Its getting more ridiculous each year! Use a motor=your not soaring, period! Now if you want to start a new form of racing called "L/D assisted power racing" fine but its not soaring and definitely another nail in the coffin of pure sailplane racing.

The dumbing down of the actual piloting/soaring skills needed to fly cross country is apparent. Fear of outlandings, inability to go anywhere unless your flying a 40/1 machine, inability to navigate if a moving map fails, inability to find an energy line or thermal unless you can identify the gaggle using your flarm. It has become ridiculous. I will stick with setting personal cross country and state record goals. I'll land out a bunch (no big deal) and damn well find my own thermals. The racing scene has become financially unobtainable for most and at best has become a contest of who has a maximized wallet and who can maximize their flight computers performance on a given day.