lilt& drivers show the way
Page 16
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BRITISH team managed a table third in the tractive and trailer category of the h international championfor lorry drivers, run by the n Internationale des ChaufRoutiers, at Gilze en Rijen, a Netherlands, (CM, October JOHN DURANT reports. wever, there was some ipointment at the complete 's final place — next to last. a final placings were: atherlands (3,937 penalty nts); armany (4,480); iuth Africa (8,920); vitzerland (9,387); ance (9,565); lland (10,326); eat Britain (11,174); Igium (14,843).
e team competed in left-drive vehicles supplied by :edes-Benz, which must been something of a handialthough some drivers told hat they were not in the worried by this. One of the 5h drivers in fact regularly 5 a left-hand-drive Volvo.
to the point is that in in, unlike some of the ries of competing teams, are no preliminary rounds. rvever, the British team was lexperienced, several hay:ompeted in previous sts run by the UICR (Les ars) and three — Frederick as, of Enfield, Middx; DeFerrer, of Portsmouth, ; and Angelo di Palma of ;ter — have competed at )oY competitors, which are r contests altogether.
k of preliminary rounds lave led to nervousness at the start; and 14 tests had to be completed in 171/2 minutes. Several competitors were annoyed with themselves for not allowing enough time to complete the
Course.
When they saw some of the other countries' team members complete later, and make many mistakes — a Frenchman missed out one complete test — they felt better, and hence the slight disappointment at finishing next to last.
These driving contests are open only, of course, to UICR members. While Britain has something over 2,000 members of the Continental Freight Drivers' Club, with hq at 354 Fulham Road, London SW10, the total European membership in UICR associations is 800,000, and the contests are partly a fraternal event, with a banquet and entertainment. Jean-Claude Pechin, secretary-general, told me that the UICR endeavours to create a unified approach to transport matters in Europe. He would consider sending a team to the LDoY contest if asked.
The Dutch branch must be congratulated on its all-round achievement since it has been going only a couple of years. Next year the championships will be held in Switzerland; Norway may get them in 1983, and Britain is a possiblity for 1984 — for the first time.
The Routiers driving contests were preceded by a mere four "theory" questions: what would you do, a, b, c or d in each pictorial illustration?
Driving contests were dived into four classes: rigids; coaches; artics and drawbars.
Britain's team, sponsored by Townsend Thoresen (European Ferries Group), was led by a non-driving team boss — Jack Hibberd, who is CFDC manager at Dover. They looked as smart as anyone, and much smarter than most, in their uniform supplied by Townsend Thoresen.
In the rigid class, June Butler station manager for Avis Truck Rental at Chingford, Essex, was one of three women drivers in the contest. She had very bad luck in one event — a sort of modern equivalent of medieval jousting — and nerves led her to reverse a couple of inches too far in the next one, and her final score was 2,256 penalty points. Dereck Farrer was our best representative in this section with 1,053, followed by Raymond Sweeney, who works for Hedleys Humpers, of London NW9, with 1,229.
Among the coach drivers, Malcolm Stevenson, a class winner at Blackpool and Brighton rallies, who works for F. Bibby & Son of Ingleton, Lancs, was eighth (571). Peter Bibby, who works in the family business, dropped 1,927 points. Terry Shaw of Shaws Coaches of Barnsley, who was in the British team at Brussels in 1978 and regularly enters Blackpool and Brighton rallies, returned a workmanlike round for 1,340 points.
The artic team consisted of John Crookes (973), of Cardiff, proprietor of Wenallt Transport; Michael Medlock (932), of Martintrux of Grays, Essex; and Frederick Vowles (893), who has recently joined Vestric Ltd, of Luton.
The first two have UICR experience and Mr Volwes, who has regularly clocked 100,000 miles a year including Middle Eastern and North African runs, has competed in the LDoY contest.
The drawbar men, too, have a lot of overseas experience.
John Smith drives for Robert Armstrong of Liverpool, and came 13th with 1,689 penalties; and Angelo di Palma, who works for Hercock Continental, of Leicester, was penalised 2,498 points.
The drawbar class, and the artics one, too, were tricky because trailers' brakes were not connected in order to equate their braking with that of other vehicles. Consequently, when braking for a barrier it was so easy to roll an extra three inches — all that was required to bring on a red light and penalties at stop barriers. Only contest experience can cancel this sort of thing out.
However, long Continental speeches apart, all contestants voted the contest a good sporting occasion. The officials referred to it as a "lorry drivers' Olympics" and even called the drivers "ambassadors of peace". With a build-up like that, it had to be a sporting contest.
Goodyear, as a sponsor, supplied tyres for the contest.