Judges

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I grew up and live in Southern California and have always been immersed in the local car scene. I’ve club raced with BMW, SCCA, and NASA for over a decade as well as instructed. I’ve been a board member of our local PCA (Porsche Club of America) chapter and ran their Autocross program for 2 years. I’ve been in the specialty automotive dealer industry for 30 years and I am the co-founder and owner of AutoKennel®, Inc, an Orange County, California dealership specializing in European sports cars and specifically German marques. I drive over 30,000 miles each year in vintage cars.

Nathan Merz is a lifelong automotive enthusiast with a deep appreciation for the intricate details and often obscure trivia of the automotive world. A true aficionado, his passion extends across a wide spectrum of vehicles, though his primary focus lies within the realm of Porsche. His collection reflects this dedication, while also encompassing classic American trucks, Japanese sports cars, and the occasional eccentric British model.

Professionally, Nathan is the owner and founder of Columbia Valley Luxury Cars, a Redmond, Washington-based dealership specializing exclusively in Porsche vehicles. His expertise is particularly recognized in the areas of valuation and authentication, making him a trusted authority in the field. Nathan shares his knowledge and insights through various platforms, including YouTube, social media, and prominent publications such as Porsche Panorama, Avants, and Spiel Magazines. He is also a frequent guest speaker at industry panels, auction discussions, and PCA Tech Tactics events.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Nathan is deeply committed to his family, including his four children and one grandson. An avid ultra-runner and fitness enthusiast, he balances his automotive passion with a dedication to personal health and endurance.

As Creative Director for Franchise at Pixar, Jay Ward consults on all Cars-related projects globally, providing guidance for Marketing, Consumer Products, and Theme Park activations. He also serves as a liaison with automotive Manufacturers and museums working on Pixar-related projects around the world. Jay was the automotive and creative consultant on all three Cars films, all Cars short films, and helped create ‘Cars Land’ at Disney’s California Adventure Park. Most recently he collaborated with Porsche on creating the ‘Sally Special’, a bespoke 911 Carrera which sold for a record $3.6 million dollars, all of which went to charity.

In addition to his direction on Pixar franchise projects, Jay has worked in the art departments of Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, and Brave, and served as Associate Producer of the 2008 Pixar short film Presto. He also created the Pixar campus classic car show, the “Pixar Motorama”, hosting vehicles from Jay Leno, Chip Foose, the Petersen Auto Museum, as well as a number of his own classic cars. Away from Pixar, Ward was the co-creator of a number of traditional hot rod shows, as well as being a regular contributor to a number of automotive publications. Additionally, Jay serves as an Honorary Judge and Class Judge at Pebble Beach, the Amelia, and Audrain Newport Concours, as well as Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy.

Ward currently resides in Orinda, California with his wife and their two children.

Tabetha Kanter, a 2009 graduate of McPherson College’s Automotive Restoration program, was captivated by vehicles as a teenage and earned the title of Grand Champion in the Chevron Tractor Restoration Contest two-years in a row. In her previous role as CEO and President of America’s Automotive Trust, she oversaw the work of the RPM Foundation, LeMay – America’s Car Museum, and the America on Wheels Museum. Prior to that, Tabetha held an 11-year tenure at Hagerty where her primary focus was on youth, education, and heritage and helped introduce more than 15,000 kids to collector vehicles, including teaching teenagers to drive stick shift. Tabetha has served as a Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Forum panelist and has judged at various concours, including Audrain, Cobble Beach, Elegance at Hershey, and Greenwich. Her greatest passion is to be behind the wheel. She has participated in a variety of driving events, including The Great Race, and has attended Skip Barber Racing School. Tabetha, along with her husband, Buzz, can often be found enjoying the open road in one of her classics ranging from a 1928 Packard convertible coupe to a 1973 Austin Mini, as well as on a vareity of two-wheels, including her 1940 Indian Sport Scout, 1947 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead and 1956 Moto Guzzi Falcone Sport.

Lara Newton, aka "That Porsche Girl," is a precision driver and a leading figure in the Porsche community. With a background as a driving double for actresses such as Julia Roberts, Jennifer Connelly, and Mary Louise Parker, and her experience in prestigious rallies like the Mille Miglia and La Carrera Panamericana, she has become a trailblazer for women in motorsports. Lara was the first female guest editor for Porsche Classic’s Originale catalog and has been featured in multiple leading automotive magazines and coffee table books.

As a contributor to Porsche Panorama Magazine, and a prominent media presence at global automotive events, Lara raises the profile of Porsche and other high-performance brands. Passionate about inclusivity, she advocates for greater female representation in the industry, with a focus on “getting women off the hoods of cars and into the driver’s seat.” With a deep knowledge of both foreign and domestic cars, Lara is committed to making the automotive world more multifaceted, ensuring women have a voice and are recognized for their contributions.

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Andy Reid is a Certified sports car fanatic who travels the world to see what’s crossing the auction block and what deals are out there. Andy has been involved in the collector car lifestyle since before he could drive when, at 15, he bought his first collector vehicle, a 1968 Fiat 124 coupe, His second was a 1966 330 GT 2+2 that he purchased by stealing his college savings at 17. Andy has owned more than 200 cars, “many of them neither normal or reasonable.”

Andy’s current collector vehicles include a 1996 007 edition BMW Z3 roadster, A 2005 BMW Z4, a 2023 BMW M2, and way too many classic BMW motorcycles. Andy has written for Grassroots Motorsports, Racer, Vintage Motorsport, Roundel, Porsche Panorama, Jaguar World, Sports Car Market, and was the auction columnist at Classic Motorsports magazine for 12 years. Currently he writes regularly for the classiccars.com Journal, and contributes to Magneto, Tazio, and Classic Motorsports. Prior to his career as a collector car journalist he worked in the film and television industry on films including his personal favorite Tombstone. He next worked in the internet advertising industry and went on later to help launch a number of internet companies.

Andy is also a well-respected Concours judge and judges at The Hilton Head Concours, The Radnor Hunt Concours, Greenwich Concours, the Cincinnati Concours, Chattanooga Concours, and The Lime Rock Vintage Festival. He is also the head judge of the Classic Motorsports Monterey Kick off show in Pacific Grove and Amelia Island.

In 2023 Andy was asked to be a BMW Car Club of America Foundation Ambassador. In these duties he is responsible to help promote the Ultimate Driving Museum in Spartanburg, NC and assists with exhibits, and descriptions of the cars on display.

On April 1 st of 2020 he saw that the concours world was going to be on hold he saw a need to give his judge and owner friends something to do and founded the Isolation Island Concours, a judged concours event for model cars. The event ran in 10 parts thru all of 2020 and raised more than $200,000 for charities and had hundreds of entrants from around the world including a number of Pebble Beach Best of Show and class winners.

Lyn Woodward is a Los Angeles-based automotive journalist who’s been writing about cars for a decade. Her love of anything on four wheels began as a young girl sitting in the back of her father’s 356 Porsche Speedster. Currently, Woodward writes reviews and hosts videos for Kelley Blue Book, but her work as appeared in The New York Times, Hagerty Drivers Club, MotorTrend, Automobile Magazine, The Drive and Motor1 among others. Woodward has also answered Hollywood’s call and has had three television movies produced.

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Jim Pickering was a founding editor of Linkage magazine, and before that spent 15 years in both the managing editor and auction editor roles at Sports Car Market, American Car Collector and Corvette Market magazines. During that time, he reviewed literally thousands of collector cars and trucks at auctions around the globe. Jim is a lifelong car nut who got his start in a neighborhood auto shop while he was still in high school, where he honed his skills repairing, restoring and modifying classic cars and trucks. He’s also written two how-to books on building modified classic GM trucks.

Brad Phillips has spent his entire life around the car hobby, both personally and professionally. He's owned and restored around fifty cars, from pre-war to modern performance, with his garage currently full of an '87 911 Carrera, a '66 Sunbeam Tiger, and a '60 Bugeye Sprite. Brad's favorite place is behind the wheel, either on long distance tours or time speed rallies, being a long time veteran of the Great Race. With a professional career in specialty automotive insurance, collector car auctions, and the sales and service in concours quality automobiles, he's seen it all!

Born and bred in downtown Toronto, Canada, Fadi has always loved cars. His father was a Mechanical Engineer in the automotive field, whose claim to fame was machining the first seamless stainless steel bushing used to graduate the then new plastic components of the Ford Windstar to their steel counterparts. Fadi’s earliest pre-seatbelt memories found him sat next to his dad in the front seat of their 72 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (and later in their 83- their Pontiac Parisienne Safari), playing ‘Guess the Car’ - where they had to guess the make and model of each car they passed or were passed by on the highway. Fadi has owned over 30 cars in his lifetime and currently enjoys the company of a 2018 Land Rover Discovery Db6, a 1971 Alfa Romeo Gulia 1300 Super and has had a lifelong affair with Bernice, a silver 1986 Porsche 944 which he’s slept in countless times. Fadi is the Founder of Lev Gleason Studios, an international Publisher of Comics and Graphic Novels and owns some of Toronto and Vancouver’s top bars and restaurants. Also he loves cars.

Kyle Hyatt has been working as an automotive journalist since 2017. In that time he's written over 3,000 car-related articles as well as tested and reviewed hundreds of vehicles of both the two and four-wheeled varieties. Kyle is a contributor to Edmunds, and in addition to stints on staff at CNET's Roadshow and Jalopnik, his byline has been featured at Car & Driver, Robb Report, Autoblog, Motor Trend, The Drive and Ars Technica. When he's not busy writing, he's usually procrastinating on finishing his custom 1969 Honda CB350, driving his 996 or, now, figuring out how to turn his Range Rover into an overland camper.

Author, journalist, and director Basem Wasef has an unhealthy obsession with chasing the best of the best. In over two decades of writing for publications like Robb Report and Christophorus he has tested an arsenal of vehicles from Patagonia to the Arctic Circle in search of the exceptional. Wasef’s passion for all things mechanical spans from vintage motorcycles to private aircraft, and he has leveraged that knowledge by consulting for some of the world’s top luxury brands. He co-founded Chronoscope Productions with his wife Anna, and together they produce cinematically styled automotive marketing videos. When he’s not traveling the world to test the latest and greatest, Wasef enjoys cruising in his 90s-era Mercedes-Benz V-12 and piloting his 1963 Land Rover Series 2A to local hikes with his son Augustine and their Italian Greyhound, Georgie.