<VV> Concours Gold & Autocross awards

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/7/2006 8:07:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time,  
hmlinc at sbcglobal.net writes:

Smitty,

I had to laugh at that because I know where you come  from with it.  But, if 
you think the numbers of folks who participate  in concours is low now, 
imagine what THAT system would do.   Thankfully, the bar was left open during 
the awards!  The autocross  awards could have been sped up - by taking the 
same approach as all the  others.

Later, JR




Concours Awards
Believe me, I understand Smitty's complaint about the Gold-Silver-Bronze  
awards. The change was made to this system because the competitors felt it was a  
more "fair" recognition system of their effort in preparation. The concours 
cars  have always been judged in a comparison to the mythical 100 point 
"perfect"  car. Why not put the awards in line with that evaluation? The old system 
gave  out 1st, 2nd, 3rd place awards. A 3rd place car in one class could  have 
been Bill Hubbell's slightly rusty 77 point Astronaut special, while  another 
93 point car could have been relegated to fourth place (no award) by  three 94 
point cars. It seemed whim-like to depend on class entries to determine  
awards. I believe that the change to the awards system, in parallel with the new  
Car Display area, has caused a resurgence in the overall number of cars  that 
the visitors (admittedly in the middle of the week) can see at the  
convention. Concours entry numbers will ebb and flow, depending as much on the  
centrality of the convention location and the overall attendance at the  convention, 
as the perceived "toughness" of the rules. And probably some folks  have chosen 
the display over the judging. I look at the car display,  especially when the 
location is as picturesque as the grass fields we have seem,  to be the 
perfect place to park and talk about your car. Why would anybody leave  their car 
in the garage when they can park it with friends and talk all  day?
   
Autocross Awards
The difference in the awards ceremonies is due to one difference in the  
Autocross vs. all the other competitions. After the autocross - if proper  
announcing or posting is done. Everybody knows the results. The Banquet award  
handout is a formality. In all the other competitions, the group that goes to  the 
front doesn't know their relative scores or awards. As an autocross  competitor 
- I might not want to walk up to the front of the banquet to be told  - "and 
here stand the losers!" Of course, I don't think the folks in the other  
categories should have to do that either - but at least they don't know about it  
first! <grin> There should be some middle ground between everybody and  
one-at-a-time awards. - Seth