Keep in mind that a lightly prepared Street class car is usually a lot closer to a fully prepared car than is the case in higher classes. That's because there's only a small number of things you can do to your car in Street; most cars are most of the way there with just sticky tires, a sway bar, and an alignment.
That's very true, I was just pointing out that there are very few people running at the very ragged edge of those class rules. I do agree that in the Mod and Prepped classes an under prepared car more rapidly deviates from the ones that PAX is based upon.
Adding Murray's comment that the top 10% in the club are much more close in PAX than before is surely evidence that the driving level in the club has elevated significantly in the past several years! I'm glad to see that!
And, of course, with that improvement in driving comes an increasing importance of having a fully prepared car. The car starts to be more of a factor when the driving is more or less equal.
And, the weather? Typically FWD and AWD vehicles just do better in wet conditions ... a fact of life. However there are still people who are very good in the wet ... e.g. Michael Schumacher was one of those even at the level of F1.
R