RDLMS SEASON 3 | INTRO & INFO
The RaceDepartment staff recommends reading this entire article for those that wish to enter the competition.
League: RaceDepartment Le Mans Series
Season: 3 (2011/12)
Game Required: rFactor
Divisions: 1 (40 teams with multiple drivers)
Mod: Endurance Series v1.2 SP1 + 1.1 by EnduRacers
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the RaceDepartment Le Mans Series - Season 3 (RDLMS S3). RDLMS is an endurance series with races from six up to twelve hours in which teams with multiple drivers battle for the supremacy on a series of challenging circuits. The third season, to be held in the autumn and winter of 2010 and the spring of 2011, consists of four events at circuits in the USA, and the final round will be held at the most legendary endurance circuit: Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans.
CHANGES IN SEASON 3
Season 3 will be a season championship, contrary to season 1 that was pretty much event based. Teams will be required to participate the entire season and will score points for the championship of their specific class. All classes will still race together though.
To participate each team will require a license that is provided by RaceDepartment to the team owner of that team. What this license is all about can be read in the RDLMS S3 Team Owner License Agreement.
Each race will have a designated number of mandatory driver swaps. There will be additional rules for those that share a PC and thus cannot perform a regular driver swap.
Please note that GT1 has been removed from S3 to make the series more up to date. This will allow larger fields in the remaining classes.
AVAILABLE CARS
The cars available come for the Endurance Series by EnduRacers. RaceDepartment will try to stay up to date with the latest patches and releases of this mod, but much will depend on how the release dates relate to the calendar. This list will be updated according to the latest decisions of the staff concerning implemented patches and releases.
Protoypes 1 (P1)
Audi R10
Peugeot 908 HDI
Prototypes 2 (P2)
Acura ARX 01B
Porsche RS Spyder Evo
Grand Touring (GT)
Ferrari F430
Panoz Esperente GTLM
Porsche 997 RSR
Spyker C8
> All required files will be downloaded through SimSync.
SESSION INFO
Free Practice, all cars (120 minutes)
Qualification GT2 (20 minutes)
Qualification P1 & P2 (20 minutes)
Warm-up (15 minutes)
Race: 6, 8, 10, or 12 hours
In the case a team enters the circuit during the wrong qualification session they will lose the right to set a time and have to start at the back of the line (either Prototype or GT). The same goes for teams that cross the finish line more than once after the "RETURN TO PIT" mark has been given.
The race has a Manual Formation Lap and a Rolling Start. Read article 5.6 of the RaceDepartment League Regulations for more information on this procedure.
SEASON SCHEDULE
It is with great pleasure to announce Season 3 of the RDLMS. S3 will build on the success of S1 and S2 and will have an American theme to the series. For all the fans of Le Mans, dont worry, we will once again visit the iconic Circuit de la Sarthe for the final round of the series.
ROUND 1 -
10 HOURS OF SEBRING x1 TS - 15/10/11
Official Practice: 09:00 GMT
Qualifying: 11:00 GMT
Warm-Up: 11:45 GMT
Race: 12:00 GMT
2 Required Swaps
ROUND 2 - 6 HOURS OF ROAD AMERICA x1 TS - 19/11/11
Official Practice: 11:00 GMT
Qualifying: 13:00 GMT
Warm-Up: 13:45 GMT
Race: 14:00 GMT
1 Required Swaps
ROUND 3 - 8 HOURS OF DAYTONA x1 TS - 17/12/11
Official Practice: 09:00 GMT
Qualifying: 11:00 GMT
Warm-Up: 11:45 GMT
Race: 12:00 GMT
2 Required Swaps
ROUND 4 - 8 HOURS OF ROAD ATLANTA x1 TS - 14/1/12
Official Practice: 09:00 GMT
Qualifying: 11:00 GMT
Warm-Up: 11:45 GMT
Race: 12:00 GMT
2 Required Swaps
ROUND 5 - 12 HOURS OF LE MANS x2 TS - 11/2/12
Official Practice: 09:00 GMT
Qualifying: 11:00 GMT
Warm-Up: 11:45 GMT
Race: 12:00 GMT
3 Required Swaps
*Please note that S3 has a tighter schedule due to the forthcoming release of rFactor 2. We have tried to arrange the races to fall on dates that do not clash with other external events.
TEAMS
In RDLMS S3 a total of 40 teams will participate in each event. Each team has a team owner who holds the license provided by RaceDepartment and takes responsibility for the organisation of the team. The team owner will be the person who communicates with the RDLMS staff and provides the necessary information to the other members of his team.
To start a team in RDLMS the team owner must read and agree with the Team Owner License Agreement (TOLA). Additionally he must create and manage his team in RD GPCOS, the results and standings system of RaceDepartment.
> Read the RDLMS S3 TOLA
> Go to the RD GPCOS Control Center
DRIVERS
Each team consists of two to six drivers who cover part of the races and swap places during the pitstops. It is up to the team owners to decide who these drivers are. Each driver must be a Licensed Member of RaceDepartment and must create a driver account at RD GPCOS to be allowed to participate in the races of RDLMS S3.
> Become a Licensed Member of RaceDepartment
> Go to the RD GPCOS Control Center
LIVERIES, PAINTS & SKINS
Each team is free to provide a car livery (paint job) to be put on its car by the RDLMS staff. The livery may change per event as long as it is provided before the designated deadline for that event. The livery must meet certain requirements and must be provided in a specific way. Read the Skin Sending Instructions thread to find out what these requirements are. Note that we do not want to get burried in workload, so please do not change your skins unless it is a necessity (change of car for example). Also, once you have delivered your skin, you do not have to send it a second time for the next round. All skins will automatically move to the next round.
> Skin Sending Instructions
ADDITIONAL RULES
Mandatory Driver Swap
In each race every team has to perform a certain minimum number of driver swaps. During a driver swap one driver takes over the wheel from the other. In rFactor this means a spectator takes over control of the car from a driver during a pitstop, after which the roles switch. This procedure must take place at least one to three times depending on the event. The longer the race, the more driver swaps must be performed. Teams that do not perform enough driver swaps will be disqualified.
In case a team shares the same PC during the event they cannot perform the driver swap through rFactor, but will simply manually swap drivers. The staff cannot register such driver swaps. To counter this a special procedure is designed. It goes as follows:
Before the event the drivers sharing the PC create an rFactor driver profile that contain their names, e.g. Smith-Johnson-Bush or Smi-Joh-Bus or something similar.
Whenever the team performs a manual driver swap they move the car into the pit and stop at a designated spot at the end of the pitlane. There the car must stand still for at least 10 seconds before continuing the race. The team is allowed to combine this manual driver swap with a regular pitstop, first stopping for tyres and fuel and then moving to the designated spot for the swap.
After the race the team must notify the RDLMS staff about in which laps the driver swaps were performed. They have until 24 hours after the finish of the race to do this.
In case not enough manual driver swaps are performed by PC-sharing teams, or in case they do not report the laps of the driver swaps the team gets disqualified. Additional manual swaps do not need to be performed, even if actual swapping takes place, but it is of course allowed to go through the procedure more often than the amount of mandatory swaps indicate (like we would stop you...).
CONTACT THE STAFF
> George Talbot (Q&A, servers, daily maintenance, skinpack & liveries)
> Yoeri Gijsen (Q&A, entries & regulations)