The time has come for me to explain to my people, why I was forced to make the very difficult decision of not competiting at local Car Shows any longer.

I would first like to say that the primary reason for doing so was to stop the bitterness and hatred shown by other competitors towards my friend , for over 20 years, Nick Harrison. Due to our close friendship, people ASSUME that Nick favours me at Car Shows and sponsors my car, but you really do not know the man that you are dealing with. Nick has never been a judge, has never interfered with judges when competitions are going on, does not partake in the tabulation of the scores but yet, everyone thinks that he plays with the numbers to make them come out in my favour. Cast your mind back to the last show and you will see that while the Customised Competition was going on, Nick was dealing with the Sound Off. In addition, my car IS NOT sponsored by The Checkered Flag Car Shop. Yes it is true that all of my accessories are purchased from the shop but while most of you were spending idle time talking foolishness, I went around to business houses seeking sponsorship to get my car to level that it is presently at. With this in mind, I would like to thank the following people for their assistance with the sponsorship. Sedrick Haynes of Banks, Collie of Players Barber Salon, Nassco, Berger Paints, Kirk Worrell, Michael Thorpe of Midas Magic Auto Valet, Dwayne Goodridge of Precision Works Auto Valet and Corey Mitchell of Red Line Auto Works. Without you, it would never have been possible to make it so far.

The last Car Show at Sherbourne was the best that I have seen Nick produce to date, but for him, the worst that he has had to deal with both mentally and physcially. After the show, he called a meeting with all the customised competitors and told them that he was not satisfied with how the customised competition was judged and after about an hour of talking it through, WE THE COMPETITORS, agreed to leave the results as they were and to let Ian and myself represent Barbados at Spring Break Nationals. The only people that were in the room who did not vote was Enoch Payne, who walked out of the meeting for easons unknown, Trevor Bryan, who said that if a new winner was picked, there would still be confusion and Rodney Clarke, who said that he would not be available on Saturday to have the competition rejudged.

After all was said and done, these same competitors, EXCEPT Ian, Mell and myself, sent a petition to Nick, requesting that the judging sheets be made available to them. I honestly have never seen such ignorance displayed in my life before. The same people who gave the GREEN Light turned around a week after and turned it to RED. In addition, they started to spread all types of nasty rumours about Nick and myself, which was totally unfair because it casted a negative effect on the show and most importantly, the organiser, who has bent over backwards to push the sport of Cutomised and Sound Off Competitions to a level that no one ever felt, could be achieved. Up to this day, I still cannot belive that Enoch, who walked out of the meeting and "Dark Man" who was NOT in the Customised Competition, could have signed the petition!

To all you Sound Off competitors, where would you be if Nick did not make the effort to introduce you to international rules and judging? If you waited on the people who you spend thousands of dollars with to do the same, do you honestly think that you would be at the stage that you are at now? The answer is clearly NO! By the way, do any of you even get discounts from these people?

I want to admit that when I first heard Nick with the idea that he wanted to take cars to compete at Spring Break Nationals, I was a little bit worried that he had finally lost it but after seeing how positive he was about the whole thing I realised that he was not crazy after all. In the end, he gave Ian myself confidence and inspiration to do what people thought was impossible. The result is now history for us Bajans. Ian won his class in the Sound Quality Competition which as you all know by now, has never been achieved by any person from the English Speaking Caribbean.

I have said all of that to say this. Why is it that some of you cannot take the time to say Thank You to Nick instead of "He is a Thief"? Why is it that you cannot congratulate Team Barbados for a job well done at Spring Break Nationals without making some negative comment about the show at Sherbourne? Why is it that there is a plan to boycott future shows that Nick plans to host instead of looking forward to the next competition and hoping to do better than you did the last time around? Why is it that you have allowed yourselves to be lead astray by Rodney, who I will say openly, would have made ZERO impression at Spring Break Nationals, instead of thinking positively about being the next representive for your country? Why is it that you have stopped supporting a true friend who has helped most of you along the way, in more ways than one? How much longer must this stupid little game go on?

The experience gained from attending Spring Break Nationals is truly PRICELESS. I will never in mind be able to explain it fully to anyone and when you really look at it, it was because of Nick's vision that Ian and I were able to create history with our results. Thank You my true long time friend, without you, we will still be parked out in gas stations being idle and arguing nonsense. I would like to make a public apology to you for causing such pain and misery in your life because of the simple fact that you are my friend. I have seen and heard people curse you and distance themselves from you without cause, because of it. I have therefore made the decision and promise to myself that I will no longer compete locally, so that they can no longer have a reason to punish you incorrectly. You do not deserve any of it!

I would like to make it clear that my car will be present at all the future shows but I simply will not be actually competiting. For future international events, I will be trying to obtain personal sponsorship from corporate Barbados to compete overseas. With this plan in mind, you can no longer blame Nick for anything else but I have this strong feeling that whoever the next elected champion is, will go through this same thing over again. I also hope that this will pave the way for someone else to experience the true feeling of being an ambassador for your country at an international show.

In closing, I would like to thank all of you who sent Ian and myself positive messages about our success at Spring Break and encourage you to encourage those who will follow, that the foudation has been laid and that gossip is one of the worst diseases of the human race. Once again Nick, I am really sorry for dragging you through these muddy waters.

Yours Truly,
Charles "MR-56" Goddard