Since our company's event group was dissolved, the editorial/sales staff of CA&E had to run the three regional Trifecta shows and then the final at SEMA, much to the chagrin of our senior editor, Brook Howell, who single-handedly managed the competition in Vegas. We told her that was only fair since the rest of us had produced the other shows during the summer-lucky for us, she bought it. My thanks to her. Frankly, no one else on staff would've had the patience, maturity and sense of professionalism to see the event through, what with all the logistics, hassles and compromises that usually are required for such things. Our thanks as well to SEMA of course. Without them, our custom car and sound competition might be nothing more than the tree that falls in the forest when no one is around.
Speaking of people without whom the event wouldn't be possible... I'd like to thank our presenting sponsor, Scion; official sponsors, Alpine, Kenwood, Nokia and Scosche. Thanks also to JL Audio, Crossfire, Realm and Icon-TV, The Snake Pit and OZ Audio. Year two of Trifecta was a success because of the various parties involved, including the dedicated competitors who entered the regional competitions and that made the long journey to Vegas (some of them on their own dime), and the industry judges that lent us their expertise and sacrificed their off time. You can see who they are in the Trifecta coverage in this issue.
Kudos to the finalists and the top three winners: Carlos Machuca (Buick Regal with a JBL system), Chris Roberts (Scion xB with an Alpine system) and Jason Syner (Honda Civic with a Sony system). From talking to the judges during and after the scoring, I know how difficult it was to decide the winners. When you have high-quality custom cars it's not easy to take points off for minor issues related to fitment or design. But the whole point of Trifecta is to find the best. When so few points separate the contestants you wish you could award everyone the same prize money-not that we could afford that.
Machuca won the $1,500, Roberts took home $500 and Syner received $250, which he told me was the only money he's ever won in any car competition. Our congratulations to Mike Edens (Hyundai Tiburon/Boston Acoustics), Jojo Pagulayan (Toyota Supra/Phoenix Gold) and two-time finalist Wayne Watkins (Acura RSX/Focal and JL Audio). They fell short of the money but were it not for some misfortune or technical difficulties their results might have been quite different. We look forward to seeing them and all the competitors again next season.