It might be interesting to see which Regional Series titles are in play at the Nationals. Recall that the Nationals is a wild card contest that counts for every one of the regional series contests.
In Unlimited, there are not many there. Tim Just could improve his already leading position in the Southwest regional.
In Advanced:
- Steve Johnson has an opportunity to enter the fray for the MidAmerica region. The leader in that region, Andy Ernewein has posted 87.83%, 86.63%, 84.24%. Steve has posted 85.77%, 84.19%. He'd have to post post 88% or 89% at the Nationals to take MidAmerica away from Andy. Tough to do.
- Doug Sowder could improve his iron grip on first place in the NorthWest regional.
- In SouthCentral, Mike Forney and Bill Denton are both at the Nationals. Bill will have to fly very well, however, to knock Mike out of first place.
- Here's a contest. In SouthEast, both leaders are competing at the Nationals. Marty Flournoy has averaged just a little over a percentage point behind Stan Moye. If Marty posts better than about 83%, and higher than Stan, he could knock Stan out of first place.
In Intermediate:
- In the NorthEast, Chuck Cohen, Jim Wells, John Nafziger, and Bill Gordon are all flying at the Nationals. Chuck Cohen could improve his lead over Wes Liu for the NorthEast regional. Posting better than 82% at Nationals would do it. However Jim Wells gets his third contest for the NorthEast Regional and has posted higher percentages. Chuck will have to post about 85% at Nationals to hold on to his current top spot in the NorthEast. Jim Wells is the guy to beat.
- Jim Wells could easily take the top spot in the SouthEast regional Intermediate as well. He doesn't even necessarily have to fly better than Chuck Cohen. Chuck would have to earn about 85% at the Nationals to win the SouthEast over Jim Wells.
- Jim Bourke can improve his first place lead in the NorthWest regional by posting 81% or better.
- A.J. Wilder can climb in the rankings in the SouthWest Regional. It would take about an 85% posting to knock out leader Matthew Dunfee; however, he will possibly knock Barrett Hines out of third.
In Sportsman:
- NorthWest competitors Sean Van Hatten (currently second) and Kevin DeVan (currently third) can improve on their lowest average score in order to surpass current leader, Pat Lavielle. It looks like about 82% would do it. The better of the two at the Nationals could be the NorthWest Regional Sportsman champion.
- SouthCentral Series leaders Paul Thomson and Doug Jenkins are contending at Nationals. They were second and first on the Known (respectively). They're currently first and second in the SouthCentral Sportsman series. Watch out also for Erick Daniel, who will enter the standings with the Nationals wild card.
There are eight pilots in Primary at the Nationals. It doesn't look like any of them have flown more than one regional contest this year.
See the Regional Series Standings and the Nationals Standings to follow the fight. Regional Series standings will be updated next week, after the Nationals has posted final results.
