Goodguys SMOY
 

If you have been at the Goodguys event in Columbus before this year it was hard to pick out the SMOTY and SROTY from the 300 plus cars in the Pro's Pick area. This is what made the changes for this year.

Goodguys decided to showcase the SMOTY and SROTY on Friday from 10am to 4pm this meant they would need to be in the area during that time and to have the SMOTY go through the AutoCross during that time. Goodguys decided to run the AutoCross just for Vendors and the SMOTY contendors. At Noon Goodguys decided to parade the SMOTY through the event and over to the AutoCross area for everyone to see and follow. Tech was done on the cars in the area. Some cars had no seat belts and one had loose wheel bearings. These items were all addressed and some cars could not run the coarse and were no longer eligible to compete.

The AutoCross time was from 9am to 4pm and if you were a SMOTY contender you had to run three laps. The laps were looked at by the judges for style points only and the fastest time did not matter. Before the final cars were going through the coarse the Nova of Troy's came over to tech and got inline to run the three laps. After the three laps the contenders could go back to the Pro's pick area or stay and run more laps to try and get the fast time to win a set of BFG tires. Roger Burman stayed and recieved the fast time with the 68 Camaro he built. The Nova that Troy built was over in the Pro's pick area after the AutoCross to receive the dot that showed he could compete on Saturday.

On Saturday the SROTY and SMOTY were once again seperated in the Pro's pick so everyone could see them together and there was no special parking allowed. All contestants had to be in the area by 10am and it was first come on the lineup. NO special treatment was given to anyone.

I think Goodguys did the best at making this fair, fun and interesting for all who were there to enjoy the weekend and a great show of the cars. The only thing that I can see that needs to be changed is that only the owner or builder can drive the car in the AutoCross so it remains fair for all.

For the first year with all this new stuff coming into play I would say it went pretty good and the best cars were part of the 27 cars that were involved right down to the end when the 5 top cars had to be picked.

I would hope that everyone builds cars to run the AutoCross and to be the best they can build like the 27 cars that showed up this year. Remember only one car is a winner!!!

I hope that this will clear up some of the discussions on this thread.

Kennyd if you are going to comment on me at least spell my name right.....

My point is, there are some builders that do not live up to their hype. You can say it boils down to how much the customer wants to spend but money doesn't buy taste. I never said anything about the top 5 builders being the laughing stock, you did. Obviously the Ring Brothers and Troy have set the bar to which all others are measured. How do you think the other members from this board measure up to these two? Though Hanson's car is nice(and he's a super nice guy), it probably shouldn't have been in the top 5. KD's Camaro and the red Cuda are closer to that level. Anyone who was there should agree. I'm not sure why the judges picked it over the others, maybe it is more of a driver type car than the others.

For the record I never bagged on any builders car or their reputation. I bagged on GG and the manor in which they inforced or bended the rules. Since I spend over $13,000 a year with them as a vender and countless more dollars as a competitor, I have every right to BITCH. Those who were not there should not even have a comment on the quality of cars that were present at the event. (you cant see anything in pictures)

I have the utmost respect for Troy, Ring and all other builders (professional and D-I-Y). I have no beef with any of you and consider you all to be an important part of this community.

I would like to see all builders come together in an organization where we can share ideas, techniques and information regarding our profession. :hail:

Congrats to Ring as they did drive the hell out of that car and had a great looking ride. Nice work

My group and I heard you bad-mouth a few folks over the weekend. And do you mean to say that because you spent money that you should be given special consideration? I read the rules, and it says nothing about a special class for buying your way in. And "BITCH" seems to describe your attitude well.

Here I am. I think I can come in here now. Hopefully things are starting to settle down, Geez. I'm still just sittin back with a big ol smile. I honestly think all the cars were capable and have no idea how I ended up getting picked over so many nice cars. I mean, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that the Cuda is head and shoulders above mine, but what can I tell you. What am I supposed to do, tell the judge when they come over "thanks but no thanks, there's much nicer cars here than mine, you have it all wrong". Obviously they liked my car for a reason and I feel very honored and proud to have been picked. I understand where they are coming from because, now don't anyone laugh, I love my car! I really think it was one of the sweetest looking cars there. I liked the way it looked better than any of the other top 5, and believe me, I wasn't alone. Is that wrong? Was the quality the same. No, but it's got eyeball. People gravitate towards it, the paint just pulls you in. Maybe that's what the judges liked, or the fact that I hammered it from the word go in the autocross. I don't know. At this point, does it really even matter. It doesn't make the other cars any less nice.
How's that for humble:woot:I had to say something. Now I can't wait to show my dad all this crazy talk. He'll get a kick out of all this crap. :lol: and that's what he'll call it, a bunch of crap.
Now I wanna know where Trush is. He calls me one of his best friends and where's the love?:rofl: Won't be long now....

Oh, and I'll say it again. It was great meeting and talking to everyone down there. Had a great time! As if that's not obvious.:lol: :lateral:

Hey Jeff, Congrats on making the top 5, your car looked sick out on the coarse and was top notch. Nice car and great job.

Hey, are you pickin on me? I think your pickin on me...:rofl: :rofl: It's all good. I don't care.:cheers: This is all just too much, we all gotta get a life.:lol:

Thanks man. Sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to you guys. Both of yours were sick. I love the fact that the blazer is the "shop truck", how sweet is that.:thumbsup:

Don't worry, I'm not picking on you. If everyone went about this the way you have, this thread would have been dead a long time ago. I overheard Kirk talking to a guy on Sunday who was questioning the judging process. He said they look for functional modifications, modifications just for the sake of modifications don't mean anything to them. By those standards, your car probably does edge out the Cuda and many others. It just depends on how you look at it I guess.