How exactly does one det up a racing league?

Forgive me if there is another thread about this, but I didn't see it. I would like to try to get a vintage league going, or maybe join one if someone has already done it.

And Pardon my typo in the title

There is a whole forum for online racing.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=238

My bad. I'm still pretty new to this whole forum thing.

The main thing you need is a commitment from the racers involved, event schedule, tracks, i setup my own with my buds, i race with, alot of people will say they want to, but when its time, not around, or something came up, the league i started, happened when a fellow racer issued a challenge to me, and my boys, nascar, of course, daytona, and several road tracks, we all got together in my lounge prior, and worked out the rules, tracks and when we could all get together. U do a point system that is basic, 5 point winner, 2nd gets 4 , 3rd gets 3, etc... being committed is the key for everybody, to be on the same page.

If it's not mentioned anywhere, then once you have set up some kind of league / series, before you post it in that section, contact a mod who looks after that subsection of the forum.

Explain to him what you're doing, ask permission (to post) and then send details of your series to them and wait for confirmaion to post it.

I wasn't sure of this when I looked into posting my series (it was a while ago now, not sure it still applies), so I pm'd a mod - luckily it was the right thing to do 👍

So I would need to come up with a set of guidelines, rules regulations and the like, then send them to a moderator for permission, and that's it?

Aside from the actual running of the group I mean

Yep, basically - but it'd be worth looking through what's already available and when they're being run first.

This way you won't be 'stepping on anyone's toes' i.e. creating something that's already available or already has a number of similiar series ongoing (like DTM's / JGTC's etc etc) on the same night.

As it's likely people who are intersted in that kind of racing would have already signed up for a series, leaving not many people for yours - unless you can come up with something different (about an ongoing series) that will attract people to your series instead.

I would sign up as your first member!

(And as such I would be willing to help you in whatever way you needed that I could.)

I've been looking at the online racing leagues awhile, and can't find a league that already races the lower performance end of antique road cars. And no one-make races in that.

For example, there's a Historic Race Car league (not sure where to find it right now) where they race the historic RACE cars. (the ones you'd be racing in the Aspec historic race car in the Expert series)

Making a non one-make gets dicey because you have to extensively test the compatibility & competitiveness of each car with the others, at various restrictions (either hp/weight or PP#).
It gets pretty complicated.

The kei-car league Low HP Championship I've participated in (which is really nice group of people btw & I highly recommend), allows antique road cars, but mechanically, obviously the newer cars have an advantage. Especially if they have more gears they can utilize.

Clearly even if say, *I* had a mechanical advantage, there are many people who could beat me in a disadvantaged car, so it really depends on driver skill too.
But you get where I'm going with this.

Ideally I would like an antique car league that does one-make races of the various antique road cars. Or something like that.
I've seen other people expressing a similar interest at times. But I've yet to see an antique road car specific league.

And when I say various antique road cars on the lower hp end... I'm talking I'd be interested in some fun one-make races with everything from the Mazda Carol to a road track style race of SuperBees or Mercury Cougars. (ie: non drafting battle race of an antique muscle car)

You know with set tire restrictions & maybe PP restriction would be easier (less complicated) than restricting what types of mods would be allowed.

I'm an avid collector of all SMALL cars in the game, and all antiques. And my favourites are the SMALL ANTIQUES. heehee.
I don't care if they're "slow"... they're fun... at least to me.

There's plenty of opportunities to play with the higher-end cars... There's already dozens of leagues for that in various ways. Small antiques seem to be a niche interest of perhaps not a big group of people.
But I've been in online races with just 3 or 4 people, and had loads of fun. Even if I come in dead last, lapped. haha.
So even if your league only has an average of 4 people in each race, I think it'd be worth it.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help!
And I'll pass the info on to people I already talk to on the forum that might be interested.


note: I just looked at my post & wanted to add that don't grin quite so much in real life. (that would be kind of odd. LOL)

Watermelon, you obviously know a good deal more about how the online aspect of this game works than I do, so if I was to do the research, and find good groups of cars, could you perhaps set up the actual league? I'm really not the man to talk to about organization or much of anything beyond the cars themselves. I really would like to run a group that consists of anything between the Honda S800 and the 69 Camaro. Preferably with minimal Hp adjustments, because that really isnt necessary. I'm guessing I could find pools of about 10 to 20 cars to choose from (per group) and separate them into two or three groups to run.

Capn has some good input.

Start out by posting a "gaining interest" thread in the Online racing forum. Post what you would like to organize as well as what times you are proposing for the races. Everyone has a great idea for the series but for me the issue is time. Pick 2 or 3 times that you know you can make every week. Let interested people vote for their favorite time. Use the time that gets the most votes. From there its all downhill.

And just a suggestion, to get consistent racers who show up each week, pick a weekday time opposed to a weekend. Everyone has something going on some weekend but most people have a regular schedule during the week.

Since you are looking for a specific type of racing, you may want to run some laps in the cars you would like to include. Run honest clean laps on a familar circuit and figure out how you can make things fair between vehicles. Performance Points work well in most cases. Occasionally weight/hp limits work. Other times you'll have to spec out cars with specific mods that you know will run within 1 second of each other around the track.

I can help you with setting up a league. I am running one myself right now, a league that is based out of the Sony forums. Anyways I have a lot of experience with hosting races and practices, as well as keeping track of results and making sure everyone is aware of what's going on.

I guess the first piece of advice I could give you is to come up with a clear and concise plan for a league. If you are going to be running the league as well as hosting, it's better to have everything thought out before posting the league thread. That way people can look at the thread and decide if they want to join. Things like the rules, car and tuning restrictions, event schedule, points system - all of these will be the first things that prospective racers will look at. You would want to plan this all out from start to finish before making a thread. It'll be easier for you in the long run because if all the info is readily available, people won't be asking the same questions everyday.

The next thing to keep in mind is to be fair but firm in applying the rules. If someone is using a car that is illegal, give them a couple chances to change their ride. If they don't comply - boot them. This is more of a problem with the randoms that join your online room, rather than with the people from this site who already know the rules and know what car they are going to use. Things will come up during a race, an example might be a person complaining about another racer bumping them off the track. It's a very good idea to save the replay of every race for situations like these. If something like that does come up, then you have a replay to view and make a decision from there.

Here is where I have the most experience in - hosting races. Always do a roster count before you start the race. I give people up to ten minutes after the scheduled start of a race to get into the lobby. If you know people are coming, don't start early. If someone is online and they are not in the room, send them a psn message. If they don't reply or don't join the room in time, tough luck for them lol. Always start on time or after a scheduled start, never start early. I was part of but was not running a series where the host started the race 5 minutes early because one person out of ten kept bugging him to start. What happened was three people who were on their way were locked out of the race and thus stopped showing up to later races. You don't want that to happen in your series.

Unless you host the races in your lounge, you will have to deal with randoms showing up in the online lobbies. Most times if you tell them to change their cars, they will comply but those who do not, boot them. Don't waste time texting them to change their cars 20 times lol. It takes the fun out of the race and series for you.

There is so much more I could tell you but then the post would turn into a book lol. Feel free to pm me with any questions at all. I do not claim to know everything about running a series or hosting, but I've had good feedback from fellow racers. I keep the mood light in the lobby and I try to keep it fun for everyone. Good luck with your series bro.

Well this could work out well then... Because I saw the picking out of compatible cars & deciding on mods/restrictions/etc as the real challenge, being someone who kind of tinkers with cars willy-nilly. haha. My head started spinning when I looked at what's involved in choosing competitive car groupings.

I like your idea of having sets of cars that would be compatible.

I'll definitely be willing to figure out how one organizes & gets a league set up.

Same make racing is fun...and so isn't different makes. They are two different animals. Another spin is having 2 classes in the same race. It makes for lap traffic (kinda like Grand Am when the GT and DP cars race wheel to wheel) which can be tricky when you are fighting for position.

Just go and get stuck in in the Online section! The more people you know the more you can race with!

Take a look at the RM Cappuccino series as well, low hp one make series. We've just set it up and is gonna get started once the PSN is sorted. It's still under alot of development so if you want to see how a series is set up in a real time give it a look and join in if you feel like it

And basically everything everyone before me has said as well hehe, all good info there. Your next stop is definitely the Online Racing forum though. Good luck

chuyler1

Capn has some good input.

Start out by posting a "gaining interest" thread in the Online racing forum. Post what you would like to organize as well as what times you are proposing for the races. Everyone has a great idea for the series but for me the issue is time. Pick 2 or 3 times that you know you can make every week. Let interested people vote for their favorite time. Use the time that gets the most votes. From there its all downhill.

And just a suggestion, to get consistent racers who show up each week, pick a weekday time opposed to a weekend. Everyone has something going on some weekend but most people have a regular schedule during the week.

Since you are looking for a specific type of racing, you may want to run some laps in the cars you would like to include. Run honest clean laps on a familar circuit and figure out how you can make things fair between vehicles. Performance Points work well in most cases. Occasionally weight/hp limits work. Other times you'll have to spec out cars with specific mods that you know will run within 1 second of each other around the track.

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This is great advice 👍 - I know, I've been running 2 race series for the past 2 months, one for road cars and one for race cars.

Highlighted is the most important thing - it tends to get worse, sooner, rather than better. People will ask if they can do this, or that, why aren't we doing this or that, why not race this time instead of then, they won't like every track, car blah blah blah blah.

Whatever you decide on - stick to it, don't change the rules for anyone, as mentioned, start a gaining interest thread and take it one stage at a time.

It sounds as though you have a supporter in Watermelon and she's keen, she's also done a bit of research herself and sounds like a decent rational person - so there's a great start.

There's two ways of setting the regulations, PP points or power / weight / tyres - there's advantages and disadvantages for both.

You seem to be getting alot of good advice from people, but worringly, you seem to be 'backing off' a bit - asking someone else to do the organising.

First things first - have a good hard think if you have the time and means to not only research and come up with a race series, but also to be there each time it's on and commit to it.

If you haven't, it's better to call it quits now.

BUT - as mentioned, there's alot of GREAT advice coming your way on this thread, take heed of what people are telling you, take your time, don't rush, keep communicating with people who seem to be interested, plan research test, then plan research and test some more, finally I think you'll be allright 👍

Best of luck amigo....

How many cars can you actually put in a race at once? Cause i actually like the idea of throwing them all in together. My original thought was to do three different races all on the same night on one track, and if anyone wanted to run multiple groups they could.

If any of you are as serious about this as I am itd be awesome if I could get feed back on what cars you think i ought to look at and mess with. I am not going to ad more than maybe 25 horsepower to any given car, just lighten and tweak the suspension/tranny etc.

And not to be backing off, I very much want to be involved, I just feel like it would be wise to have someone who knows what theyre doing in terms of organization play a role in this, so that I don't mess it all up

chuyler1

Same make racing is fun...and so isn't different makes. They are two different animals. Another spin is having 2 classes in the same race. It makes for lap traffic (kinda like Grand Am when the GT and DP cars race wheel to wheel) which can be tricky when you are fighting for position.

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Not that tricky... the cars turn to ghosts in that situation; at least the lap-ees do, not sure about the lap-ers. Which can then be tricky if they are fighting for position as they can drive through one another as well which can lead to an unfair pass.

I'd quite enjoy running races like this if the ghosting didn't happen. In a short race ghosting lappers is cool as you shouldn't get lapped unless it's fiat 500s vs Group C cars, but in a long race all cars should stay solid. The faster driver/car can then either deal with it or whine like a bab---err---online gamer.

Penalty settings might affect this, I haven't studied too far into it.

Morgoth_666

Not that tricky... the cars turn to ghosts in that situation; at least the lap-ees do, not sure about the lap-ers. Which can then be tricky if they are fighting for position as they can drive through one another as well which can lead to an unfair pass.

I'd quite enjoy running races like this if the ghosting didn't happen. In a short race ghosting lappers is cool as you shouldn't get lapped unless it's fiat 500s vs Group C cars, but in a long race all cars should stay solid. The faster driver/car can then either deal with it or whine like a bab---err---online gamer.

Penalty settings might affect this, I haven't studied too far into it.

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If you turn penalties off the ghosting doesn't happen. I hate the ghosting too in longer races especially, but its probably necessary in public lobbies

I've got a list of potential cars, though I would like to narrow it down for my sake:

AC Cars 427 '66
Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA 1600 '65
Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale '63
Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto '66
BMW 2002 Turbo '73
Chevrolet Camaro SS '69
Chevrolet Camaro z/28 '69
Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 '70
Chevrolet Corvette Convertible '54
Chevrolet Corvette Coupe '63
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible '69
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray L46 350 '69
Dodge Challenger R/T '70
Dodge Charger 440 R/T '70
Dodge Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
Ford Mustang Mach 1 '71
Ginetta G4 '64
Honda 1300 Coupe S '70
Honda S800 '66
Jaguar E-Type Coupe '61
Lotus Elan S1 '62
Mazda 110S '68
Mazda Cosmo Sport '68
Mercedes 300 SL Coupe '54
Mercury Cougar XR-7 '67
Nissan Bluebird 1600 '69
Nissan Fairlady 200 '68
Nissan Fairlady 240ZG '71
Plymouth Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Plymouth Superbird '70
Pontiac Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Shelby Cobra 427 '66
Shelby GT350R '65
Toyota 2000GT '67
Toyota Celica 1600GT '70
Triumph Spitfire 1500 '74

Feel free to name a few to lop off the list, and if you really must, give me a couple more to look at

Why not give them all a go, but alot of the time, the majority of people will tend to start looking for the 'best' car and they'll avoid the 'worst' car. So if you're going to delete any off the list, take away any dominant cars (i.e. the fastest ones) and also the slowest ones too. This should help to leave a good selection of competitive cars will help make your series more attractive.

When I started my road car series, I tested around 100-120 cars to get a rough idea of which ones were too fast or too slow. I then banned the crazy fast cars (there were 2 of them), leaving a small group of cars that were considered the 'best' ones to use.

It took me three weeks of research and testing to put my series together, depending on how much time you have, what your regulations are etc etc it shouldn't take you that long.

Again, the more work you put in, the more credible your series becomes, the more people will stick with it.

chuyler1

Same make racing is fun...and so isn't different makes. They are two different animals. Another spin is having 2 classes in the same race. It makes for lap traffic (kinda like Grand Am when the GT and DP cars race wheel to wheel) which can be tricky when you are fighting for position.

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I would like more description of this. I've not had any experience with this type of race at all. How would that work???
(Sorry if it's veering off-topic.)

Highlandor

It sounds as though you have a supporter in Watermelon and she's keen, she's also done a bit of research herself and sounds like a decent rational person - so there's a great start.

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Thank you for the compliment most high! My goal when posting on a forum is to present myself as the decent rational person I am... or at least hope I am.
It seems SO easy to appear a lunatic in online forums. LOL With seemingly no effort, one can unintentionally portray themselves as having stunted social skills, being entirely unreasonable, and even completely bonkers.

We got so busy at WLR that we wrote our own software to organise the races. That includes competition front pages, calendars, spotter sheets, and a ruleset that leaves very little margin for error.

People who've raced regularly in our series for a while are free to open their own competitions with us using our formats, software and ruleset. That way we get lots of fresh competitions and free access to some great racing series!