[RockHillWill]

JW, I am with you all the way. I will not be renewing my membership in MAFCA next year as well. It is MY opinion that I have witnessed WAY to much ego BS. I have experienced more in my lifetime than most folks get an opportunity to even get exposed to. I figured one time that In my 26 year racing career alone, I have been face to face with about 2.8 million folks. I like people in general and spend a great deal of time studying their attitudes, aptitudes, appearance and approaches to 'situations', and I have become FED UP with the crowd of folks that take on areas of responsibilities only to further their reputation, their resumes and enhance their own inflated egos. I think I have actually seen sphincter burns around some of their ears! By that same token I have met an enormous group of GREAT folks and have amassed a huge group of friends that any man would be proud of, and I am proud of them all.

You can expect some areas of dispute when you enter a car in Fine Point Judging, but I have always maintained that the joy from building a Fine Point car is in the journey, not the destination. Unfortunately, some of the judges have assumed that because they know a LOT, they know EVERYTHING. It has been embarrassing to me to be in the presence of some of these guys that try to defend their decisions in the face of written proof to the contrary. I acquired over 1200 pages of documentation and every drawing in the Benson Archives for a recent restoration and their were still guys that wound tell me I was 'mistaken'. I have just gotten tired of arguing with 'loose sphincters'. It was judged in Oshkosh in some areas in accordance with the new standards, not by the fact that it was only the first meet after the changes and there is a two year 'window' for the old standards use. It was mostly done in an area that it is easy to assume the reason why.

Fine Point Judging should be the FIRST place a new restoration is taken and a field of COMPETANT and CARING judges should take the time to review the car and provide written comments and guidance to IMPROVE the restoration for whatever the owners intentions are. Judging sheets should be for three continuous years, so that an owner who brings his car back in successive continuous years is not deducted for unchanged items. Doing so would only indicate that one judge is calling the previous judge 'unskilled', etc. There are just too many folks that have built their own throne and expect you to bow down to them.

I have been shot once, stabbed twice and dragged behind a car for 75 yards at over 60 MPH. I have experienced personal darkness that I would not wish on my worst enemy, but at this age, I am finding it too stressful to step around these types of folks, and I am tired of trying to hold myself back from confronting those guys, so I am moving on.

I will be MOST HAPPY to help any restorer in any way that I can, because I have had great success in my own endeavors as a result of others that have helped me achieve my own goals, but you are NOT likely to see me at any event by MAFCA. I have some concerns about MARC as well.