Race Control’s Notebook: Watkins Glen

Race Control Lessons and Improvements

During the first half of the race, RC was experiencing connection issues to the Discord server. This meant the first SCPs took longer than planned. The length of the final SCP is a better indication of SCPs going forward. We are working towards a goal of SCPs under 15 minutes or 3 laps, but we are aware that both our relative inexperience in running a SCP as RC and your relative inexperience in participating in one as a team and driver means that there will have to be an active effort to learn and improve from both sides to achieve that goal.

These Discord connection issues led to RC missing a call to open pit lane exit for a lap causing two cars to lose a lap (#243 and #248). These cars were awarded half-time points based on their track position relative to lead lap cars and they were given back their lap during the final SCP.

Another miscommunication from RC during the final SCP led to several taking their pit stop a lap early when the Pit Entrance Open next lap call came too early with a part of the field still passing by Pit Entrance. In order to not give these cars an unfair advantage, RC decided to give these cars an EOL at the end of the SCP.

We have reviewed our SCP process and have several improvements in place for the 6 Hrs of Spa, aimed at reducing mistakes and shortening the SCP. The following points will be changed from the 6 Hrs of Watkins Glen:

RC will define a point on the track that the final car in the pacing line must have passed after Pit Exit before the Pit Entrance Open call may be made.

At the end of the SCP, when all of the EOLs will be given, they will be given in the order in which the cars are on the track. This will mean that cars who have been given an EOL will only have to let all other remaining cars by, and will not have to reshuffle themselves at the end of the pacing line.

In addition to this, cars who have been given an EOL will have to wait to serve their EOL until RC instructs them to do so. When the instruction is given, the cars will pull out of the pacing line and come to a stop to let the remainder of the field pass. RC will call out which car is the final car in the pacing line at the time. Any car still catching up to the pacing line will only have to be let by if that car catches up before the race restarts.

We will discuss the addition of the Drive Through Penalty to the penalty matrix before the 6 Hrs of Spa.

We will look to define internally in more detail what constitutes a minor, moderate and major incident. We have precedent from the 6 Hrs of Watkins Glen to fall back on now, but it is possible that the decisions we made during that race will not align with the new definitions going forward.

We are in the process of evaluating other means of communication for RC during the race should we experience more communication issues. We will have a back-up to our own Discord server ready for the 6 Hrs of Spa.

SCP Observations

After reviewing the SCPs from the race, there are some notes we would like you to take to heart when it comes to driving during an SCP. Following these notes will help RC to run the SCPs in a more smooth fashion and will help reduce the length of the SCP. In addition to these notes, we are working on two flowcharts for teams to use during the SCP.

It’s important to catch up as quickly as possible both when the safety car comes out and when you have taken a wavearound.

When the safety car comes out initially, it will collect the overall race leader. If you are not at the front of the overall race, you can drive straight past the safety car when it first comes out as indicated by the caution black box.

The pacing line forms on the side of the track where pit lane is. Cars who have to pass other cars go to the other side of the track. So if you have caught the pacing line, you should stay to one side of the track. If you have to let cars by, still stay to the pacing side and let the cars who have to pass you go to the other side. 

During wavearounds and EOLs, please do not weave or warm tyres as this could create an incident with cars taking wavearounds or serving EOLs. RC will announce 1 to green and the pacing line is encouraged to warm tyres while maintaining distance to the safety car. Approaching the restart, all drivers will be expected to form up in the pacing line. If necessary, RC will announce the moment for this.

When you get a wavearound, you can pass all cars in one go. You do not have to wait after passing each car for the caution black box to update. You can also drive through (literally, the game doesn’t classify it as a collidable object) the safety car.

When you have an EOL, still catch up to the pacing line as quickly as possible. Only let cars by as they catch up to the pacing line, do not wait for them at the other side of the track to the pacing line. 

Going forward, when opening the pit lane or when restarting the race RC will not wait for everyone to catch back up. Instead, we will use the gap between the safety car and the car directly ahead of it on track as a guide for when to call both events.

The safety car does a constant speed, so once you have caught up to the pacing line, keep a small gap to the car in front of you in case there is a checkup. If a bigger gap opens up, close it back up slowly. Sudden acceleration and deceleration will cause a concertina effect which may lead to contact further down the pacing line. If major concertina effects occur prior to a restart, and review from Race Control shows an offending car with a clear opportunity to avoid this effect, there may be penalties issued. 

After a tricky section where cars cannot maintain pace car speed there will most likely be a check-up going through the field. These check-ups will happen on the same point on the track every lap, a short distance after the tricky section. While you are pacing, be on the lookout for these check-ups and remember the points they happen at for the next laps.

On restarts all cars should be nose-to-tail, and the pacing line leader should be close to the safety car. Contrary to the start of the race, class leaders do not have to leave a gap during restarts.

On restarts you can pass once you are past the final corner apex AND after the leading car has restarted the race.

Driving Standards

We are very happy with the driving standards we saw in the race. We only received 35 incident reports; for a six-hour race with 52 cars starting that is an excellent number. Only one car ended up breaching the incident limit as well, so even minor contacts were minimised by everyone.

Moving away from the numbers and looking at the race itself, we are very happy it took more than an hour of racing for the first SCP. The first lap was completely incident free, and during the first hour we only received 6 incident reports. This means that the mantra of “to finish first, first you must finish” was well-ingrained in everyone’s mind – at least at the race start and for the first hour.

During the restarts we did see too many risks being taken. Passes which would probably not have been attempted on a normal race lap were now being attempted. We would like to see the opposite: more caution being taken on restarts, rather than less. We understand why this is happening – you’re anxious to get going again, the car you had been chasing is now right in front of you and the car you had gapped is now on your tail again. But during restarts teams and drivers really should try to get into the mindset they had at the start of the race. Any incident during a restart could escalate into a big crash with multiple cars involved and the fruits of a drivers initial, cautious labour can be undone and races can end prematurely. 

That leads us to the first incident we would like to discuss in detail: the big pileup in the esses. The incident that triggered the crash was deemed a racing incident: while it was a high-risk area, the 911 going for the pass had made clear his intention to pass early enough and there was significant overlap when contact occured. The following pileup was something that in RC’s view could have been avoided had drivers taken more care with yellow flags showing and had spotters told their drivers early enough that there was a crash and that their drivers should slow down significantly.

For these reasons RC decided to give the DTP at the start of the 6 Hrs of Spa to the following cars: #117, #188, #253, #13, #236, #72, #231, #217, #111, #185 and #174. The deciding factors in these penalties were the time until the car reached the area of the crash, the point at which the driver started to slow down, and whether or not contact was made with cars already involved in the crash. Below you can find links to videos of all cars who received a penalty as they approached the area of the crash. These videos are in order of time of arrival at the area of the crash. Also linked are three videos of cars who did not receive a penalty, two who were ahead of cars who did receive a penalty and the third being the first car directly behind the final car who did receive a penalty.

The second incident we would like to discuss is the #286 at the end of the race. Several incident reports were filed, and after review of the incident RC decided to give #286 a 60s S&H at the start of the 6 Hrs of Spa. In addition to that, the entire Full Send Racing team has been placed under probation and will be disqualified from the Summer Series for any following unsportsmanlike behaviour. This is a very severe penalty, but we feel this penalty is appropriate for the events that unfolded at the end of the race, given what unfolded. At the final restart, Full Send Racing’s #285 and #287 were leading the race. #286 was several laps down, but in front of #208 and #251, who were battling for this place in class. Instead of yielding to blue flags and letting #251 and #208 race with #285 and #287, the driver of #286 defended on multiple occasions against #208 and #251 in an attempt to increase the gap between their teammates and the cars behind. Actively interfering with the races of other teams is something we absolutely do not want to see in any IVRA series. This incident in combination with two previous incidents in the FP sessions warranted the probation be placed on the entire team.

The third and final incident we would like to discuss is the retiring of the three CXR Project Black cars at the end of the race. One of the team’s cars which was still on the lead lap was caught out by RC’s mistake in calling out Pit Lane Entrance early during the final SCP. Subsequently, the team pulled over all three of their cars. They requested a tow for all three, which were granted, but only towed two of their three cars. The third car was left in the T1 run off, forcing RC to take action and having to disqualify the car after multiple requests from RC to tow the car. As a result of these events, the entire CXR Project Black team has been placed under probation for the remainder of the Summer Series and will be disqualified from the Summer Series if any similar behaviour follows.