Sorry for the delay, but I’m proud to announce the Best of Show, People’s Choice, and Judges Award for the 2020 Allard Global Online Concours (AGOC). The Best of Show award was selected by our judges from the five class winners. In the end, J2X 2221 was selected Best of Show…CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The People’s Choice Award was a bit more complicated. Our polling was hosted by Interact.com. Since I’m cheap, I didn’t spring for the paid plan which would have told me who voted and how many times they voted. However after reviewing the voting results and our site traffic, it was clear that a couple of cars benefited from a bit of ballot box stuffing. After conferring with the International Society of Online Concours’s’s, they recommended we give the People’s Choice award to L-837, which had 93 votes and was also one of our class winners. I apologize to the car owners that were passed over, I hope you understand and I’ll try to think of a good consolation prize.

We also decided to give out a Judges Award. This was to be given by our judges to one of the cars that did not receive a class award, but stood out due to a unique history or special story. There were a few great submissions, but the car that stood out was K1 239. Judge Mel Herman wrote, “Allard K1 239 used to be owned and successfully raced by an amazing lady - Mary Ellis-Wilkins. Mary was one of that elite band of females in the ATA (Air Training Auxiliary), which during World War ll flew combat planes between the airline factories and the RAF airfields around the UK. She single-handedly flew 76 different types of aircraft including Wellington Bombers with neither formal instruction nor navigational aids, just a handbook stuffed into the top of her flying boot. Her favourite plane was the Spitfire which she described as - “A gorgeous, lightweight little minx in the air”. After the war when she was no longer permitted to fly them she satisfied that love of speed in her Allard K1. The individual and combined stories of the ATA girls are amazing, true heroines and for your interest I attach the artwork for a graphic panel I produced about her when we featured her on our AOC stand at the 2016 Classic Motor Show, she was an honorary member of the Club. Sadly she died in July 2018 at the age of 101 and if you Google her you may read her obituary in the Guardian. Her K1 which survives in Australia with her nephew is in exceptional original condition and represents this amazing heroic lady.” '[For more about Mary, check out the fantastic 2018 documentary, Spitfire (on Netflix)]

So there you go, thank you again to all of our participants! I hope you had a fun time and hopefully learned a thing or two. A special congratulations goes out to all of our award winners - good job. And to all of the cars and their owners did not win, we hope you try again in 2021!

PS: I’m currently printing out the trophies and hope to mail them out next week.

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2020 Cocours Final Awards