Announcing the Herb Oakes Memorial HPOF Award!
By Bill Cox
The North Carolina Region announces the creation of the Herb Oakes Memorial HPOF award! In honor of one of our most beloved leaders both in the Region and in the Nation, the North Carolina Region will recognize the most outstanding vehicle in the HPOF class every fall at our NC Region Meet in honor of Herb’s passion for original vehicles. He supported the creation of the HPOF class during his tenure on the National Board and he encouraged the growth of its popularity throughout the country with his efforts to promote understanding of how to preserve and judge original vehicles.
We are excited to offer this recognition of the most outstanding HPOF vehicle in Herb’s honor and will begin this fall at the NC Region Meet in Spencer, N.C. The executive Board has approved the creation of the award and the P&P Manual will be updated with the following details:
- The North Carolina Region adopted the Herb Oakes Award honoring one of our most dedicated leaders both in the National AACA and the NC Region. Herb was a strong and effective NC Region President during a most difficult time and a long-time Chief Judge. He was the President of the AACA in 2012 and served on the Judging committee for several years.
- The permanent award was given by Jack Harris, Randy Stone and Jeff Oakes and is to be held permanently in the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer N.C. Each year’s winner is to have his or her name inscribed on the trophy and will receive a personal plaque and be recognized at the annual NC Region Meeting held in January each year.
- Herb was especially fond of HPOF vehicles and in honor of his commitment to original vehicles, this award is given to the most outstanding HPOF vehicle displayed at the NC Region Fall Meet as judged by the HPOF Judging team at that particular meet. The chief judge or assistant chief judge will choose the judging team each year and will break a tie vote if necessary.
- The judging team shall consider each HPOF vehicle against itself to determine its outstanding qualities, to negate the feeling that a car that has just become AACA eligible and is only 25 years old must be chosen because it is in better condition than one that is two or three times its age. The older vehicle could be in worse condition than the newer one, but ‘for its age’ it might be considered ‘most outstanding’.
- All Vehicles considered HPOF eligible, owned by a current AACA member, and shown at the NC Region Fall meet are eligible for the Herb Oakes Award.
