The Champion Eliminated
Page 59
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THE reigning Lorry Driver of the Year, W. T. Haywood (Geo. Prince, Ltd., Austin) gained only second place in his class at the Birmingham round of the competition last Sunday, and is ineligible for the final. The 1957 champion, W. Hirons (Clopton Transport, Atkinson) was anplaced in his class. A. E. Haywood, the title-holder's brother, repeated his success in the 1958 finals by coming top in class A, and gained the
best marks in the day's event, although none of the class winners was nominated as an outright victor.
In the road section, several contestants disqualified themselves by committing driving faults spotted by observers at five places on the route. Salutary lessons were probably learned, justifying a• part of the competition rather apt to be taken as of secondary importance to the .manyeuvring tests. Similarly, the Highway Code questionnaire was of more than token significance: of only 10 of the 150 competitors who gained more than 40 out of 50 marks in this examination, three went on to win their classes and another three were runners-up.
Marks scored on the road section and the questionnaire were totalled, and the aggregate penalties during the rnanceuvring tests. were deducted from them. Thus before these tests W. T. Haywood had a credit of 166 points, but forfeited 56 to score 110. He was beaten by only a mark by G. Moseley (British Road Services, Seddon). Moseley was one of only seven competitors to drop, fewer than 50 marks on the manceuvring tests. Of these seven, five won their classes and two gained second places. The best was A. E. Haywood, who lost 22, being followed by A. J. Mace (Messrs. A. .1. Mace, Thames), who made his run at the end of the day having earlier been delivering milk. He dropped 30 marks.
As is common in these events, there were internecine rivalries between drivers of the same concerns, giving rise to certain contestants accelerating hard and jamming brakes on while manceuvring. Sorry results occurred when care was ousted by such enthusiasm, so that the clean sweep of class G by three B.R.S. drivers was the more creditable.
Although the organizers could be congratulated on their hitch-free handling of such a large entry, the programme was deficient in a. few respects and the commentary intermittent and barely informative. Apart from those who were placed, the competitors did not know how they had fared, which will hardly stimulate their keenness for future events.