SuperCobraPilot wrote: My sole point is that I don't believe the car has been fully factored out of the equation... I'll close with another example: Last Event, Mike Avitt was #2 TTOD/#44 BRI in an SS09 2015 GT3. I was #19 TTOD / #29 BRI in my SS07 2004 GT3. In July he was #5 TTOD/#54 BRI and I was #12 TTOD/#23 BRI. No way I am a better driver than he is. I have only been at this half of last year and all of this year.
Owen,
This example you chose of comparing Mike's result in the BRI to yours is not representative due to an anomaly in the classing system that is not widely known or understood. Mike is running in SS09 class, which is the highest-speed stock class we have (there is an SS10 class, but if you look at it, that is for the Cayenne, Macan, and Panamera, which are all slower). Take a look at the cars classified in SS09--it is a "catch-all" class for all the fastest Porsche supercars, and even the hypercars. It includes the 918, Carrera GT, GT2RS, and all the fastest Turbos and GT3RS cars. As others have said, the BRI is based on the most optimized car for the class. The index for the SS09 class has to allow for someone showing up and running in a 918 (highly unlikely, but possible), so it is set at 1.031, which is higher than every single class in our system except for CC16, which allows unlimited points!
In reality, Mike's GT3 is also a CC14 car in its current configuration. The index for CC14 is 1.014, which is considerably lower than the 1.031 index for SS09. If he really cared a hoot about his BRI result he would run in CC14, but he doesn't--he's running for TTOD and to beat the other SS09 cars. In the two events you cite in your example, you need to apply the CC14 index to his time to see where he really would have ended up, then compare your result to his. In the last event on 8/28, he would have had an indexed time of 1:28.19, which would have placed him 21st, not 44th. In July, he would have run a 1:29.57 indexed time, putting him in 27th place, not 54th.
Looking at it from this perspective, it appears that he had a better day in Aug. and you had a better day in July. Both the TTOD and BRI results seem to reflect the same thing. If you try to compare your BRI time to anyone in SS09, this anomaly pretty much renders that comparison useless.
HTH,
TT