MOTD 9 Car Show Results

Hello all,

I'd like to start by thanking everyone who participated in the MOTD Car Show this year, either as an entrant, or by coming by to ogle the entrants & cast a balllot. I'd also like to acknowledge Aaron at Outmotoring and thank him for his continued sponsorship, providing the trophies, prizes, and some insight along the way.

And of course, I want to thank the volunteers who helped park the cars in an organized manner, and also helped count the ballots in a totally disorganized and frantic manner... which is becoming an unsettling tradition. :impatient:

I had no time to wander the show & take pics, but if anyone wants to post a photo-log of the winners, I'd be awfully grateful!

We had 38 entrants in the show, and approximately 125 ballots turned in. (Hard to say for sure, because many ballots were not completely filled in, so counting by the final vote tabulation was not accurate)

Results are below, with notes of any interesting tidbits/factoids...

LIMITED CLASSES:

MKI MINI Hardtop, 10 entrants
1st Place: #104, Karen Bowes
2nd Place: #106, Steven Langenfeld
1st/2nd separated by only 2 votes-closest win in the Limited classes

MKII MINI Hardtop, 9 entrants
1st Place: #304, Herb Cooke
2nd Place: #303, Celia Seminerio
1st/2nd separated by only 4 votes

MKI MINI Cabrio, 4 entrants
1st Place: #202 Alicyn Drew
2nd Place: #201 April Fieno
Car #203, Josh Hamman was just 1 vote out of 2nd place

MKII MINI Cabrio, 3 entrants
1st Place: #402, Gary McDonald
2nd Place: #403, Michael Burkett Crist
Largest margin of victory in the limited classes here- over 60 votes

MINI Clubman, 8 entrants
1st Place: #507, Steve Shell
Let's hear it for the Clubbie Crowd for outnumbering the Cabrios! What's the story there, Ragtoppers???

MINI Countryman, 2 entrants
1st Place: #601, Jill Raymer
2nd largest margin of victory in the limited classes here- over 50 votes


Classic Mini, 2 entrants
1st Place: #701, Luther Shields

OPEN CLASSES:

Dirty Dog (Dirtiest MINI/Mini): #501, Cameron McCormick
No surprise to anyone who browsed the field of entrants, largest overall margin of victory was in this race, 113 votes for the winner, and 11 combined votes for the other 3 who received any at all!

Blink King (Best chrome/bling mods): #201, April Fieno

Costume Queen (Best temporary costume/decorations): #301, Kellie Creighton
Whose "costume" wasn't actually temporary, but the people spoke!

Ninja Warrior (Best blackout/stealth mods): #106, Steve Langenfeld

Fine China (The engine bay you'd eat from): #507, Steve Shell
33 entrants received votes in this category

Best in Show: #402, Gary McDonald/#303 Celia Seminerio (TIE). Audience re-vote went to #303, Celia Seminerio
32 of the 38 entrants received votes in the Best in Show category, with 8 different MINIs receiving at least 5 votes. It only took 11 to tie for the lead. 3rd place had 8.
Also interesting to note that Celia only took 2nd in her own Limited class, but still pulled out the Best in Show trophy. Way to go, Celia!

Another tidbit... David Dietz, whose wife entered the show in the MKII Hardtop category, was jealous and pouted at the registration table because there was no "Non-MINI" class. So I let him enter as car #901 with his Saturn Sky. Or was it a Pontiac Solstice? I never had time to walk around & check the badge! Not surprisingly, he did not challenge for any of the Open class trophies. This crowd is too MINI-centric for that! But I applaud him for having the stones to enter & thank him for showing up & showing off what was actually a very sweet little roadster, complete with Lambo doors & a custom skull-faced helmet!

What do you think.... should we have an official Non-MINI category, or maybe a Counterfeit MINI category next year? (I had folks last year suggesting that my Maszdaspeed3 should have entered and gotten a trophy for its Counterfieting. I did not repeat the Counterfeit effort this year, as I lost the stripes)

And while I'm at it, I'd love to hear your suggestions for ways to improve participation. 38 entrants out of 500+ cars seems a bit sparse. Aaron and I already discussed possibly offering more substantial prizes in addition to the trophies, and varying the trophy sizes based on 1st/2nd place, etc. Would you rather see the show on the first or last full day (Thursday/Saturday) instead of Friday? Earlier in the day, perhaps? Got an idea for a trophy we need to consider adding (or deleting)?

I am also considering encouraging pre-registration for next year by only offering nice, printed entry placards to those who pre-register. Those who "walk in" on the day of the show would get a hand written placard, like the one David Ortiz got for his Sky/Solstice this year. This is mostly to cut down on printing costs, as more than half of the money I spent on printing this year was essentially wasted. (I printed almost pre-numbered 200 entry placards, just to be sure I didn't run short, as well as 400 ballots)

 

Yeah, I had posted all the info here & elsewhere, but it just wouldn't fit neatly on the ballots. Already planning to print the ballots double sided next year, with instructions/descriptions on the back. (Unless I manage to format the front so that it will all fit without making it so small you need a magnifying glass to read it.)

I'm also going to change the Limited class ballot slots from looking like:

1 ____

to something more like:

1 __ __

to emphasize that you are filling in the last 2 numbers.

There were a number of ballots where people wrote in all 3 digits, and often in the wrong categories. I'd say I had 5-10 ballots where no votes counted in the Hardtop or Cabrio categories because folks didn't get that they were divided into 1st & 2nd Gen, so they ended up writing in 302 and 301, etc. My bad on that, I suppose.

Maybe by the time I can afford to get back into a MINI, I'll get this sorted out so I can hand it off to someone else so I can enter the show. LOL

Keep the comments & ideas coming!!! I welcome all of them so I can make the show more appealing & successful going forward.