My issue with pax is that I can't tell if anyone is cheating. You do a car classing that has no easily identifiable limits to a class. example my evo. its ran as a mod car and SGT1 car with the only difference being how much boost it ran. it went fastest as a SGT1 car by 6 tenths (if it was competing for a Sgt class win would that raise concerns?). VS Gridlife or GTA rules that have very fast to identify limits to the classes. I can walk up to a car and visually place it in a Gridlife class fairly quickly and accurately without knowledge of the car since its rules are based on easily scrutinized aspects. ie tire size and tw, aero size and number of wing elements. Explaining pax classing and how it works is and always has been a hurdle to getting new faces out. the rules are very time consuming and cumbersome to negotiate. the only rules I found more frustrating to class with was SCCA.
Pax has lots of non checkable holes and advantages that are purely based on the cars factory options and class. remember your base model 350z can't have a aftermarket diff without taking pips. But if you have the track pack (VLSD) then you are pip free to swap the diff to a clutch type of your choice well retaining your base pax.(I'm not a fan of these loop holes) This year we seen a 3 second delta with our frs between 2 setups that pax the same. Pax sees no advantage from 2 way coilovers but the transponder told us otherwise. how is it fair to a low class like gt that I can show up on kw 2 ways ($$$) and pax/Class the same as a stock ish frs on entry level suspension? the gridlife rules would punt me up a class and maintain the spirit of a low class to be a entry level stepping stone.
my closing thoughts. Pax is not time attack. Time attack is a raw time competition with classes based around tires/ aero and engine size/ aspiration. the best driver does not always win, nor the best prepared car. regardless of what is decided I will see you all out in 2025 to continue chasing PB's and records