You say "The handicapping and spread of pilot experience made Sports Class far
more appealing. And the supportive atmosphere from fellow competitors
(especially the experienced ones who freely share their local
knowledge and wisdom) keep me coming back. And I've found that
atmosphere much more prevalent in Regional handicapped races, than at
high-stakes Nationals."

I say, wow!?! *I don't get this statement, at all. *Far more appealing to race a cirrus vs. a V2? *So the larger the handicap spread the more appealing a sailplane

Sean - Its not the fact that racing against different kind of gliders
was appealing. It was that the handicap means that the V2 may not win
if I fly a Cirrus better than the pilot of the V2 flies his aircraft.
We may go different distances, but this is not a NASCAR or SCCA
racetrack (something I used to do, BTW). Nor is it a sailboat race on
the same course, side-by-side. Since we all go out the gate at
different times, we're all flying through different air. WE'RE ALL ON
DIFFERENT RACE COURSES. That is a fundamental issue in sailplane
racing. The ground beneath you does not, in itself, define your race-
track. Its a combination of that ground AND the air over the ground at
the precise instant you fly through it. And your starting strategy
helps to set "which" race-course you wind up flying (except Grand Prix
racing, of course). So our glider-racing is inherently a "man versus
wild" sport, predominantly. KS could fly my DG-300 better than anyone
in the world, but in a non-handicapped race he could lose every time
to a decent (but not world-beating) pilot in a Ventus 2 - through no
fault of his own. THAT is what is good about handicapping - the idea
that the pressure is on ME to perform; not just have the fanciest
glass and only be "OK" at my craft (I've seen too much of that in auto-
racing.).

Now in 2009, when I started, the only option for a handicapped race
was in the Sports Class. This meant flying separate from "big dogs" in
15-meter and Standard class, not dealing with the inherent
disadvantage of facing their ships, and possibly flying tasks that
were harder than I was comfortable with on my first contest. I agree
that at the Sports Class Nationals, you have veterans and fancy ships
and the whole system is a little screwy because of the pressure to get
on the Worlds team. HOWEVER, at Regionals I find the spirit of the
Sports Class to be largely successful: The lower-performance ships and
the newer pilots tend to fly in the class; and more experienced guys
with faster glass go to the 15/18/Std classes. Around my local scene,
anyone that dominates in the Sports Class Regionals is encouraged and/
or razzed, so they feel pressure to move to one of the other classes
and face a "real challenge".

You seem to be one of the people who has an extreme opinion about the
Club Class vs. the Sports Class, so let me reiterate that I was not
making a statement either way about these two classes. I was only
pointing out the value of an entry-point for competition and how the
handicapped class helps that. My own experiences are only with Sports
Class because that's all I know. *shrug* I'm moving "up" and out of
the class after flying in 7 contests and really don't care to be drawn
into the big debate over Sports vs. Club; its gotten to the point of
being like arguing about religion and I'd rather fly... :-)

--Noel