Most of you that know me are aware that I belong to several clubs, one being the North Texas Mustang Club, which is one of the most known and respected Mustang clubs in the nation. Each year this club puts on the Yellow Rose Classic car show to raise funds that we donate to various charities and people in need through out the year. This show goes off each year pretty much without a hitch due to the tremendous support from volunteers within the club, I being one of them. I have competed in this show in the past when I still owned ERA#291. Just the thrill of being there and being able to talk and visit with other gearheads is priceless in my book. I have shown my car when there were as few as 3 cars in the class to as many as 16 cars in the class, the year I had the privilege to show with my fellow Texas Cobra Club brothers, which even today is still talked about among the other members of the NTMC. Will we ever do it again? Who knows. The bar has been raised so high in our group that the competition is high. Even so it is always a thrill to see one of our brothers be rewarded for their effort as most of us at one time or another has helped out in some way…..well except I don't do electrical and ya'll all know why. The years I have won a "class award" or a "class winner" award was always a bonus as the fellowship means more to me than anything else and to me that's in part what makes the Texas Cobra Club so special. Our people are second to none and will always help a fellow brother.
This show is divided into two major classes. One being "street driven" which makes up probably 95+ percent of the show, and the other being the "show class". The ONLY difference between the 2 classes is that in the show car class you are awarded points for your undercarriage. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes cars 5,10, even 15 or 20 years old may have as little as a few hundred miles on them, as witnessed by Jim Mango's Boss 429's.
At our monthly meeting last night we received many, many Kudos from the participants and spectators alike for what a wonderful show it was and how well it was ran and organized. This made me feel very proud to be part of it and only hope that maybe in the future the Texas Cobra Club will again be a part of it. We did however receive an e-mail from one disgruntled participant that I wanted to share in hopes that we can all learn something from it. Evidently this person felt he "deserved" a trophy for his efforts and asked that rules be changed to insure his odds at future events. He talks about "playing the game" I guess you could call it that. IF all you are concerned about is a $10.00 trophy then there are some creative ways of doing it. I have seen it before as I'm sure all of you have at one time or another. Too many people in your class? Well, clean up you under carriage and go in the show class. Still too much competition? Slap some decals on it, place a helmet in the seat and go be in the race car class. I have been showing cars for a long time and believe me I have seen it all done. If that trophy means more to you than the fellowship and enjoyment derived from just being there, I think you are doing it for the wrong reasons.
I know we have as many waxers in the group as we have racers but I can only hope that we never take a show as serious as the participant that sent the e-mail listed below.
I will not say which class this e-mail pertains to, as it would cover just about any class in the show. Our cars are something we truly treasure but let's not let them get in the way of what matters most!
Here is the e-mail:
If there is a process for a formal protest, please notify me as I would like to make such a
protest. I am a fairly easy-going, but after sleeping on what happened, my emotions have grown worse over this. This is twice in a row that I have been burned in the Yellow Rose car show.
I lost out twice in the street driven class to cars that have less than one mile on the odometer. Not kidding….brand spanking new cars less than one week old only driven onto and off of a trailer competing in the street driven class. It is just not fair that non-driven show class cars hours directly straight out of the shop are allowed to enter into the street driven class. I spent hundreds of dollars and weeks of cleaning up my car to be cleaner than when I won best of class in a previous Yellow Rose show, to not so much as even get an honorable mention this year. When I brought this up to the judge for the class my car was entered, he said "you have to know how to play the game"----which I think is grossly unfair. The judges I brought this up to during the show were not concerned and did not forward my observation. There were no cars entered in the (BLANK) show car class to form such a class. All of the non-driven (BLANK) cars were all in the street driven class!!! How could my 5 year old, 5400 mile street (and track) driven car compete with those that are two days old from the manufacturer with less than 1 mile on the odometer? To be fair, please add rules so that new low-mileage cars (under 100 miles, less than a month or two old as an example) cannot be entered into the street-driven class. Please ask for mileage and age on the entry form, and if a very low mileage and a new car, confer with the owner to see if they shouldn't be entering their car in the Show class instead of the Street-driven class. It is vastly unfair that for two straight years now, the Best of Class for street-driven category was given to a car that is undriven….less than a week old and under 2 miles on the odometer (one of which arrived trailered just hours old out of the manufacturer and never driven with 0.2 miles on the odometer). The owner of this years' street driven (BLANK) "Best of Class" award admitted that his car arrived a few days ago directly from the manufacturer and has only been driven once around the block. In conclusion, I wish to file this formal complaint/protest to the organizers of the show that they knowingly and willfully allowed non-driven cars to enter into the street-driven classes and be awarded Best of Class for street-driven.
Ya'll have a real good weekend!!
Gary Morris
Founding Member of The Texas Cobra Club
Vice President: Shelby Cobra Association of Texas
Active Member: North Texas Mustang Club
