Finding the Winner
Page 43
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THE most important ingredient of the Lorry Driver of the Year competition, the 1961 final of which is to be staged at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, on Sunday, is undoubtedly the competitors, a simple fact that occasionally appears to be overlooked by people who should know better. Quite a percentage of the individuals competing regald the whole affair as having a distinct element of chance. In a competition of this nature nobody can expect to provide the perfect answer for all situations, but it remains of primary importance that, in an event such as this, the participants at eliminating centres shall be certain in their own minds that "they," meaning the promoters, are working with the same object in view as the drivers—to find the safest, most skilful man among those who compete.
With all but the final stage of the 1961 contest now complete, the organizers can look back on the remarkable success that has attended this enterprise over the years. They will be, at the same time, considering what action can be taken to increase the attraction of the contest to the general public. Whether in sport or industry, the hour of success is the time when wisdom suggests a stocktaking. Such a stocktaking would yield the pattern of victory whilst some later reckoning might only record a story of decline. This is something the organizers, fortunately, have well in mind already.
If a healthy atmosphere is to continue to surround the proceedings, the ordinary competitor must fully understand the contest and must feel that he is truly part of it. The brief solution to this problem of making thedriver feel that he " belongs " is surely that the published pro-. grammes shall explain matters in an adequate manner. These, it must be remembered, are in the hands of the families, friends, workmates and other spectators, whose goodwill is valued. In certain areas the programmes are decidedly deficient in dealing with the methods adopted . in the calculation of the results. Indeed, the calculation of some of the local overall winners is a matter of some bewilderment to an outsider.
With the greatly increased number of entrants throughout the country, the chances of any individual claiming national honours are becoming proportionately less, so that area titles are necessarily assuming a greater significance in the minds of the majority of those interested. It may, therefore, be that the national organizing committee may have to think again on the subject. .
In a few centres the class winners line up for a final, all driving identical vehicles, a system that is adopted in the national final. Some favour the index-of-performance method. Here (as at Manchester, for instance) a figure of merit is produced, which indicates each competitor's position in relation to the best 25 per cent. of his class, so avoiding any chance of tests unduly favouring a particular category of vehicle. Oxford also uses a similar method.
Whether local organizers use one formula or another, however, is relatively unimportant so long as the participants are satisfied that they are being given a fair deal all round.
Turning to the national finals, their aim may be assumed to be the selection of the best all-round lorry driver of the year, a qualification which would imply the capability of driving a reasonable range of different vehicles. Bearing this in mind, would it not be an idea to arrange the final tests at this meeting of champions in future years so that class-winning drivers would undergo one timed test one each of three vehicles of different sizes in common use? This would, beyond all dispute, produce the Lorry Driver of the Year.