Zone Group 1

Latest News

February 12, 2021 – Chris Braun has joined the Zone Coordinator team.

The week of February 21st Zone 1 will host a prelude (February 22nd) and a race (February 25th) at Mount Panorama to which members from all classes of all Zone Groups are invited. We will be racing the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and will start at 9 PM EST on both days so all time zones can participate. There will be a one hour practice, 10-minute qualifier, and a one hour race. A refueling stop will be required. To see the flyer click here or scroll down to the bottom of the right column.

January 29, 2021 – Updated roster and standings.

January 21, 2021 – Updated the member roster and latest standings.

Welcome to the inaugural PCA Zone 1 Sim Racing Challenge Series!

PCA Sim Racing is growing at an exponential rate and it has been determined that the best way to move forward with PCA Sim Racing is to move from a national format to a regional format, with regional racers qualifying for participation in national events.

Since this is the start of the inaugural PCA Zone 1 Challenge Series, we will be making adjustments as required along the way with the overall goal of providing a welcoming, fun and competitive sim racing environment for a growing and wide-ranging group of PCA Zone 1 Sim racers.

Pre Season Races

The 2 Pre Season races are non-championship point multi-class races that are designed to be fun, low stress events that will help to introduce new drivers to the PCA Zone 1 Sim Racing Challenge Series. The Pre Season races will also help to determine overall interest in this new, inaugural race series.

Pre Season racing will combine all classes (Challenge, Sport, Club and Pro) in a single multi-class race.

PCA Challenge, PCA Sport, PCA Club, and PCA Pro Class drivers have an open car choice of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 or the Porsche GT3 Cup for the Pre Season races only.

Drivers in any class can choose to run either car in either of the 2 Pre Season races. For example, you can run the GT4 at Lime Rock and the GT3 Cup at Road Atlanta if you choose.

Pre Holiday Races

The Pre Holiday races are multi-class championship point races with the Challenge and Sport classes running the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 and the Club and Pro classes running the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Post Holiday Races

The Post Holiday races are championship point races that will run the Porsche 911 RSR for all classes. All races except the night Sebring race will be morning races. The two-hour sessions will be divided into one hour practice, 10 minutes or 3 laps of qualifying, and a 45-minute race. Fuel load will be 50% or 13.1 gallons, so a refueling pit stop will be required.

Starting Fuel Load

Assume you will need to make a pitstop in all races. Races will start with 40% fuel for the Cayman GT4 and 50% fuel for the 911 GT3 Cup car. Those numbers may be adjusted for shorter tracks like Lime Rock Park.

Setups

We will be running Open Setups for the full series. Sharing of setups is encouraged but please be sure that a shared setup is not in violation of US copyright laws.

Most VRS and PDS setups require the user to be a licensed (paying) customer of their respective services so please do not share VRS or PDS setups.

Starting Times

Starting times will be 7:00 PM Eastern with 3 lap/10 minute qualifying starting at 8:00 PM Eastern, then 45-minute races.

We may adjust to run multiple races with combined classes and separate starting times based on grid size.

————— Holiday Break —————

Driver Eligibility

• All drivers must be members of the PCA and must be registered with PCA Sim Racing.
• To compete and receive championship points in the Zone 1 Challenge Series, all drivers must be in PCA Zone 1.
• Drivers registering for PCA Sim Racing must complete at least one eDE Monday Madness session, and at least one Interlude or Prelude practice race event and be approved for competition with a PCA Sim Racing eDE Instructor before participating in an event.
• “Out Of Zone” PCA members may attend Zone 1 eDE events and may participate in Zone 1 Interlude and Prelude races. We ask that the “Out Of Zone” drivers register 15 minutes after the scheduled start time to give preference to Zone 1 drivers.

Driver Classification

Driver classification as determined by PCA Sim Racing at the start of the Zone 1 Challenge Series on November 9, 2020, will be in effect at the start of the season and will remain in effect for the duration of the Zone 1 Challenge Series.

Please note that a driver advancing to the PCA National Zone Runoff Challenge may be reclassified at PCA Sim Racing’s discretion.

Driver Conduct

PCA Sim Racing is dedicated to Sportsmanship and Camaraderie. Verbal abuse, including the use of profanity and calling out others in a derogatory manner (passively or actively), is inconsistent with these concepts. Verbal abuse, whether of a fellow driver or a Race Steward, will not be tolerated.

• Profanity is unacceptable and inconsistent with Sportsmanship and Camaraderie. Neither is acceptable.
• The first offense may/will result in a warning.
• The second offense may/will result in disqualification from the race in which the verbal abuse occurs.
• The third offense may/will result in disqualification from the league.
• Any use of profanity may result in disqualification from the league – even on a first instance.

Rules & Regulations

• The PCA Zone 1 Racing Challenge will be governed by iRacing’s Sporting Code.
• Incidents on track will be monitored by the iRacing software and penalties and incident points will be determined by iRacing exclusively.
• Incidents and subsequent incident points will not be subject to an appeal or review by the PCA Zone 1 Administrator(s).
• Please note that iRacing uses a no-fault based incident policy. Car contact will result in incident points being given by iRacing to both cars.
• Black flags and all other track penalties are handled by iRacing. Black flags will not be removed under any circumstances.

Custom Liveries

Custom liveries are encouraged and will be supported through Trading Paints.

All custom liveries should not violate US copyright or trademark law. All custom liveries need to be aimed at a “G Rated” audience as the races may be broadcast to a wide audience. If any custom livery is deemed inappropriate for a “G Rated” audience, a Zone 1 Administrator will notify the offending driver to request a design change.

Championship Points

Points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Points are awarded based on finishing positions as shown in the chart below. 7 or less out of all 8 will count. For members who have participated in all 8 championship races, the lowest score will automatically be dropped.

Bonus Points

To encourage clean racing, 2 bonus championship points will be awarded to all drivers who complete the race with 0x incidents. In the event that no drivers have 0x incidents then the driver or drivers with the lowest incident points will receive 1 bonus championship point.

PCA National Zone Runoff Challenge

The top 4 championship point racers in each class will be eligible for the Spring 2021 PCA National Zone Runoff Challenge.

Coordinators

Bob Moore, Chair & Competition

Anker Berg-Sonne, Communications, Marketing, & Membership

Chris Braun, eDE Driver Education, Coaching

James Huth, eDE Driver Education

Please feel free to contact any of us on the Zone 1 Discord Server.

Contributors

Dean Chapman, Logo and Web Graphics

A pdf listing of all current Zone Group 1 members showing their class and region can be downloaded by clicking here.

Race results from the current series are posted in the Zone Goup 1 channel #announcements thread on the PCA Sim Racing Discord Server.

We have made some modifications to the Summer Down Under Prelude and Race to make the track easier to drive and also give the Left Coast members an opportunity to make it home from work and join practice, The changes are:

Starting the practice at 8:50 PM Eastern
Starting the qualifying at 9:50 PM Eastern
Starting the race at 10:00 PM Eastern

Lowered the temperature to 75 degrees
In-sim track times changed to:
7:50 AM practice time
8:50 AM qualifying time
9:05 AM race time

The sessions are in the PCA Sim Racing League schedule and if you want to practice in the conditions and setup for the race, bring up the session by clicking on the league, then in Sessions and finally on the blue Test Drive button.