Thank you Fish and Stingray for your knowledge on this subject. This is why I asked the question in the first place. Sorry it’s so long, but I have to explain it thoroughly.
Since 2010 I have been showing my car at a particular show, which I love. I was instructed to show my car “stock” and fill out the “stock” side of the form, which I did. I have done this for the past three years. The same judge judged my car all three years and deemed it first place, deservedly so, I believe. This year I showed my car stock, as usual, and was tagged for a second place trophy. When I saw the yellow sticker it felt like a punch in the stomach. I was baffled. I decided to do something about it and at least ask why, which you are allowed to do. So before trophies were officially issued, we asked the judge why my car dropped from first place to second place when nothing at all had changed about my car. In fact, I worked so hard detailing my car before the show that it looked better than ever. The judge said that I lost “a lot of points” because my color was not a factory color. We told him that I had been showing my car for the past three years as “stock” (as instructed) with this same custom color and he still always placed me first. We then asked him if I should have filled out the other side of the form (customized/modified) and if that would have made a difference. I also wanted to know the answer to this question for future shows because, according to what he said, if I show my car as “stock” with the custom paint job I will never be eligible for first place. (!) I guess the judge saw my point, so he then decided to re-judge my car and ultimately deemed it first place. I thanked him for his re-consideration and he gave me a hug and everything was okay. He was really nice about it, but I still felt really bad.
Now if the judge would have cited things wrong with my car, I would have taken it as a lesson, accepted my second-place status, and worked to fix whatever was wrong so that I would be up to par for the next show. But the judge said that there was nothing wrong with my car and that it was “beautiful”. The custom paint was the only issue.
Even though I ultimately got a first-place trophy, which I feel was justified and I guess the judge did , too, or he would not have reconsidered and re-judged my car, the whole experience was upsetting for me. This judge usually takes his time and is complimentary and nice when judging my car. But this year when he judged my car he spent all of thirty seconds on it (probably even less than that). I felt cheated. All of that work for a cursory half a minute look over? To make matters worse, some idiot started asking the judge questions about how the judging works while he was supposed to be judging my car, so I don’t know if this distraction worked against me. Then the judge didn’t even open the doors, he didn’t really look at the engine, and he didn’t look at how nicely I presented my car. He said
thank you and walked away. I felt disappointed because I worked so hard. I felt like my car deserved better consideration. Bad experience. Bad taste in my mouth. Sad.
