less a reason for the crash because he didn't run a predictable race-speed (take care: the driver behind has to be prepared for such a situation and has therefore to give some space. So the driver behind is guilty for the crash depending on the space he has given).

*) Crash-Example 6: Crash with 4 drivers each one driving very aggressive

Given the case 4 drivers fight very aggressive for their position.

The outcome is a crash.

So the penalty will be shared between these 4 drivers.

The more guilty driver will get a fine of 19,000 $ and 1.425 APs. (40,000 $ = 3 APs ---> 0,075 APs per 1.000 $)
The less guilty drivers will get a fine of 7,000 $ and 0.525 APs per driver.
(distribution of the penalty according to the percentage of guiltyness!).

As a recommendation a penalty should not be shared between more than 5 drivers.

*) Crash-Example 7: Crash with many drivers; noone really guilty

Given the case that many drivers are involved in a crash (-> drafting at a superspeedway) and noone can be found really guilty for the crash.

According to the recommendation that the penalty should not be shared among more than 5 drivers noone will receive a fine / APs.

How to take up Membership