6.1 – Protests
6.1.1 – Stewards investigate incidents both during and after each race
6.1.2 – Teams should submit protests using the penalty submission form available in Discord
6.1.3 – Protests must be submitted within 20 minutes of the incident occurring. Protests submitted after this will not be investigated
6.1.4 – Teams must indicate their lap of the reported incident, not the other team’s
6.1.5 – Anyone involved in a protested incident can receive a penalty
6.1.6 – The stewards reserve the right to review any incident, regardless if it was protested or not
6.1.7 – Teams may only protest incidents that they were directly affected by
6.1.8 – Teams may have their number of available appeals for the season reduced or receive a penalty at the discretion of the stewards for submitting frivolous protests
6.1.9 – Protests late in the race may be reviewed post-race by the stewards
6.2 – Additional Lap 1 Rules
6.2.1 – All incidents on lap 1 are reviewed by the stewards regardless of protests submitted. Teams are still recommended to submit lap 1 protests to ensure incidents are reviewed
6.2.2 – Lap 1 incidents will be viewed especially harshly by the stewards
6.2.3 – In the event of any significant incident ahead, any cars that are deemed to have not slowed sufficiently so that they could have stopped if needed, will receive a penalty
6.2.4 – Teams who start from the pitlane should not enter the race track (defined by the blue cone on pit exit) until all grid-starters from their car class have passed. If there is an incident causing grid starters to slow down significantly, the team exiting the pits does not need to wait for those teams to pass. Leniency may be given to teams who, after entering the track ahead of one or more grid starters, slows to allow those teams past
6.2.5 – Before each round, the series admins will post a start zone in the series discord. The start zone signals where the lead team in each class can launch. Until the class leader has launched, other teams in their class should remain in formation
6.2.6 – Class leaders should leave a gap of approximately 15 seconds to the rear of the class ahead before reaching the start zone
6.3 – Driver Etiquette
6.3.1 – Drivers should maintain their normal racing line when there are drivers who are approaching to lap them
6.3.2 – When a driver has another driver approaching within the same car class, looking to put lap on them, the lead driver must facilitate the pass by lifting off the throttle on one of the next two straights before the braking zones once the driver behind moves within .5 of a second
6.3.3 – Drivers deemed to have defended their position when being lapped are at risk of receiving a penalty
6.3.4 – Drivers should not slow excessively to allow their teammates or allies to pass for extra championship points
6.3.5 – Drivers should not weave when there is a car within 2 car lengths behind them
6.3.6 – The edge of the track is defined by iRacing’s off track limits
6.3.7 – Drivers should not use track cutting exploits such as using the pitlane exit on the final lap of the race to gain an advantage. The stewards will grant a suitable penalty for the amount of time gained by the exploit
6.4 – Penalty Levels
6.4.1 – Every incident is unique, therefore the stewards reserve the right to apply any penalty they deem necessary for a specific incident regardless of the guidelines laid out below
6.4.2 – The stewards can also award drive throughs, stop and holds and post-race time penalties
6.4.3 – The stewards may choose to ban a team or driver for a one or more races
6.4.4 – Warnings yield no penalty, however, stewards may give a team a penalty of their discretion if multiple warnings are accumulated through a season
6.5 – Appeals System
6.5.1 – An appeal allows a team to send a worded account of the incident from their perspective to the stewards. The stewards will then review whether the correct penalty was given
6.5.2 – Appeals can only be submitted by teams who received a penalty
6.5.3 – An appealed penalty can be removed or reduced
6.5.4 – A team must declare their wish to appeal an incident within 3 minutes of the decision being announced in sim. They then have 3 further minutes to provide a worded account to the stewards. Appeals for post race penalties must be submitted within 24 hours of the discord announcement stating all post race protests have been reviewed
6.5.5 – Teams should state they wish to appeal decisions and put their worded account of the incident in the championship’s relevant “appeal” discord channel
6.5.6 – Teams have 1 appeal at their disposal across the season. If they appeal an incident that is overturned in favour of the team who appealed the decision, they will have their 1 appeal returned
6.6 – Intentional Wrecking
6.6.1 – Intentional wrecking during the race will result in a team being banned from the season (with no refund). The driver involved may be banned indefinitely from all future ARL events
6.6.2 – Intentional wrecking after the race will result in a team being banned from the next race (with no refund) and be penalised with a level 3 offence. This includes crashes between teammates. Intentional wrecking does not include light contact, however the stewards may deem this to be worthy of a smaller penalty
6.7 – Driver Conduct
6.7.1 – Drivers are susceptible to penalties should they direct abuse to other drivers on the iRacing voice or text channels or on discord. Abuse could be in the form of racism, harassment, personal insults, inappropriate language and/or anything else the admin team deems to be unacceptable
6.7.2 – ARL reserve the right not to allow drivers into the series who could have a negative impact on the league
6.7.3 – ARL reserve the right to remove drivers from the series. These drivers will not receive a refund and may be banned from future ARL seasons or events
6.7.4 – The iRacing sporting code applies to anything not mentioned in this document
6.8 – Qualifying Rules
6.8.1 – Drivers must not drop below a speed of 60kph in qualifying after they have left the pits besides moving aside to allow drivers past or driving through tight corners
6.8.2 – Drivers should also not use any iRacing exploits to prepare their tyres before a fast lap