WGC Uvalde: US Team... What Happened????

Thanks to everyone who wrote back with their thoughts.

It just seems to me that if there are "hot" pilots here in the U.S. of A., then they should be relatively "hot" when they are sent to worlds. Especially a worlds at home. But increasingly, US competition pilots are seen to be older, well-off racers that are selected by a system from which they benefit (i.e. a trip to the worlds).

Maybe we have become creatures of our own, idiosynchratic racing rules. I do not know for sure but clearly pilots with international racing aspirations are being let down by something in our system of competition and team selection.

If our contest scene, and particularly our Nationals, are not designed to select national team members but rather to promote fun and safety, then maybe it is time we held separate "selection contests" from which we can start to select appropriately motivated pilots who declare that they are here to race, race hard, and try to represent the US tot he best of their and our community's abilities.

One thing I have not heard here but only "whispers" outside of this forum were poor US Team organization, management, budget issues, etc. When one of the few posts to come out of the official Team blog loudly and triumphantly touts the effectiveness of team flying on nearly the last day of the contest - then clearly someone or many someone's missed the boat from day 1.

Al Batross