Congratulations to the Ring Brothers as 2019 SEMA Battle of the Builders winners. But does the annual competition have a 1969 Camaro problem?

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Last night, judges crowned Jim and Mike Ring, owners of a legendary custom car building shop in Wisconsin called—surprise, surprise—Ringbrothers, as SEMA Battle of the Builders winners for 2019.

First things first: congratulations, Ring Brothers. You do great work, and all of the accolades and attention the industry showers you with are well deserved.

The brothers won top honors during SEMA Ignited, the official afterparty of the annual SEMA Show, a tradeshow organized by the Specialty Equipment Market Association.

Those are the facts.

But here are some more facts. With the Ring Brothers now crowned as 2019 SEMA Battle of the Builders winners in this sixth year of the competition, the historical SEMA Battle of the Builders winners list, compiled from published reports with sources linked below, now stands as follows:

• 2019: Jim and Mike Ring, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro
• 2018: Kyle Tucker, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro
• 2017: Troy Trepanier, 1929 Ford Model A
• 2016: Cam Miller, 1969 Camaro
• 2015: Bobby Alloway, 1933 Ford Roadster
• 2014: Kyle Tucker, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro

Ahem. Are se starting to see a just a bit of a pattern here? Not only have 1969 Camaros won four times in this six-year-old competition, but one specific Camaro builder has won twice.

Personal disclosure: I LOVE Camaros, especially those from the first generation, of which the 1969 model is a part. But I’m not as infatuated with Camaros as I was, say, 20 years ago.

And if my tastes and wallet ever should run once again in the direction of an American classic from they heyday of the pony car and muscle car era, a Camaro would probably no longer be my first choice.

But still… if you look at the list above, can you really suggest that I’m letting my personal perspective of not being as big of a Camaro fan as I used to be shape my perception of a need to raise a question here?

It’s also noteworthy that there are basically two categories of vehicles represented in the SEMA Battle of the Builders historical winners list above: pre-war and 1960s. Outcomes like this suggest that, perhaps, the process of selecting contestants, selecting finalists, and selecting winners could somehow have been allowed to be too “cannibalistic.” 

Perhaps SEMA needs to look at what they could do to shake things up a little.

SEMA, after all, positions itself as an organization that is highly concerned about the future of the automotive aftermarket parts and services and customization industry. And there are a lot emerging market forces, like electrification and autonomous mobility, calling that future into question.

And, yes—there is even a contingency of advocates who have outright declared The War on Cars.

But there is an incredibly strong case to be made, however important it is to preserve the heritage of pre-war cars and muscle cars, that the future of the automotive hobby and the aftermarket and customization industry does not lie in those eras—or certainly not in those areas alone, in any case.

And it certainly does not like solely with the one very specific category of 1969 Chevrolet Camaro.

Today, builders from younger generations, inspired by newer generations of automobiles, are doing incredible things.

Due especially to the presence of the Young Guns category, a newer generation of builders or course had representation among 12 finalists in the field. But a newer generation of cars? Not so much.

Chelsie Lesnoski, for example, the tenth Young Guns participant who was selected by a public vote, did not make the final cut with her Scion FRS build. Lesnoski is reputed to be one of Canada’s top FRS tuners.

Just why the selection of winners in the six years of the Battle of the Builders competition’s existence has ended up being so centered on a couple of categories and eras and one model and year of vehicle—the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro—is another question that might have a quite complex answer.

But if SEMA, the automotive hobby, and the aftermarket industry are to remain relevant in the automotive future that is taking shape, it might be a good idea to take a closer look at the process behind Battle of the Builders and figure out how to shake things up a bit.

SEMA would do well to ensure that more varying perspectives on the car-building space have a chance at representation from start to finish—and a better chance to emerge at the top.

Yes, we dig 1969 Camaros. But sometimes you can just have too much of a good thing.