I was going to let the Belgrade situation die an ugly death. After all, it is not the intention of HotKarz to do unnecessary harm. And the folks who attended that show lodged numerous complaints about how the judging was conducted (everything else seemed fine). The order of the day was "damage control" - move on. And I decided I would just go to their show next year, to see for myself, and hopefully to see that appropriate changes were made.
But meeting with the organizer of the Belgrade show (Scott) at Pine Tree Academy changed everything. He told me that HotKarz was not telling the truth (we were, of course - we did nothing but post actual, unedited emails). He also said we were unfair, to only post the negatives. But as readers of HotKarz know, I specifically begged people who liked the show to send me their opinions - stand up for the show if you liked it, please! But no one did. Not one person! But I did get several more emails that restated the judging problems.
I could not very well post positive comments if there weren't any. But Scott still insisted that "most folks loved the show and had no problem with it." Fine - if they liked it so much, why were they not willing to stand up and say so? Scott then copped the same attitude as Sanford by saying, "If they didn't like the show, don't come back next year. We don't need them." Nice attitude for someone who says he is trying to make his show bigger.
He then told me that, since some judges did not show up, he asked "Roy" to "follow another judge, but not BE a judge". I thought, "Hm-m-m! Judges who need groupies!" If the guy was not a judge, he had no business "following" a judge around and "helping" him. Either he was a judge, or he should not have been involved. If he was not a judge, then exactly what WAS his purpose - to hold the judges' clipboard??? Nothing against Roy - he's just caught in the middle, after only trying to help.
Then this guy Scott really floored me. First, he said he was the head judge, and there was no "good ol' boys" network. His judging was fair and unbiased. So I asked him how he votes in a peer judged show. He stated that in a peer show, he votes for his buddies, and not the best cars, and he saw nothing wrong with that. Bear in mind that this is the same guy who, in his previous breath, stated he was a fair and unbiased judge.
I asked him to repeat, and he did - in a peer judged show, he said it was OK to forego judging altogether and just vote for his buddies. I guess he does not realize that "peer judged" simply means the peers are the JUDGES, and therefore they are expected to JUDGE.
Now, I know a lot of folks do that, and I don't normally see a huge problem with that, since those folks do not profess to be judges who are experts at judging cars. But THIS guy claims to be a judge! And if he does not have the integrity to be a fair judge in a peer show, how can anyone expect him to be a fair judge in a judged show?
Maybe Scott is a fine man. But he certainly has zero qualifications for judging anything. He does state that one of the judges, named Bo, I believe, is an expert. I'll give him that. Fine. But if any or all of the other judges were not qualified, that taints the entire judging. One good judge does not make for "fair judging". All it takes is for one bad apple to spoil the entire barrel. Since Scott, himself, readily claims to be a "good ol' boy" type judge in peer judging, I would not have much faith in his objectivity when judging any show, or in choosing judges.
Having spoken with Scott face to face, I am tempted to believe the real problem was not the show, itself, but rather the person who arranged the judging. And I am just as certain there was no "evil intent" in the judging. Just poor judgement. I believe Scott is a good man, with honest intentions, but a poor judge who may not even realize it. If Bo is the expert Scott claims, perhaps he should be the person to choose judges, and teach them the basics. And perhaps Scott should stick to organizing the show, which I understand he did quite well. I simply think this is a case of a good banana trying hard to be a good orange. Stick with the part you are good at, and let others do what they are good at.
Scott says that he doesn't plan on making many changes for next year, so I see no point in wasting my time and money going to his show - if he cannot recognize that something is wrong, then he certainly cannot fix it. He also says next year will be "bigger and better." I wish him all the luck. But judging from the many, many negative comments I received from participants, I'm not sure that his show will get bigger.
Here's an idea - if you went to the Belgrade show, Scott encouraged you to email him (in his email that we posted earlier). His address is chevyshowtrucks@yahoo.com. Do him a big favor - if you really liked his show and you do not think any changes are necessary, email him and tell him so - he could use the support. But if you went to his show and were not satisfied, then do him a favor and let him know. If you do not, he will have no reason to make any attempt to improve.
We do not need any show to die. We just need to work at improving the ones we have. Some, like Sanford, refuse to improve. That is their choice. But most organizers are willing to listen when the folks speak. And since you are the people, you can do your part by emailing Scott either with praise, or with constructive criticism - or both.
But please, no matter how you feel, be civil and polite. As for me, I am closing the books on this issue. If I hear that problems are acknowledged, and appropriate changes made, that's fine - I'll do my part to make sure everyone knows the show is improving.
Otherwise, I'll just put this on the same dusty shelf as a certain show in Sanford.
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I don't know Scott, but I know who he is, because I heard people talking to him as he judged my car, so other than that, I don't know him. Also, my car did place in this Belgrade show, although not Best of Show :) Still, I'm disappointed with the way the show was handled. The 4 cars that were pulled from their classes and brought to the front no longer had the opportunity to show within their own classes, and thus lost the opportunity to place within their classes, which was a shame (this is apart from previously discussed points). Additionally, there were many, many, spectacularly detailed vehicles (detailing being the order of the day, the only thing we were all being judged on) that were left remaining and perhaps should have been pointed out as well. Let me bring something else up, are any of these judges master detailers? Seriously, certified, certificate-holding master detailers. Yes, there is such a thing, I am one! It is not difficult to obtain qualification for this. All of the judges should be certified master detailers, if that's what the judging is all about. This is an unusual sort of judging, and they should have the credentials to back it up. What's the point of mechanical experience in a detailing competition? Why should I take my custom-built blown race-gas fed vehicle, drive it 2 hours to their show, again 2 hours, so now it's dirty, for a "white glove" competition, so they can ignore that I've done all that work to it and just hope I can get all the bugs off the grill in time before Scott & crew gets to the car? As another reader noted, I might just go find a rent-a-car or dealership car, what difference does it make? If they want to attract our fine vehicles, they will want to put forth some effort to attract us, as well. Race gas is not cheap! Comments like, they can just not come next year, don't fly in my book, coming from the head judge, that's pretty poor service skills. And I did debate heavily on if I'd go to their show this year, last year's show put a bad taste in my mouth after no one in my type of class placed at all and we had to go where we best fit (this year they created a class for us). However, I still felt they could have done a better job judging it. Yes, as I said I placed, but that doesn't mean I felt it was done appropriately, and I don't feel the others in my category were judged fairly either, if it were indeed based on detailing alone. I say this to mean that one of the other vehicles was not as clean as it should have been, and placed (the judges, interestingly, all cheered loudly when the owner of this vehicle came up for his trophy... hmmm...), yet the vehicle next to mine was spotless, yet did not place at all. I think something was wrong here.
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