With about three weeks to go, it's time to have a look at the 2022 GEARS campaign proper! As announced last year in time for some prep work and the finishing Christmas sales, we will be looking at some fine, fine GT4 machinery alongside some newcomers to the circuit menu as well.
The Circuits
Having limited last year's series to the vanilla content to ease transition, we'll be switching things up this time around, mixing some classics with the full content of the Intercontinental Challenge DLC pack:
- 13/03 - Silverstone
- 10/04 - Laguna Seca DT
- 24/04 - Spa (evening)
- 22/05 - Kyalami DT
- 26/06 - Zolder DT
- 17/07 - Bathurst (morning)
- 14/08 - Nürburgring DT
- 11/09 - Suzuka (evening)
The Cars
Jumping down one category by employing the GT4 DLC pack alongside the new tracks, we're also looking at an entirely new set of cars, let's have a look!
- Alpine A110
- Aston Martin Vantage
- Audi R8
- BMW M4
- Chevrolet Camaro
- Ginetta G55
- KTM Xbow
- Maserati GT MC
- McLaren 570S
- Mercedes AMG
- Porsche 718 Cayman
The Competition
The season will consist of 8 rounds running on Sunday evenings, beginning on 13th March 2021 and ending on 18th September 2021. Contrary to last year however, it will feature a total of 12 races! how does that work, you ask? Four rounds will be Double Trouble events, featuring two 1h races each.
As before, the races will be run with preset weather conditions: A weather forecast will be posted into the roll call and the prediction valid 24 hours before the event will be used to set up the server, making use of the "weather randomness" setting in accordance with the forecast's probability. With events that long, they'll start a bit earlier than usual.
Apart from that, at least one stop for fuel and tyres will need to be made for the 2h races. This means you will have to be 100% sure of how the pit menu and selection works, so please make sure you do. Practice this in tests. You only have yourself to blame if it goes wrong during the race proper.
Qualifying will happen in 30 minute qualifying sessions yet again to get the grid(s) - second races, where applicable, will be set up using the 2nd fastest lap.
There will be a teams' championship, along with the obligatory driver's title! Points will be awarded down to 10th position.
Any newcomers are free to join the Realish Racing New Driver Programme if they wish, to avoid the hassle of setting up their own team or having to find a team mate, with established drivers welcome at Argosport or another admin-run team.
The Colours
Liveries will be mandatory - templates are available on the FTP now. As always, sections not to be changed are marked as such. If you're unsure how liveries work in ACC, check out the guide on our website.
Sponsorships are preferred to be unique or appropriate to you, as if you had sought the sponsorship for yourself. Tobacco and firearm sponsorship is prohibited, and liveries are to contain nothing illegal, immoral or offensive (which we will have final say on).
Drivers running as a two-car team do not have to run the same livery, but do have to run the same car. Team mates running the same livery must contain elements that allow them to be distinguished from one another.
Once again, we're going to need to compile all liveries (or at least those not created entirely ingame) into a pack for everyone to download, so there's yet another livery deadline - 11th March, to be specific.