On Saturday May 12th, 40 judges attended the Greater New York Region judging seminar at Old Westbury Gardens. Luck had it that the weather was a great sunny & 75 degree day. We had about 10 antique autos to view and Charlie Covetz drove his 1976 Mini from Wildwood, N.J. to Old Westbury, NY, which was quite a ride. (Charlie, I hope your passport is valid). Charlie also assisted with the seminar, as he is a National AACA instructor. Thanks Charlie. Bob & Ruth Valentine exercised their 1924 Huppmobile on the road again.
We started at 10:15 a.m. and I gave my usual speech on filling out the required judging forms correctly. All judges were told to check for a Fire Extinguisher FIRST, then proceed with the actual judging. I kept the technical points brief but to the point and instructed the judges to respect the car owner’s feelings. As Mike has said you can call your baby ugly, but the car is always sparkling and the love of your life.
That being said, we discussed various situations, and what should be judged and not to judge. (i.e.:
The jack, if visible, could be judged, but what about the jack under the rear seat of a 30’s car, or under the floor of a Corvette. The best thing to do in this case is omit the jack in judging unless it is a tie breaker situation. And this is the format of our judging and how it works. Always take the same points off for similar issues and all will be fair.) Lets hope Old Westbury Judging is a non-stressful event for car owners and judges. After the technical matters, we viewed a few of the cars and kicked the tires and checked the shine on the paint etc. By the noon hour Pete Arccadia showed up with the hero’s and the soda, water, and suds were devoured in short time. I also got to view our trailer and check the flat tire situation; as usual only one tire was 3⁄4 down. We will fix this before the show and Walter Weigand is going to get a used tire for our spare. So it’s Westbury fever all over again. We will use the calling system for field set up and other announcements.
Artie Finnegan