This past weekend we finally got to host our event called SNL- Saturday Night Lights. These May showers made us postpone the show for one more week. The weather as of late has been more dramatic than an episode of real housewives. Despite these hardships, I knew the show must go on and prayed for a dry forecast.
The week leading up to the original event date, I noticed the weather was not looking good for us. Our season opener was rained on and I didn't want to do that again. Although we adapted to and overcame the elements, I wasn't trying to sit in the rain again and have us all suffer together.
With the rain date set for the following week, I kept my eye on the forecast again like a hawk. The chance of rain changed daily, going from 80% to 40% to 10%. The weather changed so much during the week that I stopped looking and just said to myself, we are doing it this saturday regardless.
On Friday the day before the show I stopped by our event sponsor Full Frontal Graphics for the awards and stickers to fill up the goody bags. Then later that evening; with my son, we packed all the goody bags and I finalized the awards for the show.
The morning of the show; I woke up to cloudy skies and immediately checked the weather channel. I was worried at first but the chance of rain was at 5%. It was just going to be a cloudy day and I was fine with that. I was not about to postpone the show another week over some cloudy skies.
With my car all packed it was time to make my way towards Prestige Auto Spa and start setting up the show. As I pulled out of my neighborhood I realized I forgot my cash box and turned back around for that. Then when I got to Prestige Auto Spa I realized that I also forgot my sticker display. Honestly, I forget one thing every time and would just have to make due at this point.
As I finished setting up my booth, a wave of registered cars started to pour in. My buddy Jason from NvUS was the first one on the scene and even beat me to Prestige Auto Spa. He was with an NvUS member from New York named George, who was in town for work but also Wekfest.
I got to chat for a good minute with George about the car scene. We compared and talked about the differences between chicago and new york's car culture. One thing in common that was mentioned; was the drama and butt hurt feelings people get over judging.
This is when I expressed that we get the same shit over here and for that reason, I switched to a scorecard point system for judging. This is the second show I've used this system and since we implemented this new system; I haven't had one qualm with awards, winners, or judging. No bullsh*t, no bias opinions just straight numbers and numbers don't lie.
Now the show is in full swing. My good buddy Derek on the 1's and 2's was doing an excellent job Dj'ing, a lot full of beautiful cars and more beautiful tunes blasting; we had ourselves a decent little party going. Speaking of party....
We just got our flyers hot of the press for our Parking Garage Party. My partner shane from Stay ILL who just so happened to be at six flags spending the day with his girl; had a few flyers on him. A few roller coaster rides later then Shane pulled up and air'd out. We talked about PGP for a second then began to pass out the flyers.
At this time, I also announced the beginning of judging. With 3 judges this time going around, the participants didn't feel like they waited forever by their cars to be judged. It was a quick and a streamlined process of judging and collecting the scorecards. Once each scorecard is collected, the judges add up all the points and the highest ten scores are our top ten winners.
Along with the top ten awards, we have a people's choice award and a car of the night award. The car of the night is my personal pick, for this time around my pick wasn't an easy one. So many beautiful cars and so many RHD vehicles in one place made the decision for car of the night a difficult one.
The top ten was packed with quality. Only a couple of cars that I felt were worthy, just missed placing in the top ten. So I wanted to spread the love around and decided to give my personal pick to a car that I felt was deserving of an award. The RHD nissan silvia with the enkei RPF1's had me smitten. The GTR R32, the starlet, the civic type R were all tits but the Silvia was so clean and simple that it just spoke to me.
To sum it up, I hope everyone had a good time and went home happy even if you didn't win an award. The competition was quit fierce and goes to show that quality overcomes quantity every time. Thank you again everyone for coming out and creating this memorable experience together. See you next time!!!
