The "best fix" sounds good but it means a competitor doesn't really know when they started till after the race is scored. That just doesn't "feel right."

Well, that's true now! Quite often, you start out the top, dip back in, and start again out the side... Actually, best start isn't really determined until the race is over. The side start might be faster but under min distance.

We also don't know where the best fix is in turn areas, which doesn't seem to cause that much trouble.

But really, in practical terms, you do know what the best fix is. You're killing time milling around in a thermal. You decide to start. At 90 degrees to courseline, hit the start button on the computer, roll out and go. That will be a darn good fix, and in 1% of the time that some other fix does better, it can only help.

Also this is easy for flight computers to figure out. And since on this forum we'll have computers next year that integrate all the flarm data for the last 6 months, reach out to the internet to grab archived traces, integrate with nexrad to show us bird flocks and the gaggles out on course, anticipating that a flight computer could do for the start what it already does for the turn area seems straightforward!

But this is serious topic drift and a better subject for another time

John Cochrane