[Pawel Kusmierek]

Not that I want to, but just curious.

yesterday I signed up for the race, and right after the window for quitting closed, I realized I had something urgent to do, and won't be able to race.

So my car sat out practice and quali. I came to the computer for the race start, started from the last position (P20 I think), fought the temptation to keep racing (I think I was about to gain at least 2 positions in T1 already), parked on a service road in a safe place, and went on to do my urgent thing.

When I came back, the race was still on, so what the heck, I pulled out of my "parking spot" and still completed 5 or 6 laps, pretty slowly because very cold tires and I was getting out of the way of people actually racing.

I was sure that my rating would drop but I still got +3 points. How is it possible? :-)

[Igor Relja]

It's a secret (and for a reason)

But, from my experience, this is how it works: If the field is stronger than you, you'll gain points as long as you do 3+ laps (avoid DNF) and and stay away from too much trouble.

I'm around 480 rating, so I think that puts me in the lower skilled group, but I usually drive in the first split (unless the field is really competitive a. k. a. YouTubers series where 60+ people apply, then I'm in the second). If I'm in the first, I'll gain rating as long as I finish ~15 or higher, with a reasonable number of incidents (2 or 3). Before my last race, I had 486,275 rating. In the last race, I finished 12th with 3 incidents and gained 2,106 rating. My guess is that I would've gained more if the field was stronger, and less if it was weaker. On the other hand, if some of the fastest guys (900+ rating) finish anywhere outside, let's say, top 3, they will lose a lot, and with winning/coming second they'll gain only a fraction of point. I'm working on a database where I'll calculate average ratings of races I'm in and my rating gain/loss according to participating drivers to test my theory, but ATM I don't have time to do it. SRS isn't very user friendly when it comes to showing stats.

TL;DR: It's probably some variation of ELO system: it calculates where are you according to other drivers in the race, and if you finish higher than you should, you'll gain points, if you are lower, you'll lose. As long as you don't rack up incidents.

[Pawel Kusmierek]

Yeah, I realized that despite not technically racing I was still classfied above 7 other people who either dropped after fewer laps than my 6, or did not start at all. One of them has slightly higher rating score than me, so maybe that is what gave me the bump in rating. Still funny,