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Re: road racers vs. autocrossers

To: autox mailing list <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: road racers vs. autocrossers
From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 01:03:04 -0500 (EST)
Howdy,

On Fri, 29 Jan 1999 RacerRay52@aol.com wrote:
>      I'd just say that autoxers have a better chance of living long enough to
> become good, so maybe on average they are a little better.

Uh, whatever.  Its not like roadracing (particularly cars) is really
dangerous.

My take on the whole roadracing vs. autox thing is that autoxing is a more
pure form of roadracing.  I.e. in autox you pick a line without worrying
about other drivers and saving your equipment.  Sure in roadracing you're
going a lot faster, but that's just a matter of how willing you are to
bend stuff.

To succeed in autox, you have to be able to pick the right line and be
able to drive it.  To succeed in roadracing, you have to be able to do the
above but your ability to shut off fear and to know how to work traffic
and choose sub-optimal lines to help track position can put you in front
of someone who chooses lines and drives similarly or a bit better than
you.

I think which is easier to learn depends on the person mostly, but I'd
give the nod to the autox'er being a bit ahead of the roadracer when
switching hobbies.

Then, of course, you've got the completely different mindset that each
requires.  Autoxing is a lot of standing around with a few minutes of
intense driving where you're pushing 10/10ths.  Roadracing is more
constant activity throughout the day, and you pretty much never push
10/10ths without working up from 8/10ths, even during a race.

MHO of course.

Mark


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