Koshin wrote:the only thing youll miss while autocrossing is a real racetrack
While a track is fun (and also my primary focus this year while working on capturing an east coast time trial championship), raw driving talent is much more of a factor with autocross than it is on a circuit. A circuit, you already know your braking zones, you've run the course dozens to hundreds of times, there is no surprises aside from who may have spun or stuffed it. In an autox, you have to read new courses each week at lightning speed, decipher your own braking zones for your particular car and try to find out which line works the best for you all in a matter of four runs.
Autocross is also a much better judge of what a good handling car is and the quality of a production vehicle than a circuit. Straights on a circuit make things very muddled where as you look at any stock national autocross competition, you can easily point out the front runners and see why the Mini or an Integra is a dominant vehicle.