This is just a concept I've been thinking about for some time and I thought I'd get some feedback or input to see if it might be viable. Maybe nobody will find it interesting, but let's see.
Please feel free to pick it to pieces, make suggestions, highlight or discuss anything you think would not work or could be an issue, or expand upon my ideas and offer a better suggestion.

The main things I want to achieve are:
1. The competition can be contested from all around the world, no matter the time zone.
2. It is a team effort - the performance of the entire team will count towards the final result.

Here's the basic idea:
Drivers form a small team (let's say it's three people, but it could be a larger team really).
The three drivers take to the designated track driving the designated car and they race for four laps.
When the race is completed, the best lap time of each driver is counted and an average best lap time is then calculated for that team's run. The average best lap time for the team will be the team's result.
The team saves a replay of their run as proof of their result and uploads it for scrutiny.
Other teams do their own runs and upload their replay as well.
The winning team is the one with the fastest average best lap time as explained above.

* Team members can cooperate by drafting or bump-drafting if they dare to take the risk, but good clean driving should reward the team with a good result if they can maximize their lap speed without hindering each other.
* Team members can share the same setup or choose to use their own, depending on their driving style.

I can see this as being a real challenge, as team members need to maintain a fast time without taking each other out of the race. If the team wants to take advantage of drafting, they will need to time it correctly to gain any benefit at all. There are a few strategies that could be employed.
Teams might have a week or maybe a few days to submit their replay, giving time for several attempts to be made before the deadline.
I think something like this would not be too complicated or time-consuming to organize, and it allows racers who don't have the time or can't commit to regular online competitions to participate in some kind of racing event while at the same time getting together with friends online for some LFS fun.

So that's the bones of it. Get a few mates, practice and record your result, and submit your team's best run. Do you think something like this can work? Comments and criticisms/suggestions welcome.

Cheers.

I think something like that could work. We used to run an event called the Cannonball which was a similar idea but solo and that was really popular back in 2008-09. If you need anything to help get it moving, feel free to reach out.

But we have to think if it will be on Demo Version Or S1 version Or S2 Version Or S3 Versin

the result would be in favor of the the fastest team(s) as in the latest leagues with no exception, this would need a way more hotlap way of execution, definitely marshaled on a server to make any kind of sense

Quote from mbutcher :

I think something like that could work. We used to run an event called the Cannonball which was a similar idea but solo and that was really popular back in 2008-09. If you need anything to help get it moving, feel free to reach out.

Thank You

Quote from AdamTheNormalDriver :

But we have to think if it will be on Demo Version Or S1 version Or S2 Version Or S3 Versin

Thanks for your reply. All versions have cars and somewhere to race, so it could be used for any license.

Quote from ImudilaSkyline :

the result would be in favor of the the fastest team(s) as in the latest leagues with no exception, this would need a way more hotlap way of execution, definitely marshaled on a server to make any kind of sense

Thanks for your feedback.
The fact that all members are racing on the same piece of track means that it would not be like a hotlap at all. Couple that with the fact that not every racer has the same style or consistency and you get variation by default which straight hotlapping doesn't have. The challenge would be not to hinder each other while still producing decent speed and consistency.

It wouldn't need to be marshaled at all, just scrutinized to ensure no cheating has occurred. A perfectly clean lap is not necessary and no strict rules need apply - and that's kind of the whole point. Rather than having to meet up on the same server at the same time with a bunch people to manage the event, this would be something that teams could do at their leisure and produce the best result possible. For sure a final could be held 'live' with the added pressure of performing well in the moment, but is not imperative.

The goal is to get people racing together in a team format in LFS without the time zone or latency overhead nor the usual restrictions and manpower that a normal event needs to adhere to.

Hi man, this idea is pretty cool, tnx.

This would largely depend on the number of racers in a team, as an average is taken. There must be some limitations, like at least 3 racers and a max of let's say 10. To make matters more complicated, a "weighted average" may be employed, where the best time will take more weight and enter the in the average more or less - that needs to be tuned, to make it as fair as possible.

Reminds me vaguely of the team hotlap races in the last season of WTCC (2017?)..

I like it!
You'd want every racer to get at least one very fast lap, and teammates can help with a toe etc. This allows for some great tactics imho.

But this also means that you have to be specific about the number of racers and laps. If you'd say; 3 racers, 3 laps: This would mean that every teammember needs to cooperate to get everyone exactly one superfast lap.

I'd be interested in programming a InSim client that supports this, but I don't think you really need it. ;-)

Cheers, Stan.

The closest thing I can compare this idea to is the velodrome cycling Team Pursuit.

Maybe I am missing something, but why would teammates race though? 3 drivers can create big enough gaps between each other on first lap and simply hotlap the rest of the "race". I feel like there needs to be some incentive to not turn the race into qualifying session.
Perhaps total race time should be a factor so that any deliberate stops or slow downs would be greatly penalized. Perhaps the best lap isn't even important, just take average from total race time for every racer in the team.

Quote from Fox 2 :

*snip*

You didn't miss the point. That is one way that teams might choose to play this. The point is that multiple people have to set times, and those times combined have to be faster than the combined times of other teams. It's quite clever really. In this competition you're only as fast as your team mates, and there might be faster ways for certain groups to get around (drafting, or not etc.).

Using the average lap time could be another flavour of the competition. A different metric with a different leaderboard.

Leaderboards could be:

• Combined total of each driver's fastest laps
  
• Finishing time of the last placed driver in the race. (Time for all drivers to finish the race)
  
• Average lap time of all drivers (including lap 1)
  
• Average lap time of all drivers (excluding lap 1)
  

This entire league could be run through a webpage with a replay analyser: Replays submitted, analysed, metrics calculated, displayed on leaderboards. The winning replays could be reviewed manually to verify there was no .mpr tampering.

Thanks for all of your feedback. I'll try to address your feedback and suggestions in this one post.

Quote :

rane_nbg ...

rane_nbg comments on some interesting ways to balance the competition, and these all could be considered, with fairness being the main denominator. I'm not sure that ten cars per team would be the best way to go, but the proof of concept would need to be trialed for us to see how that could play out. If teams were large then it would probably spread the competition out a lot more and perhaps not make the event as tightly-contested as a smaller team would.

Quote :

Fox2 ...

Fox2 makes a valid point about team members creating space and doing individual hotlaps. This could be solved by making a rule that on the opening lap cars must be within a certain distance of each other when they cross the line to commence lap 2. Although I don't think there would be anything inherently wrong with a more individual approach, the idea that each team member affects the outcome (not just their lap time, but their track position in relation to their team mates)is one of the main features of this idea, so some rule might need to apply to ensure the cars are together on track when they commence their 'timed' laps.

Quote :

Van Sterberkt ...

- I am thinking along the same lines as you on this and I think an insim client may reduce a lot of work for event organizers/managers.

Quote :

MBUTCHER ...

Indeed this concept (as I see it) is similar to the pursuit in cycling.

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Thanks for all of your replies, keep them coming. I think this could work with some tweaking to ensure a fair event is conducted.

Nice idea...could develop some great drafting techniques.

Imagining fox on as4, where lead car runs 4 5 downforce, middle one runs 5 7 and last one goes with 6 8 then they bump draft on straights while higher df helps chase cars to keep in draft through turns.

Also - number of laps and when it has to be taken in account. If its only avg of 3 laps, then lap 1-3 would be slower than lap 30-33.

Or, the max number of drivers in the race is not limited, where lap times/avg times are calculated only for the first 3 finishers. That way some tactics with drafting will be high risk, but if done correctly high gain as well.

A number of laps should be convenient such that the entire race does not last more than about 20-30min, but still allow the tires to get up to temp.