The VOR stewards have been busy during the break between seasons two and three testing new tracks, rules, and features that will be used during the season scheduled to start January 12th at Road America located near Elkhart Lake, WI.  Today, the stewards are happy to release the 2009 Rulebook.  Drivers, Crew Chiefs and Crew Members will want to review the rules and determine which rules apply to their particular car or team.

Nearly all of the changes in the rules occur in the first 5 sections of the Rulebook.  In section 1, General Rules, crew chiefs will want to review rule 1.6 which gives the stewards the power to change track conditions such as the time of day when the race occurs to simulate conditions teams might encounter in real world racing.

All of Section 2, Drivers’ Licenses, is new.  This section outlines the 3 classes of licenses that the stewards will issue for the LMC series and which cars they will drive in that series.  Section 2 also grants teams the right to choose to field GT1 or GT2 in the GTS series.

Section 3, Car and Car Number Selection, is also entirely new.  This section outlines the process for selecting team cars and numbers.  Teams wishing to change vehicles during the season will want to check this section carefully and note the conditions under which a manufacturer change is permitted by the stewards.

Section 4, Car Identification and Skins, is also entirely new.  This section outlines the use of number and class plates for car identification.  Teams will be required this season to follow the painting templates and class number colors throughout the season.  This section also outlines when and how new skins can be submitted for use during the season.

Section 5, Qualifying, replaces all of section 2 in the 2008 Rulebook.  This outlines how qualifying will be managed at each race. These rules are not substantially different than the qualifying rules for last season.  The stewards have decided not to use the parc ferme qualifying rule which would have locked the qualifying setup, tires and fuel into the race start.  After analyzing how rFactor manages parc ferme, the stewards have determined that at the present time, parc ferme does not create additional race strategies which is what the stewards wanted to do when they began considering the use of parc ferme for season three.

Sections 6 through 13 on Race Start, Passing and Track Behavior, Blue Flags, Headlight Usage, Pit Entry and Exit, Chat, Track Surface, and Driver Responsibility are worded as they were in the 2008 Rulebook.  These sections have all been renumbered to follow the sections that have been added to the 2009 Rulebook.

Section 14, Points, was amended and renumbered.  In the 2008 Rulebook, bonus points were awarded to the top 3 qualifiers in each class.  Bonus points have been eliminated for the 2009 season, but the remainder of the section is worded as it was before.  The other items in section 14 were renumbered.

Sections 15 and 16, Incident Review and Penalties, were renumbered, but their wording remains the same as they were in the 2008 Rulebook.

The stewards remind teams that they are responsible for knowing and following both the 2008 Rulebook and The Sports Car Brief.  Links to both of these documents may be found in the VOR Homepage.  Questions about any of the rules or statements found in the Rulebook or the Sports Car Brief may be directed to the stewards for interpretation by sending a PM to the VOR Stewards.

At the present time, the stewards have issued driver licenses and car numbers to 66 entries in the GTS and LMC series.  A number of multi-car teams have entered more than one car in each series with drivers having all chosen to drive the same car in order to share data and thereby improve their finishing positions during the season.  Other teams have entered cars in more than one class in each series which suggests that they are working toward driver improvement and a ladder arrangement to move their drivers from the slower classes to the faster classes.
The stewards are looking forward to an exciting season in 2009.

 The competition has been fierce during the pre-season and the stewards do not expect this to change.  However, drivers and team managers are reminded that once the season begins, the stewards expect teams and drivers to be more patient and courteous than has been the case during the pre-season to this point. 

Some great skins have already been submitted and I am sure the teams that still need to submit their colors for the 2009 season will also present good looking skins.  Our 2009 grids should be filled with great color and the close competition that the stewards expect will make the 2009 season better than ever.