Elite Truckers to Meet in Indianapolis for National Truck Driving Championships

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]

Heading into its eighty fifth anniversary after a two-year hiatus, the Nationwide Truck Driving Championships return with a excessive degree of pleasure and a slate of opponents able to as soon as once more showcase their expertise behind the wheel.

Billed because the “Tremendous Bowl of Security,” the occasion brings truckers who’ve confirmed their mettle in state-level competitions to a nationwide stage. Match qualifiers, who will compete in Indianapolis in varied automobile lessons Aug. 16-19, stated they’re desirous to show their expertise and abilities in entrance of business fans, followers, households and pals.

Many of the opponents and volunteers who make up the NTDC household, as they discuss with themselves, haven’t seen one another since COVID-19 suspended the occasion in 2020 and 2021. Such a pause had not occurred since World Warfare II. Going into this 12 months, opponents and organizers level to a brand new degree of enthusiasm.

For example, returning NTDC Grand Champion Scott Woodrome with FedEx Freight in Ohio stated the two-year layoff heightened his need to as soon as once more check his truck driving expertise. Woodrome additionally seems ahead to reuniting with colleagues and friends.

“It’s nice to be a part of the household,” he informed Transport Subjects. “It’s all the time nice to see good household folks, skilled people who care about what they do. They care in regards to the business they usually care about being secure.”

Woodrome, who additionally claimed the 2018 Grand Champion crown, will compete within the sleeper berth division. He acknowledged that colleagues carry with them an array of abilities and charisma to raise the nationals’ spirit of competitors.

“It’s aggressive in any class,” Woodrome stated. “These are the most effective drivers within the nation. We throw that on the market, however they are surely. They usually’re additionally among the greatest folks, too, professionally within the nation.”

Plus, NTDC will not be solely a venue for elite drivers and organizers. The occasion additionally welcomes the households of the drivers, dozens of volunteers and business and authorities executives. “You get to reunite with all these folks,” Woodrome stated.

Time to Compete

Based on occasion organizers, this 12 months’s occasion options 408 opponents. NTDC qualifiers include the highest finishers at state truck security tournaments.

To win their respective lessons, drivers should accrue high scores in three disciplines: an analysis of business tips from the 2022 Information for Drivers rulebook, a pre-trip automobile inspection and maneuvering their particular truck on a security course. Sturdy performances throughout the three disciplines, together with sustaining a spotlight whereas competing, are stated to be keys that assist decide a driver’s end result. Drivers compete within the 3-axle, 4-axle, 5-axle, sleeper berth, twin trailers, tanker truck, flatbed truck, straight truck and step van lessons.

The match’s general high scorer takes house the blue-ribbon title of nationwide grand champion. This 12 months, Woodrome is not going to be the one former high winner competing. From Alabama, Alphonso Lewis with Yellow might be driving within the 5-axle. Lewis was nationwide champ in 2007. Wisconsin’s Jeff Langenhahn with XPO Logistics, grand champion in 2014, will compete within the twin trailers class. Indiana’s Mike White with Walmart, driving the sleeper berth this 12 months, earned the standing in 2016. And Connecticut’s Roland Bolduc of FedEx Specific, additionally competing within the sleeper berth, received the match in 2017.

“The competitors to me is not only a few months earlier than the precise occasion in August. The competitors to me is three hundred and sixty five days a 12 months,” Bolduc informed TT. “What I do on [the] street,” he added, “and what I do in pre-trip [inspections] is [to] consider that each one 12 months lengthy.”

Joyce Bain with FedEx Floor, grand champion at this 12 months’s Maryland qualifier, will discover herself competing alongside Woodrome, White and Bolduc within the sleeper berth class. Like the present grand champion, she pointed to the thrill related to the match’s return after its two-year hiatus. “I feel all people has been ready for this,” she informed TT whereas coaching for nationals this summer season. “Thank goodness we’re getting again on monitor [because] it’s one thing we look ahead to doing.”

Bain advised the break might have left some drivers “a bit of rusty” in relation to competitors. “That must be a bit of attention-grabbing — to see how that each one performs out.”

Echoing an identical sentiment is Tim Melody with ABF Freight, this 12 months’s Oregon grand champion competing within the 3-axle class. “Actually glad that COVID is over with and we’re again competing,” he stated. “And actually trying ahead to being there.”

Melody, who served as an America’s Highway Group Captain in 2017, received the dual trailers division at NTDC in 2013. He additionally has recorded an ideal rating on the nationals’ examination portion.

Almost two dozen drivers might be making their NTDC debut at this 12 months’s occasion. The organizers refer to those newbies as “rookies.”

Patricia “Patti” Gillette with the Colorado Motor Carriers Affiliation, the occasion’s second vice chairman, addressed the match’s affinity for this group.

“I feel the rookies are nice,” she stated. “Colorado was fortunate sufficient to have a rookie of the 12 months one 12 months. That second, and that pleasure, carries by way of all the pieces.”

She added, “I feel the thrill that the rookies may have, whether or not they’re a rookie to nationals or first time ever competing, that brings a complete new power to the room. There’s loads to soak up. However when you’ve been uncovered to the Nationwide Truck Driving Championships, you get that bug. And also you do all the pieces you’ll be able to to get again 12 months after 12 months after 12 months.”

For Rodney Myers, the nationwide discussion board is a superb venue for skilled drivers to attach with one another, rejoice a tradition of security and remind the nation of their contributions. The competitors, he affirmed, promotes trucking and solidifies drivers’ standing as important personnel within the financial system.

The match additionally gives an infectious high-level of professionalism for these concerned.

“Having not been ready to do that for 3 years, and we joke that it looks like simply yesterday, however to actually understand that there’s quite a lot of effort and time that goes into this on behalf of our opponents, on behalf of our volunteer group, on behalf of all the businesses,” Myers stated, pointing to NTDC’s sense of belonging to an business keen about freeway security. “It’s simply so good to have the ability to get again collectively and rejoice this essential occasion.”

Myers, an govt with FedEx Freight, is the NTDC’s organizing committee’s first vice chairman.

The stress builds because the competitors progresses. Drivers construct up factors totals throughout the first two days, and on the third day the highest 5 scorers from every class face-off in a last spherical.

For Rick Cates, the chance to witness drivers’ performances is all the time thrilling. A member of the occasion’s organizing committee and guide with JMJ Associates, Cates is a fixture at NTDC. The lifelong trucker stated he merely admires the ability on show from these best-of-the-best drivers.

“Seeing among the ones who’re champions come by way of [to become] grand champions over time —it’s similar to they’re superstars,” Cates stated. “Having the ability to get near them, and discuss to them, and see a few of their enter on what it takes to be knowledgeable driver; what it takes to drive safely and handle driving a truck and household time. Balancing all that and nonetheless managing to apply to turn out to be a champion of their class or a grand champion.”

Security Sammy and the NTDC duck mascot on the 2019 championships in Pittsburgh. (John Sommers II for Transport Subjects)

Cates added, “It’s similar to going to any sporting occasion or live performance. Making an attempt to get near someone just like the Rolling Stones or, in soccer, attempting to get near get an autograph from a quarterback. You’re capable of rise up shut to those folks and discuss to them.”

The match is about to happen on the Indiana Conference Heart. Along with recognizing the highest drivers from every class, NTDC additionally honors the state staff that information probably the most factors and a rookie of the 12 months. There’s a automobile situation prize, the Neil Darmstadter skilled excellence award, and the Sam Gillette lifetime volunteer award.

Management from American Trucking Associations, trucking corporations, and state and federal authorities officers are scheduled to attend. Sponsoring the occasion are ACT 1, ABF Freight, UPS, FedEx, Pitt Ohio, Walmart, Outdated Dominion, TForce Freight, PrePass, XPO Logistics, Yellow and Bendix.