The Dogs of Racing Endurance League (TDoREL), Founded in October 2013 by Michel MacCulloch, began as a quaint group of drivers looking for a distinct form of unique racing, tied in with the beliefs of "true" endurance racing.

 

Those beliefs became the center of what this league is, and always will be.

~ 1) Safety:

Just like in real life, we want you to be responsible for your driving, in all aspects of it, but most especially when it comes to safety.  To foster this, our primary point system for all series in the league gives bonuses for clean driving, but unlike other leagues, where if you aren't driving clean, you just get a "Drive cleaner next race" or you're not allowed to run the next race, we decided that our points system will automatically assess penalties, in the form of point DEDUCTIONS if your # of incidents are higher than the overall event average!  This means that if you push too hard, and rack up incidents, you will actually be losing championship points!

 

Utilizing the iRacing CPI Chart, we have derived a safety ranking system that sorts drivers into their classes, completely determined by their average Corners-Per-Incident ranking, and are assessed on a weekly basis.

 

~ 2) Variety:

     ~ Tracks)

          ~ For track selection, what venues form the next season is left to the active membership, via a vote that lasts up to 9 weeks within our own league forums, where you are allowed to pick as many, or as few tracks, from EVERYTHING iRacing has available.  You're also allowed to change your votes at any time, until the poll automatically closes 1 week prior to the current seasons final races.

          ~ We don't want to stick to just one form of racing, so our season track lineup has a minimum amount of tracks from each of 3 categories:

               ~ "Pure Road" - Which are tracks that have only road courses available (EG: Mount Panorma, Suzuka, Barber) --> MINIMUM 3 chosen

               ~ "Pure Oval" - Which are tracks that only have Oval layouts (and no road course variants) (EG:  Talladega, South Boston) --> MINIMUM 1 chosen

               ~ "Combination Tracks" - Which are venues that have both Oval AND Road course layouts (EG:  Mid-Ohio, Charlotte, Twin Ring) --> MINIMUM 2 chosen

               ~ This leaves 6 other courses to be selected for the season which are selected based purely on highest votes for the track, regardless of category.

               ~ Our league also actively participates in the Road Warriors Endurance Championship by registering 5 different teams (one for each car) into the official races.

          ~ Once the tracks are selected via the vote, and polls are closed, then layout selection starts.  We strive to use layouts that are not regularly used in official iRacing events, and instead focus on some of the rarer, and sometimes even never even seen layouts.  We also ensure that all layouts possible on a particular venue have been used at least once before allowing a layout to be re-used.  This way, for tracks like Virgina Internationa, where in iRacing Official, they only use the "Full Course" layout for all series, every season, for us at TDoREL, we would have to have Virginia come through the lineup 7 times before a repeat layout would be used!  That's almost 2 years straight of using the same track EVERY SEASON, before getting a repeat layout!

 

     ~ Vehicles)

          ~ Every vehicle that iRacing has to offer, WILL be used, at some point in time, on a rotational basis.  This does not eliminate any styles, or performances.

          ~ All races will have multiple vehicle offerings - Currently using a 4-car multi-class system, with ZERO balancing of power/performance

          ~ After the final race is complete every week, the 2 least popular vehicles (using a 2 week average) are eliminated, and replaced with 2 new vehicles, thus making every week have a different mix of vehicles

         ~ All vehicles are ranked via iRacing's posted power-to-weight ratios, and as vehicles get eliminated, the next vehicles on the list come in to replace them.  There is no categorization of the vehicles, and ANY STYLE of vehicle may be coming in to replace any other vehicle.  This means that an open wheel may replace an stock car, or an GT may replace a prototype.  We *DO* however attempt to ensure that as many "styles" of vehicles are available each week.

          ~ To prevent stagnation due to one vehicle being too popular, and sticking around forever, we have implemented a "Popularity Ballast" system.  For every week that a vehicle manages to stay in rotation, it's average use for that week then get's added in KG to slow the vehicle down.  Eventually the vehicle will lose popularity due to being slowed down and rotate out gracefully.

 

~ 3) Cooperation and Communication

     ~ Communication in racing is ABSOLUTELY VITAL, so in addition to the in-game chat functions, we host our own TeamSpeak server, with upgraded codex for higher quality audio clairity.

     ~ With how tricky some of our track/vehicle combinations are, we have found it VERY beneficial to have a really good sense of respect for others on the track, as well as effective communication as to what you're planning while ON track.  Be it by vehicle placement, consistant driving (this includes lap cars MAINTAINING their line) and even hotkey, or verbal notification of where you're going to pass, or, if you're the one being passed, where you're setting up to let the faster vehicle by.  Most of our regular members have gotten so used to each other, that to signal someone to pass, it can be as simple as a certain wiggle down the road, and the passer knows to go for the pass, and on what side, even with no words or text sent!

     ~ We host our own private TeamSpeak Server, where we can chat about just about anything! Exceptions to this would be illegal activities, disrespectful behavior, or plain old asinine behavior.  

     ~ We also have our own league forums to facilitate more conversations, where it isn't necessary to have an immediate response, but still nice to be able to express yourself freely. We have seperate areas of the forums set up already, and if there's a large desire for other/new sections, they can be put up right away. 

     ~ Lastly on this topic, many of us believe that the more we can help our fellow drivers, the safer, and better (IE: more competitive) we ALL can be, thus it's very common to have setups being shared, even unasked, both in-session, and even out of session via our TeamSpeak Server's File Browser or even by subscribing to league members who frequently share setups with the league via iRacing Setup Sync!  Many of us are also willing to help with showing others some lines to use out on track, setup adjustments, and heck, even help you with graphics settings or even how to make a pie.  Generally if someone's not answering something for another person, they're asking something themselves.

 

~ 4) ENDURANCE RACING

     ~ This league is based around the same lines of thought as there is in Real Life Endurance Races.  As such, silly arcade style "Quick Fixes & Fast Tows" have no place here.  If you hit the wall, be fully prepared to spend the time in the pits to get it repaired.  I've been in the pits for almost an hour in some races, but still kept on putting in more laps after I got fixed.  Can't finish a race if you don't bother waiting to get repaired.  Definatly can't be safe doing it if you jump out early!

     ~ As well, on the safety side of things, we also enforce a variable incident disqualification system.  For the most part, it's based on a rookie 3.0SR level of 15 Corners Per Incident (or CPI), but is re-adjusted based on the AVERAGE # of laps that all 5 classes are expected to be able to complete, in the respective time-frame of the event that's being raced in.  As well, for the longer races (6.0 Hour for example) the Incident DQ is bumped up to a higher licence level requirement than the smaller races, as we expect that someone jumping into a longer race, should theoretically be able to run that race at a higher quality than a shorter race due to less direct pressure during the race.

     ~ Length of races.  Currently, we are running 3 different length races.  Our Keeshond being the shortest at 1.5 hours, followed by the Mastiff @ 2 hours.  Lastly is our premier race of each weekend (based on average attendance) being our Sunday Morning "Ridgeback Series" race, being 3.5 hours long.

    

Now as this is virtual, and we understand that many people have real lives, outside of iRacing, we have set up a policy that as long as you are able to complete 50% of the OVERALL LEADER's laps, you would still qualify for FULL POINTS in the race you attended.  This means that to qualify for full points in a race on any weekend, you can participate in as little as 45 minutes/week!  I'm positive that if you're looking into racing with a league, you can spare at least 45 minutes a week, and if you can do more, then we DEFINATELY have more for you!

 

As well, we know we can't expect someone to be able to have all tracks, and/or be able to be available for the races EVERY week, so we only ask that if you sign up for the league, you at least show up for a minimum of 3 events out of the 35 that are scheduled every season!

 

Lastly, Our mission is to have fun, safe, competitive races with like-minded individuals.  If this may be you, welcome to the league!