Doug Mitchel wrote:
>As a bit of background, there was originally no VTR requirement to drive
>your car in order to enter it into the Concours. In about 1981 or '82,
>it was decided that in order for a car to be eligible for the concours,
>it must be run in one of the driving events. At that time, the only
>driving events were the autocross and the rally. Here in Detroit, we
>also instituted an award called the President's Cup. It was awarded to
>the car/driver that did the best (unfortunately at the President's
>discretion) in all three events, rally, concours and autocross. I don't
>remember that the award was ever awarded outside of the Detroit hosted
>events.
Doug is correct. The actual first use of the driving requirement was 1981
at the National held in Bartonsville, PA. The idea was very well received
althouth we still had a handful of complainers who protested. Each year
it seemed the question would come up some time during the meet as to why.
Thankfully, this was the first year no one asked and that's a first. One
1981 registrant even called me before the meet claiming he could only get
to the meet on Saturday and wouldn't be able to do a driving event. He wanted
a waiver, but we held firm and low and behold, he showed up on Friday for a
driving event. This points out two things: 1) that we value
the functionality of the cars as well as cosmetic appearance and 2) we
continue to view the national as a multiday event and we will not tailor
the event just to favor the person that only wants to show up one day for
concour.
Anyway, just some more of history and philosophy.
Cheers,
Bill Sohl
Cheers,
Bill Sohl Budd Lake, NJ billsohl@planet.net
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