I hope this notion of people racing by there own rules doesn't mean that's a good thing. There's etiquette videos for sport mode that clearly state no contact. Plus whatever "don't do anything that makes you look bad" is supposed to mean. However cutting a chicane probably makes you look bad, messing up the grass can't be popular with the groundskeeper!
It certainly does seem that the other car going off road or making contact with a wall is what triggers the penalty.
Here the car behind me on my inside wobbles slightly into me, at first no problem we both stay on and I can avoid the wall, yet the next car bumps him into the wall and as soon as he touches the wall I get a 5 sec penalty. Could I have avoided that. Sure, I could have stayed in the outer lane driving like a granny. Giving up half the road to a car that's still behind is not enough.
Of course it doesn't matter how much care you take when someone messes up in front at the start
I guess I still didn't leave enough margin as I simply cannot out brake the ping pong physics. 2 cars in front collide, a 3rd bumps into it, instantly stalls, I brake to no avail and get the honor of getting a penalty while the chain effect ripples on backwards.
I had a 10 sec penalty in another race as well when someone suddenly cut in front of me on the way to the wall. No real effect to either of us yet it counted as contact and since I didn't stop him from slightly touching the wall (didn't even slow down) I got 10 sec.
Oh well, It's Bluemoon sprint race, the only way SR is gonna go is down. Despite many clean races I'm in SR.B as when I get one of those nonsense penalties I simply go draft bumping to help others ahead. Clean race bonus with a red rating is the new normal.
I think I found a real cheater. This dude suddenly goes to 1 bar in T1, no lag issues before, none after. His laggy car crashes both of us off and he goes on ahead while I get to deal with the idiots. When I get clear I start catching up to him but it's too late. He crosses the finish with a flashing penalty sign, ofcourse no penalty at the result screen. He left the room straight away. I reported him for interfering and illicit activity.
And sometimes you meet these kind of people, the real scum, and the game dropped me further down to SR.C for having the pleasure of getting in a race with him. Penalty for getting rammed 3 times in a row, just because he crashed himself right after.
He quit the race after taking out at least 4 people. Will reporting do anything?
With this kind of profile
http://www.kudosprime.com/gts/stats.php?profile=2433882 I guess not.