An Open Letter to GTR Auto Modelers

Topics:  GTR Auto Modelers, GTR Summer NNL

Bill Crittenden
August 4, 2013

To the Members of GTR Auto Modelers and the General Model Building Public,

Overall, the GTR Summer NNL show was pretty good this afternoon.  That was, of course, until the end.

For those of you who were not there, the GTR Summer NNL show ended this afternoon with a raffle.  If your number is called, you pick something from the table, first come first served.  Simple enough.  A few really cool items are saved as "Grand Prizes" at the end.

As is the case with any raffle, pickings are slim towards the end.  Understandable.  More than a few folks were giving their winning tickets away, one kid in particular accumulating quite a collection for one afternoon.

The last number called of the regular raffle was 8812, the last "prize" being a lonely unwanted little old lady figure.  Then the Grand Prize items were put out on the table while Mr. 8812 was trying to be found.  Steve Jahnke clearly called out that they were now beginning the Grand Prize raffle, and the first number was 8887.

Holy crap!  That was one of mine.  Well, nice way to finish off the afternoon, I think I like that art print there, and my hand was almost on it until a certain GTR representative said that Mr. 8812 didn't want the doll, and I had to take the doll instead.

Are you fucking serious?

Now, I'm not really upset, a print is a long way away from an original artwork.  This is a club show raffle, not the Barrett-Jackson auction, and I wasn't about to cause a scene over a poster.

Perhaps that's why they felt it was okay to do something like that.  That's what I thought about on the way home.  It's because I'm usually always the quiet one.  Would they have done that to Aaron or Manny?  Well, maybe it's time I stop being the quiet one.

So I have to personally call out Chuck Herrmann, Steve Jahnke, John Walczak, and a few other unnamed (because I really don't know who they are) GTR representatives for either participating in or silently allowing to pass one of the most dishonest, most underhanded stunts I have ever heard of at a model car show.  And that's a lot, considering I've heard a lot of your stories.

I thought I knew you before.  It turns out I do now.  Now everybody else who reads this will, too.

Bill Crittenden