With inspiration and guidance from Joan Stewart, Master of the Vancouver, B.C. ABFM, and input from many participants, the voting system for the 2012 Washington ABFM has been revised.

Entrants will no longer be asked to spend the entire day looking at and voting for all 71 classes PLUS the special awards that comprise the show.

We realize that it is much more fun to be with your friends, relax and convince folks to vote for YOUR car!

So, to accommodate this, using an elaborate system of Celtic Runes, fingers to the wind and tossed chicken bones, we have revised the ballot to save each entrant some time, and attempt to include fairness, objectivity and a chance to appreciate cars that are not in your class. That’s right, entrants will not be voting on their own cars! (This has been accommodated by automatically crediting every car with one vote right off the bat…) In fact, those with MGs will not be voting for MGs at all, Aston Martins will not vote on Aston Martins, and the same goes for each of the marques on the field.

Each entrant will be asked to cast their vote for Best of Show, Debuting Restoration, Young Entrant, First Time ABFM Entrant and for the “Survivor” Award, and 8 more individual classes. With the Rolls Royce/Bentley folks evaluating “Bugeye” Sprites, Jensens and Sunbeam Tigers, and the Sunbeam owners checking out the MG-TCs, Morris Minor Travellers and Morgan Plus 8s, etc., we have made a real effort to encourage entrants to take a moment and appreciate cars very different than their own. We hope that this mix and match will encourage some curiosity and some appreciation of the wide variety of styles and designs that make up the spectrum of British cars, each one an interesting and unique expression of automotive creativity.