HERMON – Even a veteran like Warren Lewis found Saturday’s Maine Professional Truck Driving Championships tough going.
It wasn’t the setup of the course, the written test or the pre-trip safety inspection that was much harder than usual this year. Rather, it was the rainy conditions and wet pavement that put drivers from around the state to the test during the competition, which was held at Dysart’s in Hermon.
“You have to look through the raindrops on the windows and when you opened the windows, it was coming in, which makes it makes it hard to see,” said Lewis, a Lewiston resident who was the 2007 national champion in the five-axle sleeper category.
Now driving a flat-bed truck, Lewis was one of 73 entrants from around the state. The top finishers in eight of the nine categories of trucks move on to nationals, which will be held Aug. 19-23 in Houston.
That means Lewis will be back at the nationals, as he scored a total of 327 points out of a possible 480 in three competitions.
Each driver completes the written test, pre-trip safety test and driving course.
The written test is worth 80 points, the pre-trip test is worth 100, and the course is worth 300.
The driving course consists of six problems, such as backing up in a straight line and parking close to a barrier. Each problem is worth up to 50 points, which are given based on how close the driver gets to a series of cones or a spray-painted line without going over.
For the first two problems, drivers had to start in a backward position. The first challenge was a straight line back, followed by a side park then an alley dock for the second and third problems, respectively.
Then drivers went to a steering problem, in which they had to turn as close to a cone as possible without hitting it to simulate turning near a curb.
The fifth problem was a forward straight line. The final problem was a front stop in which drivers had to halt no farther than 18 inches away from their target to score points.
Drivers had a maximum of 12 minutes to complete the course.
Lewis, 61, has driven more than 3 million miles in his 37 years with the Scarborough-based supermarket chain Hannaford Bros. Co. He has won seven state truck driving championships since 1975 and has never finished lower than fifth place, he said.
Still, it’s sometimes a guessing game, especially with rain on the truck windows.
“As a driver sometimes you go through these things and you think you did well, but you really don’t know,” Lewis said. “On the alley dock, for instance, … to sit 65 feet away and tell you exactly how close I am, I don’t care who it is, it’s a really tough call.”
Along with the top flat-bed score, Lewis had the best pre-trip score with a perfect 100 and the best written exam score of 72.
Entry numbers were down this year, possibly because of rising fuel prices, said Cliff Gray, who coordinated the event for the Maine Motor Transport Association, which ran the competition with the Maine Professional Drivers Association.
As a company driver, Lewis doesn’t have to worry as much about fuel prices but understands the problem of the independent truckers.
“I feel bad for those guys,” he said. “It’s killing them, it really is. Somebody needs to do something about it. It’s going to hurt the country in a big way.”
Other winners were Jason Brook in the step-up van, Bradley Bartlett in the straight truck, William Butland in the three-axle van, Greg Carroll in the four-axle van, Jared Elston five-axle van and five-axle sleeper, Donald Mitsmenn in the five-axle tanker, and Robert Kierstead in the twin trucks.
The winners are all eligible for the national championships in Houston except for the top finisher in the step-up van category, which Gray said is new to Maine this year and is not a nationally sanctioned category.
Kierstead was also the grand champion, while Scott Phillips was Rookie of the Year. Clifford W. Perham-Shaw’s supermarket won the team award.
jbloch@bangordailynews.net
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