Lorry Driver of the Year Competition, Birmingham
Page 58
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TAKE heart, Mr. Wooding. Although
I honesty may be its own reward, we hope it pays off in the long run. The day should have been yours by 20 points and on index of performance, too, if you hadn't been honest about grazing those pylons in Test 2. None of the marshals saw it. Bad luck that you were not looking the other way.
But that was the way of it. After being announced as the winner of Class C in Sunday's eliminating contest in Birmingham, with the commendably low rating of 79 penalty points, J. S. Wooding of the Austin Motor Co. (last year's overall winner on points) told the marshals he was surprised at the result because of his brush with the pylons in the width-judging tests, and that reduced him to an also-ran by the loss of an additional 100 marks. Compensatory in terms of team spirit, his team mate T. E. Lewis came off best on points with 99 to win the class award and a place in the final.
Perhaps after all it was an attic day, with particular emphasis on backing on the blind side into the loading bay. So many made a hash of it and gave up or carried on in a rather pathetic way until they hit something. This had strong spectator appeal and those who knew what they were doing deservedly got a big hand. Confident all the way, winner of class F (and the best C-licensed driver on index of performance) J. T. Lorton drove a shining Bedford semi-trailer of the Midland Counties Dairy with a total loss of 110 points, of which 79 were lost on this test. Mr. Lorton is the only driver in the list of results who lost no marks in the highway code test and his bay-test points were well below the average for heavier vehicles.