Contest Theory: A built models tour

[Ramcharger]

I think the idea behind this "one and done" idea is to keep shows fresh. If you go to the same show every year and the same car won the same category every year, how many times would you return? Some models are really good and are really hard to beat, if you keep losing to the same one, it is easy to get discouraged. You can lose to the same builder year after year and realize that he has talent above yours and you can hopefully improve to his level in time, but to lose to the same car over and over again gets really discouraging really quick. If the guy is at least having to build something, it keeps both of you sharp. It's kind of like a local cruise-in, you see the same cars over and over again. "Oh, there's Bob's 41 Willys and Joe's Hemi Roadrunner, they'll win a trophy, they do everytime." Spectators don't return to local cruises time and time again because it's the same cars again and again, it almost becomes a show circuit with local cruises. Your 72 Vega, no matter how cool, ain't no Hemi Roadrunner, ever, you're not likely to win over that guy. At the model shows we go not only to compete, but to see the cool new stuff others have built. Imagine going to a contest where all the same cars showed up time and time again. How many years would you show up? Yeah, it's fun to see some of the old timers we built years ago and see what we thought was cutting edge building, but that's a once in a while deal, not every model. I think contests need to keep it fresh not only to promote healthy competition, but to keep the contest from getting stale. Is it the crime of the century if you bring the same winning model to a show several years in a row? Nope, but I think that makes you a "displayer" not a builder.

[Scale-Master]

At our show, if you place, you cannot enter that model at later shows ever again. We keep records and have caught people trying to re-enter models that placed previously. Sometimes it is an honest mistake, they forgot, it does happen. That is why we keep records. There are a few guys who have tried to pull a fast one knowing they placed previously, also why we keep records...

Those few perennial models that keep showing up over and over and never placing do so for a couple probable reasons. One is that it's all that person has to enter and they hope to win (by attrition...) someday.

In reality they rarely ever place because fresh and better quality models constantly replenish the ranks of the previous years winners. And by comparison, they slide further away from being competitive.

I'll enter what I have built for a about a year, but if I don't go to shows for a while I see no problem bringing something I may have built a couple years ago if it has not been shown before, or at least not at that venue.