Finding a New Road, Part 3: Showtime at Bloomington Gold

Welcome back to our Finding a New Road series where you get a front row seat as I campaign my 1978 Corvette through the various judging systems. So far we’ve talked about my acquisition of the ’78 and what it took to get the car ready for the judges scrutiny. Now, the prep is done and we’re off to Bloomington Gold for my car’s first show in almost 20 years.

Catch up on our previous episodes here:
Part 1: Here We Go Again
Part 2: Ready for the Road?
Part 3: Showtime at Bloomington Gold
Part 4: Betting on Benchmark
Part 5: The Michigan NCRS Chapter Meet
Part 6: In Search of Diamonds and Gold at MCACN

Heading into the Bloomington Gold weekend I really had no idea how this car would do. My pre-judging indicated it should fare well, but would it? Some days I’d look at it and think this was a no brainer, but other days I could seemingly spot a million little things I wanted to improve. With my old 1972 Corvette I had enough knowledge of those cars and the judges to pretty much know how things were going to go. This round was different. My knowledge level isn’t as high and I don’t really know any of folks who will be evaluating it.

The primary goal for the weekend was to bring home a famous Gold Certificate. Additionally, I had entered the car in Survivor and Benchmark as well given its level of originality. I had more confidence in the Gold Certificate than I did on the Benchmark award. We’ll just have to see what the judges think.

We rolled into Bloomington Gold about 10am on a hot and hazy Thursday morning. Immediately after unloading the car I drove over to the staging lot, checked in, and waited for the operations and stamps and tags judges. The stamps and tags folks arrived first and the old silver car did fine just a I knew it would. No surprises here. I felt good going into the operations portion as I had checked everything one final time the day before we left. With all systems go, this should be a breeze. And sure enough it was. The old silver car sailed right through operations in about 15 minutes without a single deduct. One of the judges even commented that my car was their first perfect ops score of the day. Great job old silver car! From here I moved the car into the arena where the remainder of the judging would occur on Friday and Saturday. Friday was Certification judging and Saturday was Survivor and Benchmark day.

Friday morning arrived and all I had to do was wait for the judges. And wait I did. Until like 1pm in the afternoon. Judging at Bloomington Gold is a flurry of activity. All 4 judges converge on the car at the same time each evaluating a different area. Between Interior, Exterior, Chassis, and Engine, the whole process takes about 30-40 minutes. Once completed, the judges will review each section with you and answer any questions you may have.

Each C3 car starts off with a little over 8,000 points. From there the various items are evaluated based on (1) originality – how closely does the part resemble the original factory installed item? And (2) condition – what is the current state of the item? Is it faded or worn? Points are taken in 0, 5, 10, or 15 point intervals depending on the level of deviation from the standard. To earn a Gold Certificate, I could lose no more than 411 points which translates into a 95% score.

Once judging began I began my usual wandering around the car peaking over the judges’ shoulders. I do this not only because I like to hear what the judges are talking about but also because I’m impatient and can’t wait for surprises and wanted to see how the car was doing. With each lap, it became apparent that this was going to go well. Most of the early line items I saw had 0 deducts noted. Much to my surprise that pattern continued until each judge was completed with their duties.

One by one the judges reviewed their respective sections with me and complemented me on the car. We also had several conversations about the unique options my car is equipped with. In the engine section I lost a total of 90 points. The majority of those were on the condition side of things due to unrestored nature of my car. Like my old blue car, this was pretty much as expected. Next up was exterior. Given the car retains most of its original paint I had hoped this section would go well. It indeed did go well and I only lost 50 points here – again mainly for condition. The car has some usual 40,000-mile wear and tear which was graded accordingly. The interior went even better. After my whirlwind interior detailing, I wanted this section to do well even though several of the carpet and trim pieces have faded and discolored over the years. In the end I only lost 45 points here which I was quite pleased with.

That just left the chassis. My experience has taught me that the chassis is always the wild card on unrestored cars. Sometimes they’re well preserved and sometimes they’re not. Mine was in decent shape but I wasn’t really sure how it’d score with the remnants of that old chassis repaint still present in spots. With just 185 of 411 points used up so far, I felt a Gold Certificate was within reach. All I had to do was lose less than 226 and I’d be all set. When the dust cleared, I only lost 35 which is probably a bit of a gift. In my opinion, they probably could have taken another 50 points or so on condition here, but I’m not one to argue.

Each judge thanked me for bringing the car out and sharing it. They were quite complementary of the condition and the steps taken to keep in factory appearing condition.

With the chassis complete, that brought my total deduction to 220 points and well into Gold Certificate territory! I must admit that this was considerably higher that I was expecting. My at-home judging using the Bloomington scoring system had put me right on the 94% – 95% border so to score in the 97% range really made my day. What I really appreciated most was that the feedback from the judges on just how well the car presented. Finally, I had some validation to what I suspected all along, but just wasn’t certain about.

So, goal #1 for the weekend was completed and I had earned another Bloomington Gold Certificate. Now, how would it go Saturday in Survivor judging? Had I preserved enough of the original parts and finishes to snag another Benchmark award? Or would I come home with a Survivor award instead?

Come back next week and you’ll find out! Thanks for reading, everyone. We’ll see you next time.

Finding a New Road
Part 1: Here We Go Again
Part 2: Ready for the Road?
Part 3: Showtime at Bloomington Gold
Part 4: Betting on Benchmark
Part 5: The Michigan NCRS Chapter Meet
Part 6: In Search of Diamonds and Gold at MCACN

Source:
Photos by Steve Burns

Related:
Follow Along as I Campaign a 1972 Corvette Convertible
Corvettes at Carlisle Wants To See Your 1972 Corvette in the 50th Anniversary Display
On the Campaign Trail with a 1972 Corvette: Trail’s End? (Part 10)

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