2020 RFJ Cup Season Rules

These are the outlines for the 2020 RFJ Cup Season:

Race Length: 40% of the actual race length.

Fuel: 45% for all races

Setup: Default iRacing setup

1 Fast Repair

3 Green/White/Checkered attempts

Weather: We will use the iRacing Default weather

Cars: Nascar Cup Series Ford Mustang, Nascar Cup Series Toyota Camry, Nascar Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Race times: Practice will start at 8:00 est, Qualifying will start at 9:15 est, Race at 9:25.

For more seat time the Monday night series uses the same setup and weather.

***Stage points have been removed for this year

Bonus Points:
0-5 Incident Points - 3 bonus points
6-10 Incident Points - 2 bonus points
*to earn bonus points driver must finish race (disconnections earn no bonus)

The season will be broken into (3) 12-week seasons. That means we will have one champion per season and an overall champion at end of year.
There will be 1 drop race per season, we will NOT be using provisional points.
There will be separate bonus points for the top 10 after each 12 week season that count towards the overall championship. If there is a tie, driver points from all 3 seasons will be totaled to decide the champion.

Hopefully this will allow new drivers to join us throughout the year and offer better racing.

Rules will be posted soon. None of these changes are set in stone

We look forward to a fun and competitive series this year. I want to highlight that we are a fun league and trust that our drivers will act accordingly. Flagrant driving will be looked at by admins.

Mike Holland - Series Admin

1. General Principles

1.1 First Rule is Have fun racing and help others have fun racing. Our league motto is Jesus First, Racing Second¬ù!

1.2 DRIVER REQUIREMENTS: The Masters Elite Cup Series is our top tier series. We do not set license, iRating or Safety Rating restrictions in our league sessions. We will no longer be running hosted¬ù practices to recruit. All races will be held in League sessions. Any new applicants should be sponsored by existing members who are in good standing with the league. We will also accept applicants who have proven themselves by participation in our other weekly series run by RFJ. The admins of those series will be asked about the applicants driving ability as well as their sportsmanship on the track. ALL drivers wishing to participate in this series are REQUIRED to register at our web site by sending email to Mark Anderson and add their name to the 2019 Drivers List thread as well as read the series rules.

League Admins reserve the right to remove a driver from the race or series and/or request they participate in lower series to gain more track experience and/or work on their driving craft. Drivers are expected to be able to control their car and hold a straight line while on track to allow others to pass in a safe manner.

2. Conduct

2.1 I'm sorry, thank you and you're welcome go a long way! Be courteous and respectful on and off the track. These are your fellow league members, not some random unknown person. Bullying, abusive, threatening, rude, mean, and disrespectful language or actions (including intentional wrecking) are not allowed. You will receive only 1 warning. Tectonic plates. RFJ has sole discretion to determine if the behavior of a member is causing negative issues or angst with others and the league.

3. Race Procedures

3.0.1 Drivers Meeting and Qualifying: Sometime during the drivers meeting we will take roll call If you are not there you will get an EOLL. If it becomes a problem where we are giving a lot of people missing the meeting there will be a points penalty or a black flag.

3.1 Race length will be 35% for 2 mile or longer tracks, and 40% for anything less than two miles actual NASCAR scheduled race. Stage racing: We will only have Stage 1 at Half of the race distance. Points will be manually updated.


3.2 Season Length: We will run a 3 12 week seasons and an overall champion. The overall Championship points will be scored for the top 10 Drivers in Each season 1st gets 10 points 2nd gets 9 points and so on with 10th getting one.

3.3 Race Night Schedule: Tuesday Night All times Eastern Standard Time. Practice will start at 8:30 PM and go to 9:20 includes Drivers Meeting and Prayer/Praise. Drivers will he asked to clear the track at 9:00. If prayer and praise are short we will advance session no earlier than 9:15 or if p and p run long we will start after they are doing no later than 9:30 Admins reserve the right to delay the end of practice and Prayer and Praise and Drivers meeting (9:00-9:20) if someone is having connection issues or if a member has contacted them about being late. Out of respect to members who are waiting, we will not delay for long. Qualifying will be a 5-10 minute session based on track length to be run after P and P and drivers meeting.

3.4 Qualifying: 2 laps Single car qualifying.
All drivers who qualify will be required to start where they qualify. There will be NO EOLL. Qualifying will take place the first 5 minutes of the qualifying session, after that the track will be closed and any driver who takes the track will be penalized a one lap black flag at the first caution.
If there is no caution The driver will be placed a lap down and will get the last place points of the one lap down cars. [/yellow]

3.5 Starts/Restarts: Each green flag situation will be double-file restart with lapped cars to the rear. The leader may also choose which lane they want to start on restarts only. The leader goes on the green flag, not before.

When taking the green flag, drivers may not jump out of line or change lanes or advance their position until after their car exits turn 2. Stay in line!

No EOLL will be given for people to drop back with one to go as it causes unnecessary commotion coming to the green flag. Otherwise, any offender will get a black flag if caught during the race or if after the race he/she will be placed as the last car on their respective lap. The front row of the race must also maintain a reasonable pace speed up until the point the green flag drops. No Laying back to get a jump on Starts and Restarts.

3.6 Pit Road: All drivers will stay to the right on pit lane until they get within five pit stalls. The same procedure is asked of members when exiting pits as well. Drivers must exit on the backstretch at the blue cone. Drivers will no longer have their black flag cleared for pitting after the pits are closed in order to lead a lap. If you stay out on track to lead a lap you will either need to safely hang on with the tires you have or serve the black flag once you make your pit stop.

3.7 Lucky Dog: iRacing automatically gives a lap back to the first lapped car. Unless that car incurs any incident points via contact, at which time nobody receives the Lucky Dog. Follow the instructions given by the game.
After each caution the first driver a lap down or more will receive a free pass "Lucky Dog" around the pace car to make up one lap. Once given the lucky dog, the member can go in the pits for his/her service and rejoin at the rear of the field. The lucky dog will not be given out if the caution was brought out by the member in the lucky dog position. All Lucky Dogs are controlled through the Iracing system and are final unless extreme circumstances are warranted for manual Lucky Dogs.

3.8 End of longest Line (EOLL): Drivers must go EOLL if they are at fault of a caution, or by a game given penalty (speeding on pit road). This includes behind cars that are a lap down. If a car ahead drops down pit road after lap-down cars pit, you do not have to line up behind them.

3.9 Quick Repairs: There will be 1 quick repairs in this series so drive with the knowledge that the damage you may incur could cause you to require 30-40 minutes of mandatory repairs.

3.10 3 Spin Rule: Any driver who has caused two cautions must park it. (Not if you are involved in two cautions).

3.11 All pitstops need to be announced by voice and chat The pit in is the #1 and pit out is the #2. You can change the Buttons you push to post them.

3.11 Intentional Wrecking Caution: Drivers intentionally wrecking another driver, or stops on or off the racing surface to intentionally bring out a caution period for their benefit, or the benefit of another driver, is forbidden and subject to adverse administrative actions as follows:

1st offense = 25 point penalty,
2nd offense = 1 race suspension,
3rd offense = suspended for the season.
(This will be enforced by a replay review committee.)

3.12 SuperSpeeday: No passing below the yellow line at Daytona or Talladega unless you are beside the car already and are forced below the line. fixed setups will be used this year.

4. Flag Signals

4.1 Black Flags: NO CLEARING BLACK FLAGS All penalties must be served. We know that sometimes they are bogus but no more bogus than losing your connection or your engine blowing for no reason. We will "ATTEMP" to clear black flags only for caution related incidents of "speeding on pit road while being involved in a accident" and for "passing a disabled car under caution". Sometimes it is not possible on shorter tracks for admins to get this sorted out in time. We will not clear any Black flags for Speeding or passing a car before the pit. An example is as you are going into the pits you pass a lap car you are behind or the pace car.

4.2 Yellow Flags: The pacing order will be frozen at the moment the full-course caution begins. Cars causing the caution or otherwise seen as out of control may, however, not be awarded a place in the pacing order until they are detected to be on course and under control.
When a caution comes out RFJ expects members to be aware and slow down to the best of their ability so that more carnage does not take place than need be. When the caution comes out the field is frozen so there is no need to go flying into an accident. If an RFJ admin deems that a member goes into a wreck without slowing down then penalties may occur in the race review.

The driver causing caution must acknowledge/announce that they are at fault and restart at End Of Longest Line. If unsure who is at fault just indicate you were involved. If nobody claims caution, admins will review race replay to determine if it's a racing incident or if a points penalty will be applied to driver at fault. Accepting blame and going EOLL is a less penalty than being reviewed after the race and receiving points penalty.

When caution flies lead lap cars should gradually slow and leader should call out location of pace car. After passing the crash area please speed up to catch the pace car. If not it will affect the pit stop for those who are behind.

* Under caution keep radio chatter to a minimum!

4.3 Wave-By: Cars that do not pit and remain on track in front of the leader are eligible for wave around.
When there are two laps of pacing to go until the green flag restart, Race Control will restructure the pace lines in preparation for the restart. Racers that are not on the lead lap will be shuffled down the pacing order, behind racers that are on the lead lap. Pit lane is closed to all lead lap cars that have not pitted. If a lead lap car pits under this condition, the driver will be black flagged and will have to serve a green flag penalty stop.
When there is one lap of pacing to go until the green flag restart, Race Control will issue the Wave-By to all cars between the pace car and the leader of the race. Pit lane is closed to cars receiving the Wave-By. Should the driver pit, he or she will have to serve a green flag penalty stop.

5. Penalties

5.1 Penalty system
Minor Penalty: 10 points. For a penalty deemed a minor penalty, driver will be deducted 10 points. If they were the winner of the race they will lose the 3 bonus points as well, and the 2nd place driver will be awarded the victory if they are without penalty. Every 3rd Minor will be ruled as a Major Penalty.

Major Penalty: 25 Points. If a penalty is deemed a Major penalty, the driver will be deducted 25 points. If they were the winner of the race they will lose the 3 bonus points as well, and the 2nd place driver will be awarded the victory if they are without penalty. If a driver is guilty of a 2nd offense during the season they will be suspended for 1 race. 3rd offense will be suspension for the season.

There will be no appeals. Penalties are reviewed by the replay committee and all penalties are final.

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7. RFJ Points System

7.1 Each points race will be based primarily off of the current NASCAR points system with 43 points being awarded to the winner and one point less for each position lower on down to 43rd place which would receive one point.

7.2 Bonus Points
Each member will have the opportunity to score bonus points based on the following criteria:
+1 bonus point for leading a lap
+1 bonus point for leading the most laps
+2 bonus point for having an Iracing incident free race *NEW FOR 2018 Season
+3 bonus points for winning the race

7.3 Provisional Points: We understand that each member has commitments other than racing a sim game each week. So we use a provisional system during our season. 1 Provisional race will be allowed for each 12 week season.
25 Provisional points will be awarded.

7.4 Provisional Requests must be made on our web site in the Masters Elite Cup Series forum 2019 Masters Elite Provisional Requests no later than 1 hour prior (8pm EST) to the next race.

7.5 Stage Points: We will be adding Stage Points for the 2018 season! We will try to announce the lap numbers before race night so people can plan strategy. At the designated lap # the admins will throw the caution flag and the top 5 drivers will receive the following points: 1st Place (5 points), 2nd Place (4 points), 3rd Place (3 points), 4th Place (2 points), 5th Place (1 point). Points will be added in the DanLisa points software.

7.6 Overall Champion: The season will be broken into (3) 12-week seasons. That means we will have one champion per season and an overall champion.
There will be separate bonus points for the top 10 after each 12 week season that count towards the overall championship. If there is a tie, driver points from all 3 seasons will be totaled to decide the champion.

8. Replay Review

8.1 All Races are reviewed by a committee. This committee is typically 3 to 4 racers who have been granted Admin privileges. Every Caution and Restart is reviewed by this committee. This is done for the benefit of all racers to ensure that the rules are followed.

9.0 Protests

9.1 Protests are not to be made in public during the race. Any driver who wishes to dispute a racing call or bring to light an incident that happened on track between themselves and another driver may do so through PM in the race to the Admin or via iRacing PM to Mike Holland who will present the complaint to the Review Committee. The protester must be specific in describing the incident and include car numbers or drivers involved, and lap of the incident. In order for admins to review a protest the member needs to notify the head admin within 48 hours of the races completion otherwise the complaint will not be reviewed. If once reviewed the decision comes back in a tie then the appeal or protest will be ruled a racing incident without cause or blame to either driver. We consider a protest to be about something that is obvious and blatant. We don't consider netcode or racing incidents something worth protesting.

Post any questions you have about this series here. Someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

We understand you may not have all of the Cup tracks. Please join us whenever you can for some fun and fellowship.

For 2020 we are using (3) 12-week seasons instead of the usual full-length 36 weeks to allow people to jump in mid-year and still have a chance to compete. For those running all 3 seasons, we will have an Overall Champion to compete for.