ANNOUNCEMENTS & UPDATES
OCTOBER 30TH - ZRS UPDATE
Hello Teams and Competitors,
Thank you for the warm welcome and passionate response to our announcement last week! We enjoyed hearing from many of you and share your excitement for what 2026 holds. Based on the initial feedback we wanted to take the time to go over some points that were brought up. The following topics come from the scope of our series mission statement. We are dedicated to creating a fair, fun, safe, and competitive environment that allows teams and drivers with a varying degree of experience, budget, and goals to compete equally under a simplified ruleset that can be strictly enforced through tested and verified data. We feel that less regulations creates this environment and strictly enforcing the standards keeps this environment consistently competitive. We also fully understand that things will need to be adjusted over time to optimize the competitiveness, fairness, and sustainability of the series. We’re an ambitious group, but we are also quick to respond to items that are proven to need attention. Many of you know the passionate team behind the scenes making this all possible, and we’re very dedicated to making this an incredibly unique series.
Technical Enforcement- This was probably our most discussed topic and we lacked some specificity on how exactly we plan to enforce our vehicle standards. It’s important to highlight that we believe strict technical enforcement requires 3 major components- technology/data, staffing, and visibility.
Technology- We plan to use a range of different technologies to enforce vehicle compliance. This process starts with the use of an on-site dyno to verify power and torque numbers relative to disclosure sheets. We then plan to utilize the GPS tracking and accelerometers provided by Alkamel timing to create automated alerts for acceleration and speed traces that are determined to be outside the normal window. The “normal window” will likely be determined by partnering with teams ahead of the official season to have verified acceleration rates and top speeds relative to the classes rough power, torque, weight, and drag. Teams will be immediately notified of abnormal activity while competing. Additionally, we will have a post-race data download to review critical vehicle functions and cross reference them to any abnormalities witnessed during the race.
Staff- Properly executing this requires an experienced and well-staffed team. Again, referencing one of our main values of the series, fairness, we are willing to invest in making sure this data and technology is thoroughly, efficiently, and consistently monitored.
Visibility- Effectively enforcing the rules also means having visibility of our process, equipment, and results. We are very mindful and respect that all teams are investing heavily to get a competitive edge and we will make every effort to keep these trade secrets secure. However, we do believe that the best way to enforce the rules is to also make the determination of any penalty very accessible. We plan to make rulings available, with the relevant data, section breach, and degree of technical breach, to all competitors in the series. This means that if a competitor has broken our competitive integrity, the paddock will know.
Weekend Structure- Not sure how we missed this in the initial announcement, but we completely left out our standard weekend format. Below is our expected race weekend schedule:
Friday- Will include class specific run groups in the morning to maximize track availability without the concern of passing/being passed by out of class vehicles. The afternoon will consist of class specific qualifying sessions and then open practice for all competitors to gain additional track knowledge while also getting acclimated to safely and respectively interacting with each other on track. We want a Friday format that competitors feel completely prepares them to execute safely and competitively on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday- Expect a 7-8 hour race on Saturday that starts at 9am and ends around 4-5pm. Podiums will be held directly after the checkered flag with parc-ferme handled congruently. Night service can be brutal, and we also want our community of racers to have time to interact with each other after the race. We are still finalizing our checkered flag time for Saturday.
Sunday- Expect a 7-hour race on Sunday. Podiums will be held directly after the checkered flag with parc-ferme handled congruently. Again, our target is to start no earlier than 9am but also want to respect the teams’ ability to get back on the road and focus on the next event while also giving drivers the time to get ready for work on Monday.
Long Enduros- We don’t have anything set in stone yet for our longer races which will be held at Homestead and VIR but expect to run into the night and get over 12 hours of racing in! If you are passionate about what this looks like feel free to drop us an email.
ZR2 Vehicle Classing and Allowable Entries- Understandably there is a wide range of opinions of what should be or should not be allowed as part of our ZR2 class. We want to highlight that our focus is to allow ALL teams with different budgets and goals to have a place to race fairly and competitively within our series.
Vision- This can look like a home-built BMW M3, a factory M4 G82, and a Ligier JS2R all competing on track at the same time with the same power to weight with no modifiers.
Stance- We understand that certain cars inherently have capabilities and performance that other cars don’t. We also understand that some teams have the capacity and capability to optimize cars while others don’t. We feel like the only way to properly let the system work is through one of two stances; freedom of choice or strict series intervention. For us, we would rather the competitor decide the level that they’d like to invest in the series, rather than the series determining what is most successful for the competitor. We want to let competitors test, drive without the fear of going “too fast” relative to other cars, improve their platform, and optimize within their desired budget.
Data driven reaction- With the above being said, there is clearly a line being drawn between two classes that have the same power to weight ratio (Prototype with ZP2 and Production with ZR2). There is clear evidence that prototype cars are generally faster at most circuits. Going back to our original mission statement, we fully believe in fair competition and if data is presented that proves a vehicle should be reclassified, we will take the steps to do so. This process would require tested, proven, and verified data as well as a grace period with notification for the competitor in question.
Tire Rules/Policy- By far this was our most mixed reaction rule set. We had a variety of feedback on this rule, and we think it’s important to highlight our high level vision of why this policy is in place and why we think it actually aligns with our core values. Fair, fun, safe, and competitive for ALL competitors.
All competitors- To first help define the scope of fair, fun, safe, and competitive, we should first outline who we think could be interested in this ruleset/policy. We want to provide a team who only wants to spend money on (1) set of DOT tires per day, the same opportunity of success as the team who is willing to spend (7) sets of slick tires per day. If a competitor wants to experience the thrill of slicks for 7 hours straight and spend $25,000 to do so, we fully support that. If a competitor wants to be budget conscious and spend $2,000 a day on a hard DOT tire but sacrifice raw pace to do so, we fully support that.
The formula- To allow both of these vastly different competitors a chance to succeed in the same format, the tire change rule was formed. Want to bolt on some pace? It will cost you a lap. Want to save money on tires? It may cost you that same lap in pace over the course of the race. While doing something never done before can be challenging and daunting, it also presents an amazing opportunity to learn something new- perhaps an incredible new format that none of us have experienced before. Doing something new also means there’s an inherent lack of data. We fully expect that while our rough estimate of the penalty structure reflects the potential performance gain of the faster tire, we could have it completely wrong. If the formula is not balanced, we will adjust the formula.
Fair, fun, safe, and competitive- With the above-mentioned notes in mind, we think our open tire rule and penalty structure aligns incredibly well with our mission statement. We intend to keep the competition fair by allowing competitors of varying degrees of budget to compete equally. More flexibility in the tire policy looks like more strategy involved for the teams which is inherently fun. We are allowing teams to race on the most advantageous tires for their driver and conditions which allows for safer competition (ability to get off super summer DOT tires in the cold and wet conditions). Lastly, we think this allows for amazing competition that keeps competitors in the race until the final moments.
Tire Policy Continued- Similar to the message we echoed earlier, we are very open to feedback that aligns with our core values that can also add to the series in ways that you, the competitor, would like to see incorporated.
“XYZ Tire Cup”- We will be adding a sub-championship within our ZR2 class temporarily called “XYZ Tire Cup”. We spoke to many of you currently competing on DOT rated tires, and we are actively engaging what seems to be the industry standard favorite 200TW compound on partnering with series. For now, we will call it XYZ Tire Cup but we should be able to discuss the exact tire soon!
Rules- All competitors in the XYZ Tire Cup will be competing under the exact same vehicle, driver, and sporting regulations as ZR2 with exception to the open tire policy. All competitors for this class must run XYZ tire compound with any size of choice. Tire change rules remain in effect as XYZ Tire Cup competitors are also competing within the ZR2 class and are eligible for ZR2 championship points and awards (which will be important pending future announcements).
Possible XYZ Tire Cup awards- We are working with the tire manufacturer but expect to see some contingency awards for product that will be available for specific results. We are also working on a mounting/balancing service for competitors running on the manufacturer tires. This class will have its own awards, ceremonies, championship standings, etc.
Why add the sub-class? A large number of competitors expressed interest in a format similar to this. We feel like this gives the opportunity for a subset of competitors to have another fair, fun, safe, and competitive championship within the main championship while still providing an amazing experience for our competitors that enjoy the original ruleset.
Code 35 Procedure- We feel highly confident that with the right technology, staffing support, communication, and enforcement, code 35 is the safest and most competitive way to neutralize the entire field.
Availability- Before reviewing the below items why we believe Code-35 is important, we should highlight that even if we wanted to have FCY events, 5 of our 7 confirmed track partners (who worked incredibly hard to provide some killer dates for our series), prefer Code-35 enforcement over FCY. It makes their volunteers and staff feel safe and protected, and we firmly stand behind our partners.
Safety- Our comfort level for having vehicles pass by unprotected safety workers (at any distance) going over 35 mph is very low. As competitors in a variety of different series, have seen near misses and direct impacts while under a “neutralization zone” more times than we’re comfortable with. Often times, this isn’t even the result of direct negligence. It is statistically improbable for 50+ cars to travel past a safety worker dozens of times over the course of a season and not have a close call. For us, a close call is an unacceptable risk.
Enforcement- With taking such a firm stance on Code 35, we completely recognize that it is only fair to each and everyone one of you that we invest heavily on enforcing the rules behind Code-35. Having competitors slow down at the appropriate rate and time, hold pace (at 35 mph), and restart at the appropriate time are the biggest areas that we see needing enforcement. If there are other areas, please give us feedback on this as we are taking this enforcement very seriously. Penalizing drivers for not slowing at the appropriate time (both too early and too late), going too fast or too slow during code-35, jumping the restart time are all items that we will be enforcing strictly. We plan to have the ability to communicate directly with cars to help competitors maintain speed. Through Alkamel, cars have GPS tracking availability with direct time stamps so we can see when a competitor slowed down and if they reached 35mph before the called time. Similarly, we can track when cars begin to accelerate once neutralization is over. We fully empathize that the possibility of a competitor running you down in the decel phase, pit under Code-35 for fuel, catch back up to you while still under code 35, and then get a jump on the restart is infuriating. We are dedicated to not letting this happen.
Points/Penalties- Many competitors had questions on the structure of both our points system and penalty structure. How/Who they are applied to and the verbiage around the penalties is outlined below.
Team Points- We likely won’t be changing the points earned per position, but we currently don’t have any verbiage on drops for events. We would like your feedback on this, but our first take would be to have a total of 2-4 drops for the season (over 8 events with 14 individual races).
Driver Points- With the Driver ID system, we would like to introduce a driver championship. We want to recognize drivers that are making the season long commitment with us. Likely to incorporate a similar points/drop format as the team championship.
Penalty Structure / Warnings- We intentionally limited the warnings within most of our penalty ruleset to enforce the same standards on all competitors. We feel that our rules center around the pillars of our series (safety, fairness, and competition), so violation of the rules should be enforced as such. We will review the different infractions and may have updates on whether a warning system will be introduced, but expect this to remain the same for now.
DQ/Ejection Verbiage- For us, DQ / Ejection is the standard for misconduct that primarily comes in the form of cheating or repeat offenses. For example, if a team is caught and confirmed via data to be intentionally cheating during the race, that car will be disqualified from the race and ejected from the event. If a team misses the mark on power to weight or fuel capacity, the vehicle will unfortunately be disqualified but the team is able to remedy the issue and continue competing. If a driver has contact with a car battling through traffic, that car will receive a one lap penalty. If a driver intentionally makes contact or egregiously has contact with another competitor, the team will receive the lap penalty of the appropriate standard, and the driver will be immediately ejected from the race requiring a pitstop.
Driver Focus- We really appreciate the direct feedback on the elements of what add to making a series fun. We are fully on board with making sure that teams and drivers feel like they are appreciated and getting the recognition they deserve. Below are some items that we didn’t originally consider but will likely be incorporated in the series.
Post race and qualifying interviews- Tell us and the friends/family/fans back home how you feel right as you experience the thrill of success.
Pitlane reporting- There is so much that goes on behind the scenes on the ground. Pit stops, driver changes, drama, quirky crew members, you name it we want to see it. We want to viewers to see more of why all of us crazy racers do what we do.
Celebrate as a community- Race all day together, celebrate together. We will host the race ceremonies directly after the checkered flag and have some really unique awards that competitors, win or lose, get to experience together.
Additional Results- Winning a 7+ hour race is tough. There are a lot of items that are incredibly admirable that also need recognition (and not just for the driver). Expect to see some recognition awards for “least time in pitlane”, “hard charger”, and other fun features.
General Updates- As a final update, we are going to be reviewing and updating our vehicle, team, and driver regulations consistently over the next month. All updated documents will be linked to our rules page on our website. Additionally, you can follow our addendum portal that highlights changes we will be making. There will not be anything that inherently changes the who, what, or why we are racing, but it will be important to stay up to date on any regulation changes.
Thank you again for such a passionate response. It has been a busy but fun week and we’re incredibly excited for what’s to come.