BRAMCOTE TITLE GOES NORTH OF
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By Bob Holliday THE BoRDE and David Lowe
FOR the first time in its 18 years' history the Lorry Driver of the Year title has gone north of the Border. Champion of Champions in the 1971 contest, hailed at Bramcote, Nuneaton, last Sunday, is Norman Donald Singer, of Aberdeen, a 32-year-old father of three and a newcomer to the competition.
His success means that in four consecutive years the championship has been won by drivers from Northern Ireland (1968), England ('69), Wales ('70) and now Scotland.
For the past 18 months of his 11 years of hgv driving Norman Singer has worked for his entrant, Shell & BP Scotland Ltd, and his Class H Scammell tanker, which he handled with such outstanding skill on Sunday, was entirely strange to him for he had flown from Scotland and picked up the vehicle at a local Shell depot only the day before.
It was a clear-cut, indisputable victory for the tankerman. His total of penalty points in the final run off, 478, was an improvement by 151 points on the score of the runner-up, veteran contestant Gerald McMullen, the Class G winner from Birmingham who drove a Leyland Laird—the flat artic he has regularly used for the past nine months and which was entered by his employers, British Road Services Ltd. Gerry McMullen was a National Finals competitor in 1963/4/5/6. In his very first year he was Class F/2 winner and runner-up. Aged 41 and a lorry driver for 21 years, he is also a family man with three children.
LDoY experience for Class A winner Ronald Pullinger, the third place man, goes back to 1967 when he was runner-up in Class B. Aged 42, a driver for 25 years, Hampshireman Ron has driven his Ford tipper for three years with Sunny Bank Sand Ltd, of Fair Oaks, Hants. Caravan touring and motorcycle reliability trials are his hobbies and his brother Basil, another Finals regular, this year won the Chairman's Merit Award.
The remaining five class champions, in marks order, were Cpl R. Wickstead (B), A. Howitt (D), A. Blair (E), D. A. Solari (F) and Cpl V. R. Hornbuckle (C)—the eightsome thus being made up of four haulage men, two own-account drivers and two Servicemen, a run-off variety the like of which has not before been witnessed.
A unique feature of this year's competition was the presentation of a prize that has never hitherto been contested—the Ladies' Award. It went to Mrs Judith Boyd (22), an SAC W stationed at RAF Waddington, Lines, serving a seven-year engagement of which she has completed nearly five years. Her duties
include the driving of coaches and hea. goods vehicles, and on Sunday she drove
Bedford truck in Class B, scoring a creditab 209 points in the face of a barrage of of putting television and Press cameras.
Patches of mist encountered by tho: making early arrivals at Bramcote gaN promise of the lovely Indian Summer's da that was to develop. And for the 2i competitors (there were six non-starter action began promptly. No sooner had driver entered the gates of the Gameco( Barracks, base of the Junior Leader Regiment (RA), than he was faced with leading question. "State the length at width of your vehicle exactly," he was askei His reply was recorded and then compare by the scrutineers with their actual measur ments, marks being scored for discrepancie Very, very few drivers were able to spot-on answers.
Along with the customary mechanic scrutiny and checking of documents can the Highway Code examination. And 1 9 am the outfits were beginning the cla championship tests.
In recent years, to speed up the handli) of this part of the competition, these tv have been duplicated. This year they were triplicate and to the great credit of the !It clerk of the course, Ted Teer, the process sorting out the class winners went throu smoothly and swiftly, the increased force volunteer marshals performing their tas with knowledgeable efficiency. Reversi into a loading bay, width judgment, a "sna turn", kcrb parking and distance judgmt comprised the five sections tackled, As the morning progressed both the ov all scene and the atmosphere at Bramc■ changed. An increasingly strong sun quidl dried out the grass as the crowd of spectati built up into numbers estimated to have IA exceeded those of any previous eve Spurred on by commentator Eddy Barbe continued on page 46