My rant about car show people!!

[blown69rat]

So, here we go with my ranting!!!

Some of you remember me mentioning that I ran a car show in Pottstown on the 14th. Well, it was a huge success!! We had about 200 or so cars there. Now, when I ran the show last year, the 50 trophies (Top 40 and 10 specialty) were all judged. Well, this year, a couple of my judges were out of town so I decided to make the Top 40 a participant vote and the specialty ones were chosen by me, the vice pres. of my club, and my one judge who could make it. Everyone seemed VERY happy at the end of the day. We got quite a few nice compliments. EXCEPT one!!! Just got a copy of a letter that was sent to the host facility that stated: (don't laugh while you read this)

Sept. 15, 2008
To the Boccella's and Venezia car show rookies. I have been going to car show's off and on since 1985. I drive a two time NATIONAL WINNING CAR. I am a local resident but never go to shows around this area because of the exact way you ran your show. I go to all the shows around the Lehigh Valley, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. A few guys I know told me how great your show was last year down on Swamp Pike at Boccella's. They finally convinced me to go to your show. I got one thing to say about your show. Stop the buddy system in giving trophys out. You had brand new cars winning trophys because their car club all voted for each other. Now I know why their is a cut off year as the good shows. You had Venezia's winning trophys to keep them happy to host the show there next year, from the special trophy for them two junk tractors that kid showed, to the 69 camaro that the other Venezia won (give me a break). Even the announcer won the 40th trophy because all his buddies in the crowd . Your crew don't have a clue on how to run a honest and fair show. Get around a little bit, there are great shows out there where 500-600 cars are common at shows. Where they have teams of judges that check every car that enters the show. Giving everybody a fair chance and win or lose, you'll always go back for that fair chance. Your show organizers could run that show fairly with about 100 cars and trucks. After 305 trophys, my car doesn't need your award anyway. I will stay away from local shows once again.

Leave the car & truck shows up to people who know what they are doing. I will let people at other shows know just how your show was ran. I guess you would call it BASHING YOUR POLITICAL SHOW, THANKS FOR NOTHING



That is EXACTLY what the letter said. The ONLY reason that I am posting it here is in the hopes that the person who wrote this is a member here or at least reads the boards. Considering that he was NOT man enough to put his name or a return address on the envelope. I know shows have their people who aren't happy, BUT to bash a kid who brings something to the show and had his own "special" trophy that did not affect any of the car awards is absurd. To bash me and Andy Venezia because our cars won a PARTICIPANT VOTED award again is absurd. Out of 200+ cars, I knew maybe 20 people. When it's participant voted, you will always get some people who will vote for each other because they know them. It's that way in Glenside, Lansdale, Coopersburg, Slatington, and many numerous other shows. I have a feeling I know who wrote this letter and if it is who I think it is, unfortunately, he didn't win a trophy. OH WELL!!!! Car shows are not about winning trophies, and if you go JUST to win a trophy, your going for the wrong reasons. Car shows are about socializing with other car owners and showing off you own car. If you are going to get a trophy, stay at the indoor shows that are PROFESSIONALLY judged liked the ISCA, cause we don't want you at a local show. If you are that hard up to win another $20 trophy to collect dust, go buy one. I know my trophies and a few other members awards are sitting either in boxes, put in the attic, or somewhere else.


Just wanted to rant/vent about this. Mike Boccella (Boccella's Performance) and Andy Venezia (Venezia Transport) were kind enough to ask me to run the show, so don't bash them about this. I know most are racers out here, but many have done their fair share of car shows with or without their cars. I have received MANY compliments for the last few years in regards to the shows I run, this guy just got a little under my skin being the "Trophy Whore" that he is. If you want to send a letter, at least be man enough to put your name on it so that...
1. We know to turn you away at the next show
2. you can be contacted in order to "address" your "complaints"


I'm done!!!

[Frosty]

If the guy is going to rip you a new one at least he could properly use "their", "they're" and "there".

He probably has sand in his vagina because his didn't get his 306th trophy.

[SteveR]

People take car shows that seriously? Does that guy have nothing better to do in life?

[Untamed]

I know your post is a rant. However, with only one bad letter, written anonymously, why get bent out of shape about it? In my opinion, the better way to handle this - since you can't write back to the person - is to ignore it and move on. Posting openly like this invites retaliation, especially if the person in question can copy / paste this to other sites, potentially damaging your credibility.

The better, more tactful thing to do, in my opinion, is to be the better man and professionally deal with the situation if possible, or ignore something this insignificant that can't be dealt with.

I sympathize, but future reponses should be constructive.

EDIT: The old saying of take a breath before responding, works well here. Sleep on it, then respond.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by SteveR

People take car shows that seriously?

You'd be surprised how many people do.

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by Frosty

You'd be surprised how many people do.

That sounds silly to me. People can't be content knowing they have a cool car? Do they really need that level of reinforcement? That just sounds incredibly insecure. "I need trophies to reinforce my illusion of gradure!"

[CHRIS67]

Participants take their cars and car shows WAY too seriously. It comes down to attitude. Go there, hang out, meet some cool people with the same interest, and if you win you win. But at the end of the day who cares about what other people think about your car what matters most is that you love what you have.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by SteveR

That sounds silly to me. People can't be content knowing they have a cool car? Do they really need that level of reinforcement? That just sounds incredibly insecure. "I need trophies to reinforce my illusion of gradure!"

I agree with you, sure it feels good to win an award or some type of recognition but IMO that's not what car shows should be about...at least it's not for me.

Now, if there was $$$ riding on an award or something then ok, be upset. I don't really know many car shows around here that offer cash prizes.

[SteveR]

Yea, I always thought of car shows as a place to hang out, talk about cars, check out cool stuff, eat, and bs.

[enRo]

For some strange odd reason, I can picture fattymcformula writing soemthing like that (if anybody can't recall who he is, hes the one with the 11ty billion TVs and 19" FOOOOOSE rims on his 98 TA)

[blown69rat]

Originally Posted by Untamed

I know your post is a rant. However, with only one bad letter, written anonymously, why get bent out of shape about it? In my opinion, the better way to handle this - since you can't write back to the person - is to ignore it and move on. Posting openly like this invites retaliation, especially if the person in question can copy / paste this to other sites, potentially damaging your credibility.

The better, more tactful thing to do, in my opinion, is to be the better man and professionally deal with the situation if possible, or ignore something this insignificant that can't be dealt with.

I sympathize, but future reponses should be constructive.

EDIT: The old saying of take a breath before responding, works well here. Sleep on it, then respond.

I've had "constructive" critism before with shows I do, but this one took the cake. I do plan to ignore it at this point. But to state you are going to bash a show for being a participant voted show because you think it is "political" got under my skin a bit too much I guess.

BUT, You guys hit the nail on the head. I do have every intention of ignoring the letter from this point forward. Reason for that is I have had at least 20-30 cars attend EVERY show I ran this year and they have ALL said they will see me next year. Letters like this do get under my skin a bit, but these are the type of people (like rednotch said) that shouldn't be at a show to begin with. I was just venting, that's all. I guess what REALLY got under my skin was him bashing a 10 year old little boy who takes pride in "cleaning" his tractor to show it off and then his father spends a few bucks to get him a "special" trophy so the kid can feel special. THAT is what set me off the most about the guys letter

[NastyEllEssWon]

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by blown69rat

I guess what REALLY got under my skin was him bashing a 10 year old little boy who takes pride in "cleaning" his tractor to show it off and then his father spends a few bucks to get him a "special" trophy so the kid can feel special. THAT is what set me off the most about the guys letter

WOW. That is a true sign of being a selfish *******.

[BonzoHansen]

You can't win. If you have judges someone will think they are biased. If you have popular vote then someone else will think they are biased. Oh well.

[blown69rat]

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

You can't win. If you have judges someone will think they are biased. If you have popular vote then someone else will think they are biased. Oh well.

100% True!!!

Also, I wanted to tell you Nice Car!!! I didn't get to meet you at Peddler's Village a few weeks ago!!! Joe (camaroracer1992) told me who you were while you were leaving.

[camaroracer1992]

brian i wanna know who you "think" that was. You know i could write a letter back to that guy saying how many times i got screwed at a show cause my car is too new when my car is better then older cars. I hear the typical "oh its harder to work on an old car and keep it nice" BS when you have a car that looks as nice as mine, street driven and runs 10's on pump gas then you can whine how hard it is to keep a car nice. I know everyone out there thinks their car is the best and thats fine, but I mean gimme a break, oh and to top it off i bet its some old bastard too....... F'n old people ALWAYS complain when a person wins that has a newer car then them, they think cause they are old and their cars are they deserve a trophy..... NOT!!

on a side note, did he think that maybe his car is gay and ugly and NO ONE voted for it?!?!?!?! DUCHE BAG !!!!

[Knipps]

I didn't win another trophy at your show so I had to come home and polish my 305 other ones...

honestly, what the **** do you do with 305 trophies?

[Blacdout96]

You know what, you cant please everyone, there will always be that one person who thinks it could of been ran differently. He says he doesnt care about the trophy, yet he went out of his way to make a letter crying that people got the trophies cause they were voting for each other, and was a popularity contest...well isnt all types of voting popularity contest? lol, like election, we dont vote for the person we dont want, we vote for who we want, and the more popular person wins. I've never won a trophy for my car, Id like to, but i wouldnt go out of my way to bash the organizers cause I didnt get my way, or what I wanted. Next year when you have that, if my car is running, Id like to participate in it

[JL8Jeff]

That is exactly why I don't worry about winning stuff at shows or cruise nights. I go to hang out, talk to enthusiasts, look at other cool cars and let people see my car(s). I've won a few trophies and that is a bonus to me. Someone will always complain about a participant vote car show no matter what. A judged show holds more accolades because the judges should know what they are looking at where the typical participant knows what they like. I like both styles of shows but the partipant ones always get bashed. I would ignore it and just point out that the judges couldn't make it and that's why it was participant.

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by JL8Jeff

That is exactly why I don't worry about winning stuff at shows or cruise nights. I go to hang out, talk to enthusiasts, look at other cool cars and let people see my car(s). I've won a few trophies and that is a bonus to me. Someone will always complain about a participant vote car show no matter what. A judged show holds more accolades because the judges should know what they are looking at where the typical participant knows what they like. I like both styles of shows but the partipant ones always get bashed. I would ignore it and just point out that the judges couldn't make it and that's why it was participant.

What he said, except I woud not offer that guy 2 seconds of my time for a reply/explaination.

[NJSPEEDER]

People complaining about car show voting/judging and "fixed" winners is something you will NEVER get away from. I have be doing car shows and racing events for more than a decade now and it never changes. Some clown is always convinced that the fix was in when the winners are announced.

Blow it off and get back to work on next year's show.

[12secondv6]

Finger prints.
Find him
Smash car?


Nah.

Oh, btw, if the guy reads this..... my DODGE NEON has won trophies! It is better than your POS because it is SEXY!

[blown69rat]

Everyone is 100% correct. I do plan on ignoring the letter at this point. What's funny is that the "special" trophies (we had 8) were professionally judged, and there were better cars there than his.

Now, keep in mind, this is the car we THINK it is. It was the ONLY car there that had stantions around it. You couldn't get within 5-10 feet of the car to judge it properly.

[lastcall190]

After reading the letter...

Mail him a box of Cracker Jacks and tell him his 306th prize is at the bottom.

-J

Oh and the comment 2 posts up about the Neon made me laugh

[Knipps]

Originally Posted by lastcall190

After reading the letter...

Mail him a box of Cracker Jacks and tell him his 306th prize is at the bottom.

-J

Brilliant!