Virginia truck driving champions crowned

Nine professional Virginia truck drivers were crowned 2015 “Champions of the Highway” at the 64th annual Virginia Truck Driving Championships held April 17 and 18 at Con-way Freight in Chester, Virginia.

First place champions, their hometown, company, and home terminal location are:

A total of 101 professional truck drivers from across the state representing 16 different companies entered the competition.  These 101 drivers represent more than 132.3 million miles of accident-free driving.  There were 28 “rookie” drivers who competed in the Championships for their first time.

The event is sponsored by the Virginia Trucking Association and its Safety Management Council and is patterned after the American Trucking Associations’ National Truck Driving Championships.  The first-place champions listed above will represent Virginia in the National Championships to be held August 11-15 in St. Louis, MO.

The winner of the Neill Darmstadter Memorial Grand Champion Award was Joseph Clements ofChesterfield, driver for UPS Freight, out of their Richmond, Va. terminal. The Grand Champion Award is presented each year to the driver with the highest score of all the competitors. Clements has been a professional truck driver for 33 years and has worked for UPS Freight for the past 29 years.

Clements also won the Willie Taylor Memorial Course Champion Award for achieving the highest score on the field course portion of the competition.  This award was created last year to honor the memory of Robert W. “Willie” Taylor, who competed in various state and national truck driving championships as a driver and won two national championships in his class. Following his driving career, Mr. Taylor served as Chairman of the Virginia Truck Driving Championships for several years and also was a member of the ATA National Truck Driving Championships Committee.

The Captain Roy Terry Memorial Pre-Trip Inspection Award, given to the driver with the highest score in the equipment defects portion of the competition, was won by Ken Cook of Mt. Joy, PA, driver for Wal-mart Transportation, LLC, out of their Mt. Crawford, Va. Distribution center.

The Rookie of the Year Award was presented to Chris Broce of Staunton, driver for YRC Freight out of their Fishersville, Va. terminal.  This award is presented each year to the highest scoring, first-time competitor and can only be won once by a driver.

The Team Trophy was won by FedEx Ground, headquartered in Moon Township, PA.  This award is presented to the company with the highest average score of all its drivers competing in the Championships.

Other winners in the competition by class, with their hometown, company and home terminal are: