It must be my driving...

The results from the first day of the Texas National Tour are doing a nice job of proving me wrong about the Miata's lack of competitiveness in STS. See http://sololive.scca.com/STS.html. Granted, some of that is equipment and setup, but a good chunk of that has to be the driver. David is a phenomenal driver (perhaps almost alien status?), but it shows me that while I might not reach his status, much of my problem might just be my driving.

I am not sure what to change in my driving, but one thing that comes to mind is trail-breaking. I rarely do it, but I am trying to start getting into it. What is everyone's thoughts on the effectiveness of trail-breaking? Does it usually generate big results, or is it just s very small piece of my problem?

Like you said, David is a very good AX'er. I'm sure it's a lot of little things combined....trail braking may or may not be a piece of it.

PS - There will always be someone better than you, and someone worse than you. (You = all of us)

The better set up your car, the less trail braking you have to do. No matter what, it's still a good skill to have, as even the best car will still need it for some situations.

FWIW, I find most cars setup for autocross have to do a lot of trail braking.

You need more Honda. ;-)

Actually you may want to contact David and get some of his cool ass shocks®!

AST's are so 2009.

I trail brake and left foot brake a lot in autox. Definitely a useful skill.

Trail braking is very useful when going into tighter turns. It a great way to rotate the car.

https://speedsecrets.com/driving-tip...ing-explained/

Also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc_F7BU0z0I

The best drivers are the ones that have lots of seat time and hate their cars the most. They literally just beat on their cars without a single care in the world. If you love your car even a little, it will slow you down a lot!