Funny old thing, life moves on. And on, it's basically unstoppable ... Back in the 70's a Pitts was a pretty expensive toy, at least the good ones were. My old very ordinary S1 is worth 35k now, and a good S1T maybe 45k, and the Yak-55M that followed (shared 4 ways) eventually went for about 30k ... bit of a lumbering aeroplane, but lovely to fly. Dave's CAP-231EX is a lovely toy, probably as inexpensive a mid-capable carbon wing super-ship can be, and just right for this 2nd Intermediate world championship and undoubtedly a good bet for Advanced too. We also have here a slightly venerable Edge-360 that is certainly up to the job but a bit small to impress the judges, a CAP-232 that you can buy right now for somewhere north of 150k, a fairly new Extra-330SC that is owned by 4 people and probably represents the best way to go into Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited (in Chris Brook's and Phil Burgess's hands it will be at the Chateauroux WAC in August), and an Extra-200 which to be honest is a bit short of puff for the weight and size. There are quite a few Extra-300 variants of various ages here, all of them good enough to win with, a Zlin-50LS that the Czech's are flying the legs off, a pretty historic CAP-21 from Italy, etc. etc. but no Pitts'es or other bipes.
The fact is, if you want to play in this glorious game you need some capable kit, plus a number (many ...!) of sessions with a good trainer on the ground telling you how to improve the appearance of your flying. Burn Avgas is the #1 message, #2 is choose a capable machine - which need not be a best-of-breed boys toy but must be able to do the job, that is - beat the others when flown well. Either Nick Wakefield or Alan Cassidy were the last to tote an S1 at an international event, and if I remember right Alan got a silver in one programme so it can be done. At the last WIAC a South African blew everyone away with a Zlin-50 that was flown to within an inch of its life, really good to see. This game is about learning to do it right and then pulling it out of the hat when demanded, and that's a tough call whether you have a Pitts (not loved by judges, just a blob rasping around the sky) or an EA-330SC that will lead you rapidly into +9/-6G corners that are in reality wasted on the judges but incredibly hard work for you.
Bottom line - if you want to supp at this table you need a suitable spoon and a bag full of time training with a good teacher on the radio. In some countries - the US and parts of Scandinavia for example - the current move seems to be to play a calmer game, and this does make life more doable for people in domestic events with older planes, but then the rest of the world keeps moving on forward and a gap will confront anyone who wants to come and play on the big stage. Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice ...
The results of this event are all done now at
https://www.civa-results.com/ and the WGAC/WAGAC, EAAC and WAC are to follow. Come and have a look, you'll love it.