Everette,
   The reason why the offer was extended (extended meaning that they could register past the Nationals deadline) to international teams is because simply, they may not have known about our Nationals and we wanted to give them the opportunity to fly in them.  We did our best to get the teams informed of our Nats through the proper channels prior to the deadline but wanted to really offer an extended hand as much as possible.  We couldn't have known how the information was delivered to them and certainly wanted to include not only the pilots but their crew as well.
   We never blocked anyone from the US team to fly in the Nats.  The offer to them wasn't "extended" past the deadline because they were all aware of said deadline and, of course, were already here in the states with the same available outlets as the rest of us.  I do realize Chip was in Argentina but he was in close contact with several of us and was aware of the deadline and had made the conscious decision not to fly.  Of course we wanted all of our US team to fly and for their own reasons, elected not to.  In my opinion, it was really a nice thing for the powers to do that for the international teams.

Best Regards,
Scott<br type="_moz"/>