Stage Rallying - A competition of speed where drivers attempt to complete a variety of 'stages' as quickly as possible. The driver who has completed each stage with the quickest total time is the winner. Competitors do not race head-to-head as in traditional circuit racing, but instead are released at intervals to complete their run of the stage.

Stage - A 'stage' (or 'special stage') is a timed point-to-point sprint. Stage names are typically abbreviated as 'SS' (special stage) followed by a number. For example, the first stage would be SS1, and the fourth would be SS4.

Stage Time - The total amount of time it takes a competitor to complete a stage. Every competitior who completes a stage is awarded a stage time. If you cannot finish a stage, that stage is scored as a 'DNF'.

DNF - Acronym for 'Did Not Finish'. You earn a DNF if you use car reset, pit, or become completely immobile at any point between the start and finish of a stage. Per SimRS rules, the stage time awarded to anyone who has DNF'ed is twice the stage time of the fastest competitior who has succesfully completed the stage (Note: This rule has been altered from it's original status of scoring the slowest car to avoid any problems with people abusing the rule).

Total (or Finish) Time - The sum of every stage time earned by a competitor. Total/Finish time is used to determine an event's finishing order.

Penalties - Penalties may be earned by a competitor who has been found guilty by any race official of the following:

• Message spamming
  
• Aggressive interference of another competitor
  
• Insubordination
  

If multiple penalties are aquired by a competitor, they are earned in the following order:

1. +30s time penalty
   
2. +1m time penalty
   
3. Exclusion from the remainder of the event
   

Sessions - "Sessions" in a stage rally differ from other types of racing. Stage rallies typically progress in the following order:

• Parc Expose
  
• Transit
  
• Sweep
  
• Competition
  
• Transit
  
• Sweep
  
• Competition (Transit-Competition cycles until every stage is complete..)
  
• Finish
  

Parc Expose - A name given to the time during a 'real' rally where competitiors organize before the start of the rally. For SimRS events the Parc Expose is similar, as it is the time when the track is set to a non-competititve location (Autocross, Car Park, etc) and competitiors are given time to prepare themselves for the event.

Transit - During 'transits' the next stage is revealed, and competitors are given time to adjust car setups and tire choice prior to actually starting the stage. Transits take place at the 'race setup screen' shown below:

Sweep - During 'sweep', which is optional at the discretion of the event organizer, a race official or another non-competitive participant takes one run through the stage. Competitiors (especially those unfamilar with the course) are urged to spectate the sweep vehicle in order to become more acclimated with the stage.

Competition - During the competition session, each competitor is allowed to start and finish the stage. IMPORTANT: No competitor is allowed onto the stage without approval of the event organizer. After completing a stage you are not allowed to re-join the course for any reason. Doing so against the event organizer's wishes will result in an insubordination penalty.

Finish - At the finish of an event, the event organizer calculates the finishing order of the competitors and announces each. The event organizer will also announce any penalties earned by the competitors. Competitiors will be given 24 hours to 'protest' (submit a complaint) against any or all penalties received. Protests (and evidence) must be submitted, in writing (email, IM, forum PM, etc), to the proper event organizer or a SimRS official. After review, SimRS will make a final judgement on the validity of the penalty. Competitiors are free to do as they wish after the finish of an event.

Order of Release - Prior to the start of an event, the event organizer will determine the starting order for each stage. The 'faster' cars will be allowed on stage first, followed by slower ones. If requested, a competitor may be allowed, at the organizer's discretion, to complete the stage out of their assigned order. Delays caused by a competitor who do not adhere to the starting order may result in penalty.

this sounds good, the prospect of more stages is brilliant! Also the fact that you wont know how every competitor is doing compared to you will make it more interesting!

Quote from andy_bonjon :

this sounds good, the prospect of more stages is brilliant! Also the fact that you wont know how every competitor is doing compared to you will make it more interesting!

Do you use any type of IM software? (AIM, YIM, MSN..)

I'd like to get a few people together to test this out this weekend if possible.

Also, a note on scoring. You won't be able to see your exact stage time anymore, you'll have to do a little math in your head. I have a (gigantic) spreadsheet built to do it all for me, but the stage times will be the difference between your start and finish times!

Ex) Say that you're assigned start is at 5:00.00 and you finish the stage at 7:23.2. Your stage time would then be (7:23.2 - 5:00.00) = 2:23.2.

You don't have to worry about me screwing up calculations though, as I said I have the spreadsheet do all the math.

This sounds like a great idea, but I still think we need to start bringing in the Slickmod soon.
I can't wait for tomorrow's event!

David.

nah i dont really use any... i can be online later tonight (after 9gmt) if you wanna test it out

Alright, not a problem.

Not sure if you noticed or not, but we now have our own subsection!

Thanks to David, an even further improved starting procedure has been implimented! I'll post details soon..

That sounds reaaaaally interesting!
Cant wait for the next event!
Good job!
Meanwhile i will start skinning other cars...

yup i really think this new procedure will work well! even though it was only a small test tonight it worked well.

After you left xenowolf, david went out in the uf1 and i followed 30 secs behind in the fz5. The difference in stage time was 20 seconds and would have been 25 - 30 if i didnt suck so bad with the fz5! so i think 30 seconds should be a reasonable gap... even if there was an fz5 following the uf1 in an event it would simply drive straight past so it wouldnt be a problem anyway!

Quote from andy_bonjon :

yup i really think this new procedure will work well! even though it was only a small test tonight it worked well.

After you left xenowolf, david went out in the uf1 and i followed 30 secs behind in the fz5. The difference in stage time was 20 seconds and would have been 25 - 30 if i didnt suck so bad with the fz5! so i think 30 seconds should be a reasonable gap... even if there was an fz5 following the uf1 in an event it would simply drive straight past so it wouldnt be a problem anyway!

Well, it depends on the length of the stage as to whether/how quickly cars will catch up to each other. I'm planning on releasing the slower cars last so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.