UKDirt Hot Rods Rules and Regulations
Rules, General Behaviour & Racing Etiquette
- This is a non-contact league. The use of contact to gain a position or causing another driver to lose a position will not be tolerated and will be dealt with using the procedure listed below. Online racing is such that minor contact and “rubbing” is inevitable.
- Damaged & Lapped Cars. If your car is damaged you should pull off the track if possible or park in what you think is a safe area on track, if you decide to drive on you must move over at all times to allow faster cars to pass. Blocking will not be tolerated; penalties will be issued at the discretion of the league admin team.
- Respect your opponents abilities and control your temper if you think that their abilities do not match yours and penalties exist to prevent any incidents developing between members
- The league admins decision is final in all disputes, if you think you cannot accept any of these rules, please DO NOT JOIN THIS LEAGUE. Acceptance in to the UK Dirt National Rods league will be at the discretion of the League admin.
- All of the above applies to both practice and race meetings.
- All drivers are responsible for ensuring their own internet connection is as free from warp/lag as possible. A guide to reducing warp can be found on the Information page.
- Any driver seen to be warping during a meeting will receive one warning - any subsequent problems and they will be banned from the rest of the meeting.
- Each member must book in via the UK Dirt website for the event they wish to enter, they may enter up to 6pm on the day of the meeting, an additional amount of time for late bookings/cancellations after that will be posted on the UK Dirt forum.
- Any further late bookings will see drivers having to start ALL races for that night from the rear of the grid with the exception of the final where normal gridding rules apply.
- In order to compete in the UK-Dirt National Hotrods league you must have a working Nascar Heat installation with the following components installed:
- All skin packs
- UK Tracks: Birmingham, Hednesford(R), Ipswich, Knockhill, Northampton, Skegness.
- UK Dirt chat.
Chassis & Skins
- Drivers are only permitted to use 1 chassis/skin at any one time, and cannot race it in a meeting until it has been released in a skin pack. Drivers will be allowed one chassis/skin change during the season.
- You may use your own custom skin.
- Skins can only be used once they have been included within a skin pack.
- Skin packs will be released at regular intervals throughout the season.
- All skins must be submitted for the league by using the upload tool provided for UK Dirt members, unless otherwise stated.
- You must race a novice car until your skin has been released.
- When joining the league you will be asked to submit a skin. You will not be able to change your skin more than once per class during a championship season.
- No swearing or obscenities to be used on any skin.
- Any driver seen to be racing an all red car (i.e. no skin or a skin irregularity) will have all points scored whilst racing a red car taken away. He/she will be informed of this & will be given the opportunity to correct the situation, but under no circumstances will the points be returned.
Grading & Points
- There is no grading system in use within UK Dirt National Hot Rod league, However, all races will be gridded, depending upon your National Points Average.
- The UK Dirt National Hot Rod League does not use the normal oval track grading system.
- The winners of relevant championship races or series are entitled to paint the following onto their car roof or aerofoil top (where applicable)
- National Hot Rod World Champion - Gold Roof
- National Points Champion - Silver Roof
- British Champion - Black and White Chequers
- National Champion - 1 Gold Stripe
- European Champion - Red and Yellow Chequers
- Scottish Champion - St Andrews Cross
- UK Open Champion - Union Jack
- All hotrod meetings will qualify for National points with the exception of The Michael Hastie Memorial Trophy and the World Final meetings
- Drivers who begin to race Hotrods and who currently race other mods, either within or outwith UK Dirt, will be graded according to their ability and standing in those mods that the drivers race. This will be done at the Hotrod Admin’s discretion.
- New drivers to UK Dirt and the rods will be required to start from the rear of the grid for at least one meeting, and at the discretion of hotrod admin thereafter.
Starting Procedures
- Meetings will take place on Wednesday evenings (see fixtures page for full details), start time 8.30pm unless otherwise stated.
- Drivers will NOT be allowed to request late heats- i.e. you get what you are given as far as heat allocation is concerned.
- Racing direction is clockwise.
- Each driver will race in 4 qualifying heats, the best 3 heat scores from each driver will be used to make up the final placings. The top 16 drivers will qualify for the final.
- The meeting format is subject to change depending on car numbers.
- The meeting format is subject to change for championship meetings. Details will be made available as appropriate.
- All heats will be raced over 25 laps, with finals running over 35 laps, unless stated otherwise.
- In order to score points in a race, a driver must have completed 75% (heats 19 laps, finals 27 laps) of the race.
- The points scoring scheme is:
- Heats: 15, 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2.
- Final: 30,24,20,16,14,12,10,8,6,4
- Heats will be chosen at random by our calculator, with grid positions being allocated by your current national point average. Novices may start at the back if they wish.
- In all heat races, once a race has been called, you must enter the server WITHIN 3 minutes. When the last driver has pressed the 'GO RACE' button, the grid will be deemed to have been formed and the race is considered underway.
- Once you take control of your car, you should drive at a steady speed no more than 25mph to your grid position as previously notified.
- The pole sitter should line up in the middle of the back straight (unless otherwise stated), with 2 car gaps between each row. All races will use a clutch start procedure, the steward will then call ask if all are ready, followed by a go call about 10 seconds later, where you then go racing.
- If any driver is disconnected or suffers damage to the car during the rolling lap or on the grid, the race will be restarted ONCE for each driver, this disconnection must be called & identified by ANY driver during the rolling lap but races will NOT be stopped once the drivers have commenced racing, any call by a driver for a restart should take the form of.. '(name or number) disco' OR 'RS bad grid'.
- Jump starts should be reported to the race manager. Where possible replays will be viewed as evidence. Repeat offenders will be penalized.
- The final grids shall be formed in meeting points scoring order, with the top point's scorers starting at the FRONT of the grid (exception being the Thunder 500 meeting where a reversed grid format is used).
- The pole sitter should be in the middle of the back straight and there should be a 2 car length gap between each row
- A nominated driver/steward will, once the grid is correctly formed, ask is "anyone NOT ready?" then assuming everything is ok, will say "GO" the race will then be started using a clutch start.
- If any driver is disconnected or suffers damage to the car during the rolling lap (before you have control of the car), the race will be restarted ONCE for each driver, this disconnection must be called & identified by ANY driver during the rolling lap but races will NOT be stopped once the drivers have full control of the car (after "GO" is called), Any call by a driver for a restart should take the form of.. '(Name or number) disco' OR 'RS bad grid'.
- Jump starts should be reported to the race manager. Where possible replays will be viewed as evidence. Repeat offenders will be penalized.
- Any instances of bad driving and any other circumstances should be reported to the RM for consideration in the normal manner as per the rules stated on the website.
- The UK Dirt National Hot Rod World Championship series will be run over 14 qualifying rounds, with all scores counting towards a driver overall points total.
- At the end of the qualification series, the top 16 drivers will be seeded into the World Final Grid. For each group of 4, there will be a race off to decide your starting position within the world final grid.
- The race off will not be determined by who wins the race, but by the quickest lap time within that race. For example, the driver that does the quickest lap time will start in grid slot 1 for that group, 2nd quickest, slot 2 etc.
- Should any reserve drivers be required, they will be taken from the next available points scorer in the WQR series. Reserves will take place at the rear of the grid in WQR Points order.
- To qualify for the World Final grid you must have competed in at least 1 WQ round.
- If a driver spots any irregularities in the points chart then inform any member of the Hotrod Admin team.
- The rules detailed as follows will be enforced at all times including practice sessions.
- If you have reason to believe that another member has broken the league rules please inform any member of the Hotrod Admin team.
- If you wish to complain about any incident(s) during a meeting, you must inform the Discipline Manager (DM), for that event, that you will be complaining and either PM or email him with a brief description of what your complaint is, within 24 hours of the meeting, and also arrange for the replay to be posted on the forum (if possible).
- The hotrod league admin will review any replay and post the result of the outcome within 1 week of the meeting taking place. Please note that the league admin have the right to apply any penalties when they deem an incident warrants punishment although a complaint has not been made.
- If a member is found to have broken the league rules, they will be dealt with as follows:
- Notification: The offending member will be notified by email or private message that they have found to have broken the rules within 1 week of the actual race meeting.
- The offending member then has 48 hours to respond to the league admin and defend their case.
- Should no appeal be received within the time limit or if the appeal is overruled, the punishment will be announced on the Hot Rod forum, before the next event.
- To be more in line with real life racing, the following system has been devised as a form of punishment for drivers breaking the rules, known as the Bad Boy System.
- 3 points - For offences deemed to be avoidable for the duration of any given race
- 5 points - For offences deemed to be a deliberate attempt to gain places during a race or failing to give due care and attention while being lapped.
- 10 points and a 2 meeting ban for being 'loaded up' from any race meeting throughout the season The accumulation of 18 points will incur a 3 meeting ban, on resumption of racing that drivers bad boy points will be reset to zero.
- Deliberate 'Take out' of another driver will incur an instant 'load up' and subsequent 5 meeting ban, with the possibility of a 'Total Hotrod ban' at the discretion of the admin team.
- All bad boy points received during any given meeting will be deducted from that meeting points score.
- The Race Manager or Disciplinary Manager has the right to immediate exclude a member due to inappropriate behaviour. Failure to comply will result in a 2 meeting ban
- Swearing will not be tolerated anywhere within the league whether it be in chat, server lobby or the race itself, any transgressions will be treated very seriously.
- Judgments/Decisions made by the UK-Dirt Admin team must be accepted and adhered to. Failure to do so may lead to further penalties.
- During meetings or pre meeting practice, the decision of the race manager is final, and must be adhered to. Failure to do so may also lead to further penalties.
- If a driver is not satisfied with the decision of the Race Manager, they should make an appeal to the formula manager as listed on the contacts page, who will discuss it with the UK-Dirt Admin team.
- The decisions of the UK-Dirt Chairman are final.
