Make Sailplane Racing Great Again

FWIW,

I do enjoy racing and want to see sailplane racing gain popularity in the US. I enjoy the challenge of utilizing the same course and weather to measure speed and performance. I like to think that one day I will be fast enough to qualify for a spot on a world team. (Dream Big!)

This in mind, I will not likely be able to race for many years. Some of the reasons to follow:
1) A National Contest is 10 days in length, plus travel time to and from the contest. I currently get 7 days off per year and will eventually build up to 10 days per year.
2) My wife is my biggest supporter and loves to see me fly. Contests are boring for her, and the contest locations are typically lackluster. She does not see a soaring contest as a vacation thus she does not want to go with me. Additionally she understandably does not want me to spend my vacation days on a soaring contest only.

So for me, the decision to not compete is limited by time and location primarily. I want to compete, but the feasibility is non-existent, thus I will probably be an OLC warrior for a few years. I like the encouragement to increase participation, however I tend to understand why the racing demographics tend to involve more people who are senior in their careers and less between 20 and 40 years old. Quite possibly why junior member participation levels are quite low too.

In my perfect world, there would be two nationals each year for each class. (West and East) the Nationals would be 6 days long (Monday to Saturday) with room to travel on a weekend on each end. Locations would be selected based on optimal positioning for 1 day travel to and from each venue. This would be more feasible for attracting larger crowds to the National Contests, but I fear it looks too much like a regional. Maybe regionals should be 3 days long, over a weekend?