SCCA AX classing - unintended consequence?

[jchadwell]

Ran into an interesting result from today's autocross. Although I am pretty competitive by nature I do this just for fun so it's not really a big deal. However, I have to admit it does irritate me a little. Here's the pax results from today:

Pax Pos. Pos. Class #Driver Car Model TotalFactor Pax Time Diff.From 1st

1 1 cam-c 3Tristan Cooper 2018 Chevrolet 48.848*0.818 39.957 0.000 0.000
2 1 as 91Jerry Chadwell 2021 Toyota Sup 48.826*0.821 40.086 0.129 0.129

And here's what I think is a bit unfair but apparently perfectly legal per the SCCA rules. Tristan who got 1st in pax over me drives a 2018 Camaro ZL1. It's stock, just like me. In stock form, Tristan's Camaro is classed in A Street, just like I am. However, he has an option to run in CAM C which somehow has a lower pax than A Street. So, even though we are both stock and both classed in A Street, Tristan beats me in the pax battle simply by changing to a lower pax class. I wonder if the SCCA rules committee had this in mind when approving the CAM classes? Does this seem right?

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[Jaxness]

I'm sure it's not the first time it's happened - but since it's usually only applies to a stock class where people aren't really interested in competing on a national level, it's never addressed.

Personally - I don't give a damn about PAX times for this exact reason and when I run, I compare RAW times. Me in my car vs you in your car, no handicaps.

But it's just for fun and improving my own driving, so I don't really care about results enough to complain about technicalities.

 

[underdonk]

Instead of creating a new thread for this, I am just going to add this here: What the heck Street Touring class do we run in? I see the '21 car was finally classed here in a June '21 rules change, and I see a notice number reference, but I cannot for the life of me find the document being referenced. Anyone know? Looks like I'm firmly in Street Touring - Street Prepared would be over-classing the vehicle.

 

[WPGSUPRA]

The Supra isn’t currently classed in street touring but there is a proposed new class SST that has been in the scca fastrack info the last few months hopefully it will be a class for next year.

 

[jchadwell]

The Supra isn’t currently classed in street touring but there is a proposed new class SST that has been in the scca fastrack info the last few months hopefully it will be a class for next year.

Why not STU?

 

[underdonk]

Why not STU?

FWIW, I ended up running in RTU and coming in 8th out of 11 entries. Given what I was up against, I actually felt pretty good about the finishing place and times I was putting in. I do plan on running in ASP from here on out until the SCCA sorts out the classing for the vehicle in Street Touring.

 

[div1838]

FWIW, I ended up running in RTU and coming in 8th out of 11 entries. Given what I was up against, I actually felt pretty good about the finishing place and times I was putting in. I do plan on running in ASP from here on out until the SCCA sorts out the classing for the vehicle in Street Touring.

I currently run in the ASP class, I also have MHD Stg2 flashed as well so there's that.

 

[jchadwell]

I currently run in the ASP class, I also have MHD Stg2 flashed as well so there's that.

What makes you all feel Your cars don’t fit in STU?

 

[div1838]

What makes you all feel Your cars don’t fit in STU?

Well I'm new to the whole autox thing as a whole, so I emailed our chairman and gave him my year make and model and all my mods listed out and he said my car fell in to the ASP class......sooooo that was it for me.

 

[white_turbo]

In stock form, Tristan's CamSo, even though we are both stock and both classed in A Street, Tristan beats me in the pax battle simply by changing to a lower pax class. I wonder if the SCCA rules committee had this in mind when approving the CAM classes? Does this seem right?

Just know that PAX isn't a real thing in National (caveat except in ProSolo but that's another topic). On paper, CAM should be far faster than the same car in stock form but PAX is based on pass results which can be totally skewed when CAM isn't running the times they are capable of for whatever reason. Locally, PAX may be important for season points but is not something to get overly serious about though.

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