What's going on all, first off I would like to start out by saying as my first time attending this particular event, I thouroughly enjoyed myself. It was a complete blast, great cars all around and can never go wrong with drag strip entertainment. The staff was great, and it was definitely a well organized event, so I am not coming here in any way to bash on, or criticize the event, its staff or anything like that, but I would like to vent my frustration about a misfortune that occured during the awards ceremony at the Kent, WA show this past Sunday.
This was the first show I placed my Black 1998 Acura (DC2) Integra GS-R into since completing the build on it, and I was excited to show it off for the first time in a car show environment. I went into the show with hopes of bringing home my first ever car show trophy, and the category I was eyeing was "Best Acura." Coming into the show there were not too many Acuras in the show, and even fewer were quality builds. Two that were, caught my eye, the first was a white Mugen themed DC2 Integra Type-R , and the other, a white JDM Type-R themed DC5 RSX. When making my rounds throughout the day, checking out the cars, I noticed that there was another black DC2 Integra similar to mine, only in that it was black and had the same color wheels as mine did. Now, again to reiterate, I do not intend to hate or criticize on any participant or their cars, but in my humble opinion, this car was not "show" quality in comparison to the all others in the show that day. I won't go into too much detail as to why, but I will say that the car appeared to be pretty much stock,dinged and engine bay clutered. Basically, again in my humble opinion, this car did not hold a candle to the other two Integras I mentioned earlier.
As the day went on, the solo judge for the entire show finally got to my car, and I was fully expecting him to ask me questions about my car. We exchanged greetings and he informed me that he was running behind and had to finish out the remaining three rows before 4:30 as the venue (Pacific Raceways) was going to kick everyone out by 5pm. At this point it was approx 3:45, and I could tell he wanted to limit conversation as much as possible so I just stood back and let him do his thing. After about probably 2-3 minutes, I asked if he had any questions on the car and he said no and moved on to the next car. I was kind of disappointed as I wanted to talk to him about all the work that I had put into the car as every single modification--from welding, motor work, body work and paint) that had been done to the car, was done completely and 100% by me, without any professional shop assistance. This is why I was so excited for the show in the first place. But I took it in stride and continued to enjoy the rest of the day.
Fast-forward to the award ceremony. The category of "Best Acura" is being announced, and second place goes to the white JDM Type-R themed DC5 RSX, I began to get excited as I had pegged that particular one as one of the main competitors. Then first place was announced, but my name wasn't called, however the description of the winning car following the name "black Integra GS-R" fit the description of my car. The guy who went up looked a little confused, and I was as well, but I kept quiet (as I didn't want a Kanye/Taylor Swift re-enactment lol) as he went up to take the trophy and take pictures with the model and then with the other winners.
Now I'm not going to lie, my pride was hurt lol, but something clicked in my head...I thought how the heck did a basically stock, right hand drive Integra beat out the pristine white JDM Type-R themed RSX for 1st place??? Had the black Integra won second, I really wouldn't have thought twice about it, but it won 1st place...something wasn't right. So I went up to the guy who won 1st place and asked just to be sure which Integra was his, and sure enough he pointed over to the stock black Integra. Still confused and spirit crushed, I figured there was nothing I could do, and made my way to my car and began to leave the venue. Sitting there driving and continuing to mull over it some more...I kept thinking to myself something is not right. It bothered me so much that I had to turn around and find out what happened, or at least understand what the judge saw in the "winning" car.
So that is exactly what I did. I turned around and went back to talk to the judge. I managed to spot him in the dwindling crowd and politely went up to him and introduced myself again, this time he introduced himself as Richard. I began by asking him what is that he looks for when judging cars. He then began explaining cleanliness of the engine bay, paint, fit and finish and wheel face and inner barrell cleanliness. As he was listing these things off I was thinking to myself, I have definitely done all of that, and the other 1st place "winning" Integra had not. When he finished I asked him, so which Integra did you decide on for first place "Best Acura"? I then asked him was it the one that was parked over here (pointing to where the other black Integra had been parked), he then said "oh no, it was somewhere over there" (pointing towards where my car had been parked during the show) then he said, "it was the one with the JDM front." By now, all kinds of bells and red flags are going off in my head haha. So I then ask him, "this one?!" (pointing to my car that was parked a few feet away). He then says, "Yeah, that's the one." At this point all I can do is turn and look at him and say "but where did my trophy go?" lol. He then apologizes and explains that he must have confused the owner sheets for the cars as he was the only judge for all 130+ cars, and he was under pressure by the venue to finish before 5. He then explains to me that if I email him, he will see to it that a replacement trophy is sent in the mail to me. He gave me his business card, and apologizes again, I tell him that the mishap was understandable under the circumstances and I will be emailing him for sure. We shake hands, and I head home satisfyied that I had won, but disappointed that I had nothing to show for it.
I emailed him yesterday and now patiently waiting for a reply, with hopes of seeing a trophy soon as well as my name listed as the correct winner for 1st place Best Acura on the IFO website. Fingers are crossed. A big thanks goes out to Richard Wong for owning up to the mistake though, and hopefully following through on making it right, definitely a cool guy. For ever ends up reading all of this, thanks!
Oh and just in case you were wondering what my car looks like, here's a picture....
Here is the 2nd place winner for "Best Acura"... v v v
And here is 1st place "Best Acura"... v v v
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Thread posted: 09/06/2011 at 09:30:am
