There's a lot of folks commenting here who fall outside the train of thought as someone like Andy...... or many of the other national champion and pointy end nationally competitive autocrossers I've met and competed with(mostly gotten destroyed by) over the past 5 years.
if you just wanna go out and do your best (as you see it) on that given day and have fun driving and seeing where the chips fall.. then absolutely let emotion drive your choice.
But those folks are a lot more rare at the pointiest end of the field for autocross, which is obviously where Andy is.
if you want to develop your driving and car control in an autocross environment efficiently, and compete to win in SCCA national autocross.. I personally believe you have to think this way.
One of the best things I did to help myself really get better as an autocrosser was seat time.. but not only seat time and attending events.. but making a conscious choice to put myself in a car that was properly classed and can contend(aka properly prepped) well in the class when i'm getting that seat time. Then from event to event.. looking at how I was or wasn't improving using PAX as a tool... You can absolutely do this if you run the same car from event to event even if it's not the right car.. but the ceiling for your potential will be unknown since the prep level or potential speed of the car you're running will not properly be represented by PAX. The effectiveness of this is also directly affected by the depth of talent in your region.
that was a bit of a side tangent to the article.. but this way of thinking also helped me consult with my buddy back in 2018.. and get myself a codrive in the STH Audi TT last year at solo nats and I got my first nats trophy thanks to that opportunity..
