Nine professional Virginia truck drivers were crowned 2016 Champions of the Highway at the 65th annual Virginia Truck Driving Championships held April 15 and 16 at Tidewater Community College in Suffolk, Virginia.
A total of 103 professional truck drivers from across the state representing 17 different companies entered the competition. There were 24 “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 10-13 in Indianapolis, IN.
The winner of the Neill Darmstadter Memorial Grand Champion Award was Homer Blackwell, Jr. of Waynesboro, driver for UPS , out of their Fishersville, Va. terminal. The Grand Champion Award is presented each year to the driver with the highest score of all the competitors. Blackwell has been a professional truck driver for 42 years with 39 of those years with UPS and has driven 4.6 million safe driving miles.
The Willie Taylor Memorial Course Champion Award was presented to Anthony Cottrell of Bedford, a driver for XPO Logistics, for achieving the highest score on the field course portion of the competition. This award was created 2 years ago 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, this year there was a tie by Tom Tascone of Lynchburg, driver for Wal-mart Transportation, LLC, out of their Sutherland, Va. Distribution center and Doug Padgett of Alexandria, driver for Robinson Terminal Warehouse out of their Springfield, VA terminal.
The Rookie of the Year Award was presented to Chris Anderson of Staunton, driver for Pepsico out of their Wytheville, 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 XPO Logistics, headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI. This award is presented to the company with the highest average score of all its drivers competing in the Championships.
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