I can't comment at all about what was going on in the 80's cuz I didn't get into triathlon until 2003. In the 80's I was still a speed skater.

Around me there is a race (of varying quality) within driving distance just about every weekend between May and October. Often times there are two races put on by different companies.

I certainly wish there was a draft legal race(s) around me. I thought there was going to be when Sommers brought it (EDR) to Detroit in 2014 but then they wouldn't let and AG's race it the second year which didn't make sense if they were trying to grow the discipline. If they want Juniors to get into it they could have catered to their parents at the same time. I mean seriously, at $80 each they could have made another $2000 and it literally took no more than 90 minutes to run a second race.

They completely blew that opportunity.

Rev3 tried it in 2014 and 2015, I did their super-sprints in 2015 and had a blast. I made a few more friends and got to see many young kids getting to the sport.

Why DL hasn't made it in the US is still beyond my understanding. It's an untapped market.