And really the biggest part comes from there, simply the skills....

Jilles Groskamp ran a club race at the MACH in 2007, It was the 1st or 2nd time he ran 8th scale, he borrowed a car, which was powered by an 4 gallon old standard engine, got familiar with it and 1 day later he ran top times. Even if it would be the nationals he would compete for the TQ spot.... (I know this, because I missed a top 4 spot due to Jilles... )

I know it is easy to always say that the top drivers can only run so fast because they have top equipment, but really you also need the skills...
Look at F1, last race Raikonnen won, and the same car/engine combination driven by Badoer finished last in the same race!