I've always wondered when I see people post about winning their first time out at an Auto X event how tough was their competion. Not knocking their driver skills at all but it is all relative to who you are running against in your class. Me for example, I run in STF and my car is no where near maxed out per rules allowed. I'm heavy as well being a cabrio. I only do 3-4 events a year so not really trying to be all I can be in class. I have won a few times this year as our top STF guys have been doing other events, but when they are there I don't stand a chance.. That being said I'll give a shout out to my local Auto X Club as being one of the toughest in the nation. Not neccessary in every class of course. Club has roughly 100 members an average just of 100 cars ( and about 15 of those will have 2 drivers or more taking turns in it ) per once a month event. "Triad Sports Car Club"
At the Nationals this year 2 members won their class and 8 others
trophied.

Gwen Baake - DSL National Champion
Eric Sienkiewicz - STF National Champion

Ginette Blouin Jordan - 3rd SML (in an SMF car !)
Jinx Jordan - 4th SMF (Fastest Day 2)
Jadrice Toussaint - 3rd ESP (Lead Day 1)
Justin Barbry - 5th FSP
Justin Mitchell - 6th FSP
James Feinberg - 2nd DS (Lead Day 1)
Matt Feeney - 7th STF
Kraig Klippel - 5th STS

Missing trophies by just one or 2 positions and getting Honorable mention for their awesome accomplishments -
Shelby Turbeville , Nikki Edwards , Mina Ingraham and Michael Feeney .

Granted it is tough for some to be able to afford to go to Nationals which leaves some very good drivers not being there, but for a club to have roughly 10% of their members to at least trophy is a huge accomplishment I think, and one of which I doubt many of clubs match..

 

Its a long way from the West Coast here to the Nationals, so I don't think that many actually make the trip. We get over 200 regularly at the Oakland events (which are more central) our events in the more far flung places get 150 or so.

We got national champions:

Michael marier in CP
Brianne Maier in CPL
Shelly Montfort in SSL
Deanne Caraballo in EPL

Also:
Andy Mckee 2nd in XP
Tristan Littlehale 3rd in BSP
Tom Ellam 3rd in XP
Dwayne Komush 4th in EP
Steve Goldine 4th in DM
Steve Lau 4th in SSP
Michael Wood 5th in FS (In a borrowed car, I think he's recovering from a broken collar bone still)
Teresa Neidel-McKee 7th in XP
Frank Stagnaro 10th in CP

Just missing trophies:
Monty Pack (5th SSP), Matt Ellam (8th in XP)

 

I don't see them all the time in local results though :(

I'm not sure why...but I see local events and a lot of national champs not going...


PS: Andy Mckee, Tom Ellam, Teresa Neidel-McKee and Frank Stagnaro all have national championships.

 

I think if a local event can get about 80-100 drivers out on a regular basis competition can be very intense. With events of 200 drivers there can be more of a spread of driver skill levels.

As for evaluating how well people are driving vs a national class driver you can try to attend an Evolution driving school and ask the instructors (who have driven at the national level for many years) how the students stack up.

In my area novice drivers aren't expected to be competitive and we can usually see that in the overall PAX results.

 

The best way to find out how slow you are is to ask a national champion to drive your car. I know 29 in the San Francisco region. Seven have graciously handed my hat to me.

 

Way more national champs and podium finishers in SFR region than that list.

Scott Fraser
Brian Hobaugh
Ben Martinez
Chris ***
Josh Savage
The Tsang Brothers
Villarreal family
Mary Pozzi
Mark Allen
Brian Heitkotter - Multi year champ and now professional road racer
Still plenty More that I havent listed

Then there is whole host of guys and gals who would never go to Nationals but are very much national class drivers.

With tour/pro solo finally coming to our area at Crows this year people will get a sense of just how competitive it is as lots of people who typically wouldnt travel to Nats will show up. I will be flinging my D street Mini Roadster around at Crows Tour. While Im no national level AX driver I will keep slackers on their toes.

 

Part of the equation is-

How strong (national level) are the drivers in your area for autocross. The number of national level drivers is nice to know but they may be only the upper crust followed by only average drivers which usually make up the bulk of the attendees.

How difficult is it to get to nationals and under what circumstances. Being from Hawaii, in nearly every sport it's an obstacle to get yourself and what you need to any mainland national event. Forget about shipping a car and all the wheels and tires that go along with it, forget about traveling the country to go to all of the pro solo and solo regional events. Co-driving is good but in a car that you don't know, it's going to be just for the experience and frustration.

How strong is the class you are in. Are there enough of you to challenge each other. If the winning margins are over 1 sec. then it's not that tight. If you don't know who will be tops at any given event then you've got something to strive for.

For many events the truely national class drivers are not hard to spot, it doesn't matter which car they drive or which course they drive on, they are consistent and fast and hardly make errors (that you can see). They are really at another level, if they are willing to help other drivers to learn and elevate the level of driving around them, then that's a credit to their efforts.

An easy measure to check is how did you finish on Pax Overall, for those that drive cars that are not maxed out in mods for their class, you can also look at whatever class seems most appropriate such as a Stock or Street class if you drive in Street Touring.

However even if you have moderate upgrades and if you can make up the index difference of your PAX class then that's generally a reflection of very good driving.

Next time you look at results, check how many drivers finished higher on PAX overall than they did on raw time. You will see that Stock/Street and Street Touring classes do better on PAX finish than highly modified classes in general.

in any event drive to learn (and exercise your mind) and have fun doing it with a bunch of other people that think it's a fun thing to do on 3 or 4 wheels.