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Tighter schedule for popular finals
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MORE than 250 of the country's top drivers, including five previous champions, will assemble at Cranfield next Sunday, September 15, for the 26th Finals of the Commercial Motor Lorry Driver of the Year competition. A crowd of around 20,000 spectators is expected.
Other attractions at the Bedfordshire airfield will include 60 sideshows and demonstrations.
This year the competitors will face an even stiffer written test on the Highway Code and precedures — but no road route.
The LDoY national secretary John Wells, said that the omission of the road route will save both time and fuel, allowing the competition to run better to schedule than in previous years.
But this year there are fewer competitors than in recent years with the total number of entrants dropping from the 3300 who entered the regional competitions in the jubilee year 1978 to 2700 this year.
Mr Wells blamed this on the effects of the haulage strike earlier this year, a general shortage of money and the fuel situation.
The Finals will be preceded on the Saturday evening by an eve-of-competition dinner, a function which proved so popular in the jubilee year that it is becoming a regular event.
The Finals day will begin for the drivers with the written paper at around 8am before they move on to the manoeuvring tests.
After the written tests the drivers will be faced with the four manoeuvring tests to decide the national class winners. Results will be decided on penalty points collected by the contestants during both the written and practical tests.
The national class finals will be driven in the contestant's own vehicle that he would normally drive at work, but when the class winners meet to contest the Lorry Driver of the Year title in the afternoon the vehicles will be four Leylands lent for the event.
Test one will be taken in a Leyland EA integral van of 322cuft with an 8ft 6in wheelbase. It has a 2.5-litre fourcylinder diesel engine and a four-speed synchromesh gearbox.
Test two will see the drivers faced with a Leyland Boxer Bx1325 13.25-tonne flatbodied container carrier with a 14ft 3in wheelbase and a 5.65litre six-cylinder turbocharged 137bhp engine and a fivespeed synchromesh gearbox. The axle is a single-speed version and the vehicle will be fitted with the Leyland Super G cab.
A six-wheel Leyland Reiver 24-tonne tipper with a 6.54-litre six-cylinder turbocharged engine giving 144bhp and a 10speed splitter driving through a single-speed axle, will be the vehicle for test three.
Drivers will be presented with a Leyland Marathon tractive unit with a Rolls-Royce 265L engine, Fuller gearbox and coupled to a Crane Fruehauf 12.2metre dry freight van semitrailer for test four.
Prize money for the Lorry Driver of the Year and the runners-up will come from a prize fund this year to which the manufacturers of vehicles and equipment have contributed, and it is expected to stand at around £1,500 plus the other prizes donated by various organisations.
Additional prizes have come from Butlins — a week's holiday for two to the champion — and from the Institute of Traffic Administration, which is presenting the driver of his entrant with
a scholarship to take the graduate examinations of the institute.
There will be eight Certificat( of Professional Cornpetenc( learning packs to be awarded t( various winners by the Institut( of Road Transport Engineering the Chartered Institute of Trans port and the loTA.
The Road Transport lndustr Training Board is to give a schc larship to the winner to take th CPC examination or an equ' valent exam and this follows u on the award for 1978 whe Lorry Driver of The Year Tor Kerr passed his CPC exam wit flying colours after making us of the scholarship.
However, the major prize fc the LDoY and his sponso remains the Michelin Europea Study Tour award; this year th venue is Germany.
Although five previou champions will be among th competitors at this year's final! Mr Kerr will not be among then but will present the prizes to th 1979 winners.
Guests at Cranfield includ railmen's union leader Sidne Weighall, who is taking an ir terest in road transport since th return of Freightliners to Britis Rail from the National Freigt Corporation.
Other guests include Society if Motor Manufacturers and -raders director John Beswick Ind NFC chairman R. L. E. .awrence plus Freightliners nanaging director Cyril Bleaslale and Road Haulage kssoc ia t i on chairman John iilbermann.
NFC vice-chairman Victor 'aige and Metropolitan LA A. S. tobertson will also be at Craneld.
This year there will be more xhibitions and displays at :ranfield than at any previous DoY final with 60 companies nd organisations expected to e present.
During the lunch break in the riving competition a display is ) be mounted by the Commerial Vehicle and Road Transport .lub of 60 historic commercial ehicles dating from before the irst World War right up to ..cent times. The vehicles will e judged in a Concours 'elegance competition and rizes will be presented by ERF rucks. During the break the vehicles will parade around the airfield in a cavalcade.
The Royal Corps of Transport returns to the finals this year with a static display of all the kinds of vehicles used by the Corps including tank transporters complete with the Chieftain tank.
DAF Trucks are to field a top football star in goal for visitors to attempt to score goals and the BOC company will be staging a balloon race.
The British Road Services hot air balloon will be tethered on site and if the weather is suitable it may make a flight.
Mr Wells told CM that for the first time all 16 manufacturers are expected to have agents with demonstration vehicles available.
Qualified drivers will be able to drive the vehicles around the two-mile airfield track, which is being transformed into a test circuit for the event.
The Ford Bandag Bullet DSeries vehicle will be on display and will make a high-speed run,
and the public will be invited to guess its speed at a particular point. Speed will be measured by Bedfordshire police using the new speed trap -gun-.
Volvo will be staging an economy run contest for 120 drivers who have already entered. They will drive one of two vehicles around the track and the best three — or the most
economical three — will go forward to a run-off using one vehicle. There will be a £100 prize for the best six who go forward to the run-off and the eventual winner will be presented with a Volvo 343 car by star of stage and screen Diana Dors. The proceeds of the contest will be going to Dr Barnardo's Homes and Mrs Barnardo will be there to receive the cheque.
A demonstration of the lifesaving qualities of seat belts will be provided by BP, which is running a sled on a track with a belted-in dummy to show the benefits of seat belts.
Tyre changing contests will be run, as in previous years, by both Goodyear and Michelin.
The Road Haulage Association, Freight Transport Association and the United Road Transport Union will also be exhibiting at the display.
And while the contest and exhibitions are in full swing both the Leyland Vehicles and BOC bands will be on hand to entertain visitors.
The Young Driver of the Year competition will be taking place at the same time as the main contest. That competition is run by the Young HGV Drivers Committee, and young drivers who have already fought their way through the preliminary rounds will be faced with a final run-off using vehicles lent by BRS Truck Rental,