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Bramcote champion counted :out
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CHRIS O'REILLY TAKES LDOY TITLE FROM STAN CHAPMAN AFTER RUN OFF RE-CHECK: NEWCOMERS SECOND AND THIRD
FLAMMABLE was the spirit dominant at the National Finals of the 1969 Lorry Driver of the Year Competition_ For at Bramcote, Warwicks, last Sunday, the first and second contestants in this 17th annual road safety event, sponsored by Commercial Motor and arranged by a national organizing committee, were both tanker drivers—from different fuel companies. Third place was taken by a BRS Ltd. contender from Swansea. All three drove AEC vehicles.
To some of those who watched the prize presentation at the day's end the foregoing paragraph may come as a surprise, as the man who was acclaimed the champion and presented with the premier trophy, ShellMex and BP driver Stanley Chapman, who also drove an AEC, subsequently had to relinquish his awards when a re-check of markings in the final run-off revealed an error in the scoring of his penalties in a height-judging test_ This caused some reshuffling of the original prize-list4 uprating second and third men to first and second positions and altering the destinations of several of the other main trophies.
As a gesture of compensation, CM's
publisher, Temple Press Ltd., has made an ex gratia payment of £55 to Stanley Chapman, this being the amount of the cash awards he forfeited.
So the victor's laurels now go to Christopher O'Reilly, of Petrofina (UK) Ltd., who lives in Leeds. The D-class winner, he also collected the prize for the best rigid box or tanker driver and the FTA's award for the best C-licence man. Although only 29, Chris has five finalist's lapel badges, starting with 1964—he missed out in 1965. His hobbies are lorry driver competitions and playing football. On Sunday he played skittles with the results.
Runner-up, best artic section driver and H-class winner, Norman Squire, 35, of Texaco Ltd., from Poole, Dorset, has been with his company for 12 of his 18 years of driving. He made second place despite never having previously been to Bramcote. However, the Newcomers Award—there were 176 first-timers—went to Ray Henderson, a BRS Seddon artic driver from Newcastle upon Tyne.
Phillip Symonds, third placeman, G-class winner and another newcomer, also works for BRS, from Swansea, his home town. Aged 30, with fishing, gardening and decorating as his hobbies, he has spent nearly two of his seven years of driving with his present employers and his performance also gained him the RHA award for the best A or B licence driver.
A warmly applauded success was that of the South Wales Centre, which won the team prize although established only this year after intensive training by E. Crocker, the BRS divisional manager. Phil Symonds helped greatly towards this result as did RAF St. Athan Sgt. J. F. Cronin, best Services driver, C-class winner and a 1968 finalist.
Another new centre this year was Dundee, bringing the total of areas represented to 29. And from them came an all-time record entry of 293, drawn out of `the 10 vehicle classes ranging from light vans to lengthy artics. An unlucky 11 failed to reach Bramcote, the non-starters' list being swollen by the absence of six Northern Ireland entrants robbed of their chances by troubles—not in Belfast, but at docks in England—which prevented the arrival of their lorries.
So into the Gamecock Barracks at Bramcote, guided by the young soldiers of the Junior Leaders Regiment (RA), came the grand parade of competitors and an eager crowd of 15,500 supporters and spectators to take part in a day full of activity under warm and dry conditions.
It was shortly after 8 a.m. when clerk of the course Gerry Aston flagged the contest under way and into a new system of operation and a new scheme of tests.
There were four driving tests—reversing into a loading bay, width judging, kerb parking and stopping on targets. With the tests duplicated, the entry was split into halves, Nos. 1, 2, 3, etc., tackling one set in numerical order while the other half used the second set in reverse order, last man going first.
By mid-afternoon the first driving tests were completed, but meanwhile the boys
had been back to school, sitting exams on the Highway Code and a new hazard —answering a questionnaire by placing in order of importance a series of actions to be taken when "collecting" a vehicle. Basically a practical idea, this test in fact proved to be a waste of time, for every driver scored the maximum 50 penalty points except one—a Schweppes' driver from Poole, G. E. Legg, who logged only 22.
The morning's driving produced few surprises, the expert veterans mostly taking their expected places at the heads of their classes. Only on the target tests were any clean sheets returned—five of them.
Naturally there was special interest taken in certain drivers. Last year's champion, Sam. Gray, of N. Ireland Eggs Ltd., started uncertainly and finished fifth in the hotly contested Class G in which also was D. J. Wilkes, one of the controversial D. E. Hines (Transport) Ltd. drivers. Mr. Ron Hines and TGWU official Mr. Alan Law were among the spectators. Colleague Jim Millen's hot tip, given in CM last week, B. P. O'Mahoney, was closely watched as he took his BMC through Class G. He was doing well until a misjudgment in kerb parking cost him maximum penalties.
There were also the usual last-minute difficulties to be overcome; for example, the scrutineers rejected for being 4in. too long for its class the smartly turned out Austin of W. Allport and Son: driver C. H. Beardmore had to find a substitute. A problem for M. Parkes was how to be at Bramcote while holiday-making in Majorca. His company, G. M. Gerrards (Fruiterers) Ltd., helped solve it by paying half his air fare.
As has become traditional, LDoY Sunday was very much a family affair and the sideshow attractions were even more numerous this year, especially popular being tne "try-your-strength" and cycle roller racing competitions staged by the Daily Mirror. For the children there was a special gala as well as Joe Statham's roundabout. For the ladies, Woman had a competition in which the contestants were required to give their "recipes" for the characteristics of a perfect wife for a lorry driver. Of general interest were the British Ropes sheeting and roping contest, the BSM driving competition and brake reaction tests, a continuous film show and various demonstrations including the Hope anti-jack-knife device and, under the banner of the Warwickshire Constabulary,
an impressive and loud—assemblage of anti-theft and hijack-proof systems.
When all the class winners were known they were gathered together and briefed on the run-off tests. These consisted of bay parking with a Commer 2500 series van, height judging with a Commer 7-ton boxvan, reversing and width judging with a Dodge platform six-wheeler and kerb parking with a Dodge /Hands tandem-axle-trailer artic. The fourth run-off test, for the first time in the competition, involved reversing an artic and some were heard to say that it was unfair to expect drivers accustomed to rigids to do this. The organizers' answer was that no one could aspire to the title of Britain's best lorry driver if he couldn't handle vehicles of all types. As it turned out.
the man who beat them all customarily drives a rigid.
But there was still more to come—a new, ingenious and highly practical test involving four stationary Bedfords of different types, each of which had been "doctored" with seven faults. For instance, one had a detached plug lead and fired only on three cylinders, another had a diesel injector blockage and another a dry radiator. Time limits for fault finding were 15 minutes on the three rigids and 20 minutes on the artic. One man was even careful enough to check that front and rear number plates tallied! The two smartly uniformed Texaco drivers were especially systematic in tackling the check (perhaps reflecting company training?) but even among this top 10 some obvious faults were, surprisingly, missed.
Then, as 7 p.m. approached, it was into the prize distribution hangar, first to hear Temple Press Ltd. managing director, Mr. Harold Nockolds, pay tribute to the competition's chairman, Aid. R. W. Brain, who was taking leave of the competition after being its guiding spirit for its 17 years of existence. Mr. Nockolds also presented Ald. Brain with a cine-camera and all the accessories on behalf of the organizing committee.
Prizes were presented by Mr. W. G. Alexander, director-general of RoSPA, who praised the standards of skill and safety set by professional driv,--s.