“Bracket” PAX Class proposal.
This class is for drivers to apply an index based on level of preparation and driver skill to compete with other drivers using same PAX handicap class. This would apply to cars that are modified to the drivers liking and not to the SCCA rulebook. This would also encompass road tire class.
For example Paul Vandenburg’s swapped NA Civic is by definition a SM car. However, is it fair to compare to Andy Walker’s supercharged Civic. There is an obvious difference in car capabilities. To compensate, instead of running SM PAX of .867 Paul could run something closer to DS (Integra Type-R) PAX of .819. Furthermore if he chooses to run a street tire instead of R-comp he can lower his dialed in PAX to .800.
How do you prevent a driver from creating a low PAX just to jump up to the fastest index time? Here’s the catch; NO DRIVER IN THE BRACKET PAX MAY BEAT A PRO OR REGULAR CLASS DRIVER FOR 1st PLACE OVERALL PAX or they will incur a 10 point penalty. This is to encourage running the highest PAX index possible.
Confused? Let’s try a real world example. Using results from Event #7 ECC-N.
http://www.wny-scca.com/download/file.php?id=22
Felix Lopez is a regular and is pretty consistent but is limited by his 300M. Obviously this is not a ringer car for HS. So he dials in a .71 PAX.
Jason Sears comes to a couple events now and then and with the GTO hypothetically can’t justify spending money on R-Comps or an all out 200 tread wear ultra performance street tires and goes with a 300 tread wear high performance street tire. So based on that he is not a regular and has set-up slower than a national level FS car he dials in a .78 PAX.
Jeremy Washburn loves to drive crappy Sentras and shows up with a gutted and caged car that would normally fall into DSP. But the car isn’t built for DSP has blown shocks, stock exhaust and mismatched tires. He dials in a .75 PAX
Raw and PAX time results are:
Felix: 43.699 PAX: 31.026
Jason: 41.213 PAX: 32.146
Jeremy: 40.579 PAX: 30.434
Jeremy has the fastest PAX time, but beat Chris Morton’s PAX of 30.794. Felix has the fastest time without going over and is the winner; 101 points. Normalizing to that Jason gets 96.52 points, Jeremy gets 98.09 points – 10 points for going over = 88.09 points.
Next event drivers dial in a new PAX. I’ll let Jim chime in on this but for ease of use PAX numbers should be two digits from .70 to .86 (anything higher is SM).