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Here's my opinion on this subject on the difference between road racers and autocrossers. It's VERY similar to band competitions...
In HS, I played the clarinet in a concert band. Twice a year or more we would go to national or regional competitions, during which there would be two parts.
The first part was the prepared pieces that you have been working on for the past 3,4, 6 months (including a "warm up" piece/lap...). We would practice those pieces until we knew them cold, hot, and tepid.
The second part of the competition was sightreading. We were all led into a room where we were handed a piece of music that none of us had seen before. We had 10 minutes to look over the piece, during which no instruments were to emit a note. At the end of 10 minutes, we would perform that piece for the judges cold. (We were allowed to use our voices and often we would hum through the piece in time... i.e. a walkthrough...)
There were two types of people that shined in these competitions. Those that could perform a prepared piece to perfection, time and time again under any conditions because they have practiced it relentessly. But often they would have difficulty sightreading, simply because they required practice to really know a piece.
And then there were the people that I hated... who could pick up any piece at any time and play it perfectly the second or third time they saw it. They sometimes suffered from consistency, in that, while they could play the piece perfectly once doesn't mean they could replicate the performance whenever asked.
The practice people are the natural roadracers and the sightreading people are the natural autocrossers. Those that can incorporate the best qualities of both are the ones who excel in both.
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