Originally Posted by Nexus

Interesting lists and chat.

One thing of note is the Paulie is more or less regarded as the top touring car racer in the USA by most of us. If he was a top offroad driver he would be a full-time paid Pro similar to the "Ryans, Tebo, and other top USA offroad drivers.

Of this list who is actually working in the industry?

Burch - employee of Xray still?
Cyrul - NavistarI think (Works for GM as a Corvette Engineer)
Hardman - ? (hes like 15 now and in school)
Haynes - ? (Service writer at a Honda Store)
Hebert - ? (full time racer)
Hohwart - works at/for Associated
Knudtson - ? (Full time job)
Lemieux - For sure not a full time paid Pro Runs Gravity RC on the side.
Lia - ? (His dad owns several dealerships and he runs them)
Wang - College kid :P
_____

With all that said, who knows if Paulie wants to be a full time Pro and paid to travel/race. Just pointing out the big gap between on and offroad Pros. Of course a lot of people on this list run both on/offroad so there's a difference to note there also.

--

I'd add Weylin Rose to the list of TC guys who were throwing down back in the day.

Originally Posted by CristianTabush

This is such a subjective question, so I'll try to be objective. This is the top 10 overall drivers as I see them, in ranked in specific order.

These guys could wheel any type of on road car, stock or mod and place top 5 in every category when they race. These are also the guys that are based in NA, and attend races more regularly.

The shoe ins-
1.Keven Hebert- while he does not have the overall TC wins of other guys, he is the only one that will be top 5 on asphalt or carpet, TC or 12th scale. He ranks this high more because he is either number 1 or 2 in 12th scale in NA and 3-4 in TC.
2.Paul Lemieux- Paul is still the undisputed best TC driver in the USA. He could be higher, but he does not race as much 12th and does not finish as high racing 12th.
3.Josh Cyrul- Josh is having a renaissance late in his now "Amateur" racing career. His asphalt TC results hurt him a bit on the list, but Josh has been the hottest American racer on the rug over the past year.
4.Rick Hohwart- the man, the legend is still getting it done when he attends an event. Probably the second best TC driver in NA.
5.Andrew Hardman- Andrew has come a long way. The kid is raw skill and the wins are starting to tally up.

The next group
5.5 Mike Haynes: leads the "next" group. Can always challenge for a win, in any class.
6.Drew Ellis: Faster than fast, Drew can wheel any type of car and often gets the hottest laps.
7.Donny Lia: when he races, he is a nearly unstoppable force in 12th scale.
8.Cory Parsons: very fast guy that can drive anything on rubber tires. Super fast TC mod guy. Need to stop racing VTA bud
9.Kody Knutdson: current Mod TC champ. Needs to travel more to be ranked higher, but the skill Kody has is very high can drive (and fly) anything.
10.Chris Adams: I race with this guy often and know first hand how fast he is. Chris is super smooth and talented. Top non factory USA guy at world's last year.

There might be other guys that could be argued to be in it, but until they don't get mod results they do not belong as top 10 guys (not that they don't have the skill, that's 2 different things. These guys in the list above would rock the House in spec classes as well- and often do). Modified is harder to drive (not necessarily more competitive or harder to win) and often driving mod translates over to spec classes while spec does not translate over to mod. Spec racing has it's merits, but is also far easier to drive and more equipment dependant.

(*edit- forgot Mike Haynes).

Originally Posted by EAMotorsports

Filled in your blanks.

And I agree with what Luke Hobson said.


EA

Originally Posted by Rick Hohwart

Burch
Cyrul
Hardman
Haynes
Hebert
Hohwart
Knudtson
Lemieux
Lia
Wang

Originally Posted by Nexus

Interesting lists and chat.

One thing of note is the Paulie is more or less regarded as the top touring car racer in the USA by most of us. If he was a top offroad driver he would be a full-time paid Pro similar to the "Ryans, Tebo, and other top USA offroad drivers.

Of this list who is actually working in the industry?

Burch - employee of Xray still?
Cyrul - NavistarI think
Hardman - ?
Haynes - ?
Hebert - ?
Hohwart - works at/for Associated
Knudtson - ?
Lemieux - For sure not a full time paid Pro Runs Gravity RC on the side.
Lia - ?
Wang - College kid :P
_____

With all that said, who knows if Paulie wants to be a full time Pro and paid to travel/race. Just pointing out the big gap between on and offroad Pros. Of course a lot of people on this list run both on/offroad so there's a difference to note there also.

--

I'd add Weylin Rose to the list of TC guys who were throwing down back in the day.

Originally Posted by locked

Ryan Cavalieri doesn't race onroad often, but when he does, he's extremely quick.

Ivan, Andrew Hardman is 16 now, I think. When I first raced him he was 11 and wore a cookie monster baseball cap. Getting destroyed by a little kid wearing a cookie monster hat was quite humbling, I must say.