I was not aware of that limitation on Worlds Qualification. That is, if what you are saying is true, a really bad rule. I agree 100% that the "best" pilots should be sent to the World Championships. That results in dynasty (same pilot every year ala Kawa), but that is what being a "Champion" is all about. Clearly Doug is an outstanding pilot. No debate there...

That said, definitively stating that DJ or KS or HA or R are the "best" under our US Sports Class rule system (assuming the goal is sending the best pilot to the Club Class World Championships) is a very, very interesting discussion. Until a couple weeks ago, US Sports Class rules included the entire range of all sailplanes built to date (126 - ASW 25+) under a handicap system which does not take into account the average speed of that particular task day. In my view this a massive, glaring flaw that will almost certainly favor certain gliders on certain days (or at certain contest locations).. Furthermore, If less than 12 gliders participate in the new "Club" class at the 2013 Sports/Club? Nationals, we will still default back to these same US Sports Class rules.

In sailing, for example, performance handicaps are driven by a defined variable called "average wind strength."

http://offshore.ussailing.org/Portsmouth_Yardstick.htm

The reason for this method is that on strong wind days certain sailboat designs have greatly improved performance relative to other boats (ability to plane downwind, etc). On light air days the opposite, etc, etc. Before this factor was accounted for in the handicapping, all competitors basically knew who was going to win based on the weather forecast. Participation slowly dropped as confidence in the handicap fell off in locations that were predominantly windy (east coast) or light air (great lakes). In response, a wind speed variable was built into the handicap system to ensure fairer scoring in each individual race. The handicap changes slightly for each boat thru the wind range.

The same problem exists in sailplane racing but still only one handicap applies regardless of the day having an average speed of 35 mph or 90 mph! Depending on the contest location, gliders of certain performance ranges will have significant advantages over many others. If you have a Libelle, you are looking for certain conditions. If you have an ASW-27, your hoping for another condition. The good news is that soaring has a far more objective variable to utilize for handicap tuning, average task speed of the top pilots!

In my opinion, trying to handicap a 126 vs. an ASW-25 with one handicap is next to impossible. The gliders are flying thru massively different area's and conditions on each racing day. Mix in MAT tasking, no AT's and you have something that is highly subjective, susceptible to luck and vastly different from the FAI rules of the World Championship. It is just to broad to fairly manage the dynamics of racing a very low performance glider vs. a very high performance glider. So, splitting into narrower handicap ranges is a great improvement! Having average speed dependent variable handicapping would be another...

Back to the best pilot. At the 2012 Sports Class Nationals (Parowan, UT) DJ flew a glider well above the FAI Club Class handicap range (Ventus 2cx-15) in a location which produced very high average speeds. In a location like Parowan, a high performance glider spends considerable time within its ideal polar range relative to older "FAI club level" gliders (running speeds of 100 mph+). DJ won the 2012 Sports Class Nationals by 105 points over 2nd (ASW-20), and 142 over 3rd (Duo Discus). An impressive feat although it all came down to the final flying day. Regardless, daily winning speeds were incredibly fast for nearly the entire week:

Day 1: 61 mph - Day 2: 91 mph - Day 3: 92 mph - Day 4: 85 mph - Day 5: 85 mph - Day 6: 85 mph - Day 7: 88 mph

If we are talking about who is the "best" US pilot to fly in the Club Class World Championships I fear that there is still tremendous room for debate. That is the problem.

The closer we get to the rules of the Club Class World Championship (or any other World Championship), the better prepared the pilot we send as the US representative will be. And the more satisfied the other pilots will be that the best pilot has been selected.