Timbo,
Personally, I've never had a realistic chance of winning the Area"C" Eliminations .... but if you want to get better at any sport .... you need to compete against competitors better then yourself .....
And I get the chance to race against those that I usually don't get to compete against usually, since they have a different O/D boat then I do ....
Those are the main reasons I have done numerous Area"C" Eliminations over the years ......
Harry