Virginia International Raceway is an underrated, and underutilized, jewel in the road racing community. Created in 1957, on the southern border of Virginia, the track only survived 20 years before it was closed. In 2000, it was reopened, and now plays hosts to yearly AMA Superbikes and IMSA (GT Cars Only), Chumpcar and club events, as well as a test track for Nascar teams.
The 5.26km (3.27mi) "Full Circuit" features 17 corners, and a lot of terrain changes. Both the North and South courses shorten the experience to 3.62 and 2.66km respectively, while the "Grand" courses (East/West) incorporate the infield section to stretch the length to almost (or in excess) of 6.5km.
Personally, I'd recommend one of the shorter configurations. The North course uses the main, contains many of the features of the Full Course, uses the main pits, and has already seen action this season from the Skip Barber, and has been utilized in the past by RUF GT3 and the old RUF C-Spec. The South course is a lot smaller and a little more straight forward, using Oak Tree and the back stretch pits while added new challenges like the hairpin "Bitch" and the iconic "Spiral" chicane (Think of MidOhio's chicane turned inside out!).
The Grand configurations cater to drivers who enjoy the length and challenges of the Nurburgring, but also hate crashing into walls, as VIR contains very few walls and a lot of open grass!
League Format:
League consists of 3 sessions as follows:
Fast Repair: One fast repair is available. If taken outside of Pit Window Driver must perform a drive through penalty within Pit Window.
Scoring:
What makes Band of Others League unique is our ongoing commitment to provide scoring options that allow Drivers of all pace to score well.
All bonuses (and penalties) are geared toward rewarding people for clean driving and participation.
Scoring is % based on number of laps completed. All Drivers must complete 90% of the Leaders laps to achieve maximum points.
Please remember, this season we are experimenting with point scoring bonuses as seen in this post. All bonuses are participation based so the more you race, the more you score.
NOTE: This new scoring is currently in testing and will be run alongside our existing "Official" scoring based off the following:
Qualify Race Scoring: Positions 1 - 10 score. First place scores 10 points for race win with each lesser position scoring less one point. Race winner is also afforded 1 bonus point for race win.
Main Race Scoring: Race winner is scored 50 points + 1 bonus point, all positions following are scored -1 point from the previous position.
Bonuses: Qualify and Main Race only.
NOTE: Pit penalties MUST be served within 3 laps of offence.
Championship Standings
Open Setups:
If you have a good setup please post it here.
If you are unwilling or unable to share your setup with other League Drivers then you are not permitted to use it during League events.
Car Selection:
All Drivers have until Week 4 to test different cars and still be scored in League.
Starting Week 5 you must commit to one car for the remainder of the Season else you will not score points.
After Week 5, you are allowed to change your car at any time in the season, but you will forfeit any points scored in a race not completed in your Week 5 car.
Track Selection:
B2O Blancpain Sprint Series attempts to follow the official iRacing Blancpain Sprint Series for its seasonal schedule. However, we may hold a poll offering track/layout changes due to the following conditions:
The 5.26km (3.27mi) "Full Circuit" features 17 corners, and a lot of terrain changes. Both the North and South courses shorten the experience to 3.62 and 2.66km respectively, while the "Grand" courses (East/West) incorporate the infield section to stretch the length to almost (or in excess) of 6.5km.
Personally, I'd recommend one of the shorter configurations. The North course uses the main, contains many of the features of the Full Course, uses the main pits, and has already seen action this season from the Skip Barber, and has been utilized in the past by RUF GT3 and the old RUF C-Spec. The South course is a lot smaller and a little more straight forward, using Oak Tree and the back stretch pits while added new challenges like the hairpin "Bitch" and the iconic "Spiral" chicane (Think of MidOhio's chicane turned inside out!).
The Grand configurations cater to drivers who enjoy the length and challenges of the Nurburgring, but also hate crashing into walls, as VIR contains very few walls and a lot of open grass!
League Format:
League consists of 3 sessions as follows:
- Open Qualify Session: Full Fuel - 7:30 PM EST (60 minutes). Drivers must record a clean lap within 103% of the fastest recorded lap time. Those who cannot do so are placed at the tail end of the field for the Qualify Race.
- Qualify Race (Inverse Grid "Opt In"): Full Fuel - 8:30 PM EST (30 minutes = 10 minute Warm Up + 20 minute Sprint Race). "Opt In" Inverse Grid based off results from Open Qualifier. Drivers outside of the 103% rule are automatically placed at the tail end of the field. (No Pit Stop)
- Main Race (Grid determined by Qualify Race): Full Fuel - 9:10 PM EST (60 minutes = 10 minute Warm Up + 50 minute Race). Grid is set by results from Qualify Race. One Pit Stop is required for tires only at the 25 minute mark.
Fast Repair: One fast repair is available. If taken outside of Pit Window Driver must perform a drive through penalty within Pit Window.
Scoring:
What makes Band of Others League unique is our ongoing commitment to provide scoring options that allow Drivers of all pace to score well.
All bonuses (and penalties) are geared toward rewarding people for clean driving and participation.
Scoring is % based on number of laps completed. All Drivers must complete 90% of the Leaders laps to achieve maximum points.
Please remember, this season we are experimenting with point scoring bonuses as seen in this post. All bonuses are participation based so the more you race, the more you score.
NOTE: This new scoring is currently in testing and will be run alongside our existing "Official" scoring based off the following:
Qualify Race Scoring: Positions 1 - 10 score. First place scores 10 points for race win with each lesser position scoring less one point. Race winner is also afforded 1 bonus point for race win.
Main Race Scoring: Race winner is scored 50 points + 1 bonus point, all positions following are scored -1 point from the previous position.
Bonuses: Qualify and Main Race only.
- + 1 point for Race winner.
- + 3 points for Race finish.
- + 5 points for Race finish with 0 incident points.
- + 10 points for 8 Race participation (proposed) Test Season Only
- + 10 points for 16 Race participation (proposed) Test Season Only
- + 25 points for referring a friend (proposed) Test Season Only. NOTE: Both Driver and friend MUST complete 8 Race minimum for either to score bonus.
- - 3 points for every 10 incidents.
- Car contact resulting in loss of control (drive through penalty).
NOTE: Pit penalties MUST be served within 3 laps of offence.
Championship Standings
Open Setups:
If you have a good setup please post it here.
If you are unwilling or unable to share your setup with other League Drivers then you are not permitted to use it during League events.
Car Selection:
All Drivers have until Week 4 to test different cars and still be scored in League.
Starting Week 5 you must commit to one car for the remainder of the Season else you will not score points.
After Week 5, you are allowed to change your car at any time in the season, but you will forfeit any points scored in a race not completed in your Week 5 car.
Track Selection:
B2O Blancpain Sprint Series attempts to follow the official iRacing Blancpain Sprint Series for its seasonal schedule. However, we may hold a poll offering track/layout changes due to the following conditions:
- Our ongoing commitment to encourage close and competitive racing means we may offer a shorter version of a race track to keep the cars closer together. For example if the official series is at "Suzuka - Grand Prix" Layout, we may offer the choice to run the "Suzuka - East" or "Suzuka - West" layouts to keep the cars closer together.
- Some tracks are disliked or not owned by a large portion of the community so we may fall back on a community favorite.
- IMPORTANT: The Official iRacing BSS track of that week will ALWAYS be the Default track for the B2O Blancpain Sprint Series. This track will ALWAYS be included as Polling Option #1.
