OVERVIEW
The SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals is a brand new championship concept brought to you by both SimGrid and VCO.
In 2021 and 2022, SimGrid and VCO came together to run the World Cup, a popular and immensely competitive competition focused on esports and endurance racing. However, as the sim racing space continues to grow, as does the number of esports competitions, always attracting the same drivers and teams. The concept of the Grand Finals is to turn the focus back towards the communities who provide racing on a regular basis for the "everyday simracer". To achieve this, rather than having invitations going to teams based on their success in esport competitions, or their reputation in the sim racing world, the invitations will be solely awarded to teams who win them by participating in championships held by ten of the best SimGrid communities.
When a team wins a slot to the Grand Finals, that team will not only represent themselves, but also the community that they won the slot from, thus creating an extra standings in the Grand Finals championship for the communities.
Unlike the aforementioned World Cup, the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals will run as a multi-class championship, with GT3 and GT4 classes taking part. Multi-class is frequently requested, but rarely used in prominent ACC competitions but the Grand Finals will change that and demonstrate the excitement and drama that multi-class racing can provide. To account for the additional class, the Grand Finals will also feature a bigger capacity grid, allowing for 33 GT3's and 25 GT4's at capacity!
HOW TO ENTER?
All slots on the Grand Finals grid will be filled by teams who win them by participating in championships held by 10 of SimGrid's best communities.
Each community championship will have 5 guaranteed slots available plus 3 slots in the GT4 Play-Off.
- The Top 3 from each championship will be awarded slots in the GT3 class
- P4 and P5 from each championship will be awarded slots in the GT4 class
- P6, P7 and P8 from each championship will be awarded slots in the GT4 Play-Off
Teams can enter as many of the community championships as they like, even enter all ten if they want! However, teams are limited to only two slots in the Grand Finals and only one slot per class. As a result, Teams that have secured a slot in the Grand Finals GT4 class through any one of the 10 available championships will also be exempt from participation in the GT4 Play-Off event in October.
Below are links to the 10 championships that will qualify for the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals:
SPORTING CODE AND TERMS & CONDITIONS
All teams that enter the series must agree to abide by the Sporting Code and Terms & Conditions.
RACE DAY EVENT TIMETABLE
The schedule below is for Round 3 on Saturday 9th December.
- Free Practice - 13:00 CET
- Drivers Briefing - 13:10 CET
- GT4 Qualifying (7 Minutes) - 13:30 CET
- GT3 Qualifying (7 Minutes) - 13:37 CET
- Pole Shootout (7 Minutes) - 13:48 CET (Top 10 from each class)
- Race (3H) - 14:15 CET
QUALIFYING FORMAT For Round 2
The SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals wants to provide an exciting show for all participants and viewers to enjoy. To do this, we want to make qualifying a lot more exciting than it is in your standard events.
The World Cup achieved this by running a qualifying followed by a Super Pole held the night before the race, and the Coach Dave Time Attack series achieved this by running knock-out qualifying sessions akin to F1.
As we're running qualifying right before the race in the Grand Finals, neither option was available, especially with multi-class, so we've got creative and the following qualifying format will be in use at Round 1 of the Grand Finals:
- GT4 Qualifying (7 Minutes - Maximum 3 Total Laps) - 13:30 CET
This session is for all 25 GT4 cars. Each car will be allowed a total of 3 laps in the session (e.g 1x Outlap, 2x Flying Laps). Completing more than 3 total laps will result in a qualifying disqualification. The top 10 in class will participate in the Pole Shootout.
After setting your laps, do not complete an in-lap. Instead pull off at areas specified by the Race Director and use RTG.
- GT3 Qualifying (7 Minutes - Maximum 3 Total Laps) - 13:37 CET
This session is for all 33 GT3 cars. Each car will be allowed a total of 3 laps in the session (e.g 1x Outlap, 2x Flying Laps). Completing more than 3 total laps will result in a qualifying disqualification. The top 10 in class will participate in the Pole Shootout.
After setting your laps, do not complete an in-lap. Instead pull off at areas specified by the Race Director and use RTG.
- GT3 & GT4 Pole Shootout (7 Minutes - Maximum 3 Total Laps - Top 10 GT3 and Top 10 GT4) - 13:48 CET
This session for the top 10 in GT4 and top 10 in GT3. Each will be allowed a total of 3 laps in the session (e.g 2x Outlaps, 1x Flying Lap). Completing more than 3 total laps will result in qualifying disqualification. Lap times from the first sessions remain on the board, the Pole Shootout is a chance to improve on the lap times. GT3 and GT4's will be on the track together in Pole Shootout.
After setting your laps, do not complete an in-lap. Instead pull off at areas specified by the Race Director and use RTG.
Before each of the 3 sessions begin, there will be a one minute period where the cars participating in the session will be permitted to drive down the pits and wait at the end of the pitlane. This to ensure that on tracks with very long pit lanes (e.g. Spa) all cars are given an opportunity to leave the pits at the same time. This will also aid in reducing multi-class traffic in the Pole Shootout as GT3's will be able to pass the GT4's on the outlap if they all leave the pits together. Each session will take place during one in-game qualifying session. Therefore you must have in-game chat enabled and follow the messages and instructions of the Race Director, such as when your session begins, ends etc.
After the qualifying is complete, the servers will close and the grid will be built for the race. Any grid penalties will be applied and all cars will be sorted by class, to ensure that GT3's don't start behind any GT4's.
Track List
The track list for the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals will not be determined before the competition starts. Instead, the location of each round will be decided by a public track vote.
A week prior to the round, up to three tracks will be chosen by the Organiser for the voting. Voting will last four days and the winning track will be announced on the Wednesday prior to the race.
During the voting period, practice servers will be made available for each of the tracks on the vote.
STEWARDING
All races in the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals will have both live and post race stewarding.
Stewards will investigate collisions that are brought to their attention through the game logs, however teams can also use the protest forms made available in the discord channel called "#protests" to report rule violations and bring them to the attention of the stewards.
Teams are requested to please check the public incident sheet to see if the contact has been put forward for investigation, before they file a report. This will save time for both the team and the stewards.
Teams will also get the opportunity to appeal against a stewards ruling. Teams are limited to only 1 appeal per season. Please note that appeals will only be reviewed post-race as appeals are viewed by an independent party not involved in the original decision.
LICENCE POINTS
Please note that the SimGrid Licence Points system documented in the Sporting Code, will be in use for the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals.
Note that any Licence Points accrued in the GT4 Play-Off will NOT carry over to the Grand Finals.
Please note that the following Articles in the Sporting Code have been updated on 19th October 2023.
PIT STOPS AND STINT TIMERS
The SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals imposes the standard 65 minutes driver stint limit. The stint limit is reset upon exiting the pit lane, unless you are serving a Drive Through or Stop&Go penalty. The game will automatically apply a penalty if the stint limit is exceeded.
Maximum Driving Time for each round will be documented here closer to the time.
- Round 1 (3H): 89 Minutes
- Round 2 (6H): 178 Minutes
- Round 3: (3H): 89 Minutes
CUSTOM LIVERIES
Custom liveries are required in the SimGrid x VCO Grand Finals as each car is required to prominently feature the logo of the community that they are representing.
All custom liveries must follow the requirements detailed in the Terms & Conditions.
The required logos can be found in the Custom Livery Assets folder that will be made available here. The folder will also be accessible on Discord.
Any politically charged or potentially offensive material on a custom livery will result in the livery being rejected.
