2011 MNW Judges Corner
Over this past winter, the Mustangs Northwest Judge Committee was given the task to think about the upcoming year and what kind of changes they think should be made for our two annual judged Mustang shows, Spring-Into-Summer and Roundup. At the January meeting, we discussed the return of the MNW judging classes that were dropped in 2008 because they were not recognized by the Mustang Club of America. Now that the MCA Grand National show is over, we have made a few decisions regarding the future of judged Mustang shows.
First, we looked at the Stock Street class. This was judging category created by Mustangs Northwest which covered ’64-’73 Mustangs. Stock Street was intended for nicely restored Mustangs that may not have absolutely correct parts or finishes. The judging criteria for this class was not quite as strict as MCA’s Concours class. The stock street class was too close to the MCA version of Concours to warrant its own distinct judging class. Another factor that weighed in our decision was the fact that interest in Stock Street was declining, with just four cars entered in 2007, the last time Stock Street was offered. We also discussed the possibility of expanding Stock Street to include later model Mustangs up to 1993, but this would involve writing new judging sheets. The Judge Committee voted to abandon the Stock Street judging class.
Next, we looked at the Occasional Driven class. This class has grown to be the most popular of all. Before 2008, MNW had a version of Occasional Driven that did not include undercarriage judging. There have been several requests from MNW members to bring back the no-undercarriage OD class. After discussion on this, the Judge Committee decided that it would be very easy to offer two versions of Occasional Driven, both with undercarriage and without. Since this can be done using the same judging sheets, accommodating both versions of OD class would be very easy, so the MNW judge Committee voted to approve the addition of an Occasional Driven – No Undercarriage class.
Lastly we looked at the Modified classes. Under our previous MNW Modified rules, a determination was made upon vehicle arrival with regard to the level of modifications on a car. This was accomplished using a quantitative method developed by MNW called Modified Qualification Points, or MQP’s. Essentially, each modification was worth a given point value. These points were added up and the total determined which level of Modified that a car would enter. A Mustang could be Street Modified, Mild Modified, or Radical Modified. A “Street” car is one that is lightly modified for daily driver use. A “Mild” car is a show car with a minor level of modifications. And a “Radical” car of course has major modifications, and usually a lot of them. This system serves to even the playing field, since under the MCA rules, all modified cars fall into the same class. Hence, a heavily modified car would always beat the lightly modified car. Another issue discussed was the breakup of the specific Mustang generations. MCA rules groups most of the cars together, but we always separated them. A 1965 Mustang shouldn’t be up against a 2005 Mustang, especially when there are enough cars to justify splitting up the generations. Ultimately, and by popular demand, the Judge Committee voted to bring back our MNW system of MQP’s and the Street/Mild/Radical Modified classes. We also voted to introduce the new Extreme Modified class, which is for race cars, Dynacorn-bodies cars, etc. As before, if you plan to enter your Mustang in any of the Modified classes, please remember to bring a list of the modifications that were done to the car, since it is a 9-point deduction for not having one.
The MNW Judging Committee is planning our usual two judged Mustang shows this year. Spring-Into-Summer will be held once again at Remlinger Farms in Carnation on Saturday, May 7. The Roundup Judged show will be at Bellevue College on Saturday, July 16. If there are any questions, please contact any of the Judge Committee members. Their contact information can be found on the inside front cover of every Pony Express newsletter, listed under “Judges”. Hope to see everyone at the shows.