this is the 1st year I recall auto upgrades being enforced.
a few years ago when I was 1st a cat 3, evan fader was also, he won a bunch of races in impressive fashion but I dont believe he was auto upgraded. the next year, frederik from ncvc and bo lee were in a season long battle for the cat 3 BAR, they both had to have accumulated enough for auto upgrade, but neither was.
year after that, mike esmonde and jose escobar, I think they finished 1st and 2nd in at least 10 cat 3 races that year, but no auto upgrade.
this year has been odd for the auto upgrade from 3->2. alot of whining over folks winning races and not upgrading to cat 2, the whining was really pathetic IMO. to me, folks should really just worry about themselves and get better instead of worrying about who is beating them and whether they should upgrade or not.