Traffic is all arriving in a shallow arc at about the
same altitude
with as much as a 100 knot delta in speeds. Even more
if gliders stop
to thermal near the cylinder. This simply does not
happen at the finish
line.

Oh yeah? I was driving hard for the finish line at
Ephrata, 1/2 mile out, 500 feet and 145 knots when
I almost nailed a PW-5 at 500 feet doing an estimated
60 knots. All happened so fast I had no time to react.
Luckily I went just over him. Another gooood reason
to employ the finish cylinder, especially with sports
class machines in the contest.
JJ