Dear Visitors,

Photos of the Caterpillar Operator Challenge 2008 are now available here:

http://photobucket.com/operatorchallenge2008

We thank you all for being patient while these photos were selected and posted.

Final scores for all tests, for all competitors

How did your boys go? Here’s the results for all competitors in all tests.

Every single one of these men are fine Operators in their environment. We have to remember that this is a competition, and not a work site – and as such, some will thrive in the heated environment, while others will find it harder until they are accustomed to it, possibly as soon as next year.

Tomorrow: All the Pictures from the week…

Who took the Individual and Team prizes? Click the photo to find out...

Thank you for your online participation and support for the competitors, the competition, and Caterpillar.

Come back here later this week, there will be more coverage and video of the final day of competition as soon as it is edited and available.

But for now, the winner is…

We talked with them all to find out more. Our blog and video today concentrate on the teamwork and support necessary, like in any other skilled sport or work, to compete in the Operator Challenge while working with Caterpillar equipment.

We focus on Jimmy Anderson and Nigel Pritchard, more first-time competitors at the event, and the Barlien family from Norway. We say Barlien family because wherever Thomas, their Cat Operator Husband and Father goes, his family are there in support. Half of the Barlien family aren’t even old enough to see above the joystick controls, but you get the feeling these children are fast learning from Thomas what skills are required to operate a Cat.

Nigel and his cousin Stuart got into machine operation through their own Fathers, who were plant operators in their day. Nigel’s now a safety officer and trainer, but clearly the skills haven’t left him, as he’s pointing well in the competition near the end of the third day – somewhat to his surprise on some machines he was less familiar with. Talent shines. On the machines he knew, like the Mini Excavator, on which he’d spent 12 years as an Operator – he excelled.

Looking forward to next year and the competition, Nigel said, sounding like a man who’s relishing the challenge:

“I heard that the Americans and others might be coming out. That would make it a really international competition”. .

Stuart’s excuse for not being part of the competition was that he didn’t know about the competition this year, but he’s excited about it now:
“Next year I might just enter it and win, to show you lot how it’s done!”.

One of the interesting things about talking to Nigel and Stuart is the different words we all use for the same machines. Nigel talked about his challenges on the “traxcavator” test, and when he saw a blank look on my face, described the machine as a “drot”. Blank again. Not until he described what he’d done in the test was it clear that he was talking about what Caterpillar officially call a “track loader“. From then on it seemed easier to talk about model numbers…

Before the competition, Jimmy Anderson, from Edinburgh, Scotland, now living in Thailand, was looking forward to several machines he had never operated:

“Never used a GPS system (Accugrade), never even sat in one of these Graders, and I’ve never driven anything as big as that Giant Loader, which doesn’t even have a steering wheel. Although I’m dying to give it a try!

I’m not expecting to win the competition. Give me 7 weeks on a machine and I’ll beat anyone, but 7 minutes…”.

But, yet again, as we already have seen with Latvia, now the UK, and many other new competitors also – talent shines. Talking after his test on the Large Excavator with Accugrade (GPS Control System), Jimmy’s been happy with his performances on all the machines and has done far better than his own expectations.

As a parting comment he mentioned that he’d like to see more information about the competition on the web. So here it is! Let everyone know about the Caterpillar Operator Challenge!

As well as Jimmy and Nigel, we spoke today with Don Doherty, younger than either Jimmy or Nigel, but talented, and relatively experienced in the Cat Operator Challenge Finals, and Peter Doherty his Father, here supporting him and, unsurprisingly, a long-time Caterpillar Machine Operator.

How does it feel for the new entrants? How are they doing after 2 days of competition?:

Because of limited time we chose to follow the stories of two teams with first-timers:

• Latvia
• UK

The Latvian team realized they had forgotten a Latvian flag, and especially because it is the 90′th year of Latvian independence, this was a serious problem. They quickly fixed it at the airport on arrival, where they bought a replacement. This has meant that the Latvian flag has been waving proudly this week whenever Juris has had his opportunity on the Caterpillar machines.

Juris is, according to the team manager Roberts Sneiders (Dealer Instructor), a master on anything small:

“Our boy has great hands. He hasn’t been an operator very long, but he has the best hands I’ve ever seen“.

We asked, “Can he win?“.

He smiled as he said, “No comment. I don’t like to guess“.

With an answer like that it sounds like he would be an excellent instructor.

Amazingly, only four years ago Juris used to be a good quality cook at a restaurant before making the change. Not surprisingly, he probably still cooks a great steak, but has never operated any of the large machines on display here in the tests where hundreds of tons of material are being shifted in short minutes.

How would he go? Thanks to the support of his Dealer he was taken through basic training on all available machines to give him an idea of what to expect.

His supporters (including his girlfriend and parents) are all visibly more nervous than their confident Operator. A quick question to Elina Avota and Laura Jekabsone, of SIA Wiktraktor, part of that team here for support:

“What would you like to tell people out there?“

The answer? “Come to Latvia! Great people, great food, great countryside” ..and apparently great operators. Juris is doing well in the competition, and probably doesn’t mind if he can’t make a cake like he used to…

Here’s the action in video from Day 2, featuring the Latvian team:

Tuesday Scores - Operator Challenge day 2

At the end of Day 2 there was nobody so far out in front that they could not be overtaken by many others on the third day. The competition is fierce, the conditions difficult, and in a day when nobody stood out as a clear winner, Sebastien Behr from Germany, John Janse from the Netherlands team, and a Finn named Timo Honkaniemi got their noses in front…

In the mud and slop from continuing rain, the Operator Challenge continued.

Look later for more commentary, but here are the scores from yesterday:

Final Scores, Monday. Cat Operator Challenge 2008

And the action and interviews in video from Day 1 of the Operator Challenge:

The Challengers, Supporters and Press filled the Malaga auditorium to hear what this year’s changes were all about. What machines they would be operating, and what the conditions would be.

Hearing all the complaints that the events from last year were too easy, the management of the event, led by Malcolm High, (Equipment Solutions Manager) said this: “We heard you loud and clear, and this year we are back to eight tests, with a team event on the last day for the first time”. And as we later saw with some of the tests, he was not joking about making it harder..

The walk around by Emmanuel “Skinny” Chatelain took us to the sites where the Test Managers demonstrated each of the tests. This was the first time real concentration showed on the faces of all competitors. Why? Because nobody (that I have yet spoken to) specialises in all machines and they each wanted to know whether they could do it. They were asking: “What are my weaknesses, the blind spots”? There is always something that an Operator is not familiar with. Does he operate a small Multi Terrain Loader with the precision of a watchmaker, but has never even seen one of the Wheel Loader Giants? Does he grade a road to perfection with an M Series Motor Grader, but has not operated in the confined space between buildings with a Mini Excavator? There is a Cat machine, technology and Service for hundreds of jobs, but maybe not time enough in a lifetime to master them all. So they and their Dealer Team Managers all asked the same questions: Is there something I can’t do?

Nigel Pritchard, challenging for the Finning, UK, dealership, let me know his worries about having never used the amazing Cat joystick-controlled M series Graders. He was hoping to get enough time on the simulator to smooth over any possible difficulties he’d have if we unleashed a Grader on the competition (as it turns out – we did!). Roberts Sneiders, representing Wiktraktor SIA, Latvia, as a Dealer Trainer, talked about “our boy” Juris Step’s amazing natural ability on anything small, but admitted that this would be his first try on anything large.

The faces of concentration - Cat Operator Challenge 2008 test run

We’ll see more about this as the week progresses, as the other contestants try to find a way to break the hold that the PON Netherlands group have had on this competition for years. How to outpoint Peter Van Schaik and his colleagues was a question nobody seemed to have an answer to.. The Dutch team’s focus is amazing. Talking to them you get the feeling of serious competitors who are here purely to take home the trophy once again. They want to do it fairly and honestly, but winning is their game.

48 competitors, 22 proud nations, 1 trophy. Here they all are:

CAT Operator Challenge Finals - the Countries, the Competitors, and their Dealers

At each test the Test Manager was waiting to give the demonstration. The tests were so hard, and the conditions so slippery, that even the Test Managers got points deductions for hitting obstacles, and missing targets! During the Multi Terrain Loader test I saw a look of pain on some of the Operators’ faces as they saw what they were going to have to do.

It was a mud bowl after Saturday’s rain. Add this to the tests being made even harder this year than last year, and it looks like just finishing without mistakes will be the biggest test for all competitors. Speed will definitely only be an added extra until it’s drier.

Everybody knows that a Caterpillar keeps on working, and working, and working…

The quality of the machine is legendary, stretching back to the early years of the 20′th century (See the latest issue of Cat Magazine for a 1929 Caterpillar 15 which is still working).

The quality was constantly proved in demonstrations by Dealers since Caterpillar started it’s business. An ancient Caterpillar Company book from the 1920’s praises how Dealers have proved the value and new techniques for operating Cat machines through their demonstrations. Maybe what isn’t so obvious however, is how Caterpillar machines have proved themselves IN COMPETITION since the early days.

And to prove that statement all we have to do is look at the amazing video of the Great Caterpillar Races from 1930 .

What you may not notice in the crazy antics of these men and their machines, is the attention to safety – that’s because there wasn’t any. None. Just ask your great-grandfather what it was like.

Unlike the hairy-chested, heart-in-mouth days of the Caterpillar Races, when death or serious injury were a constant possibility, Safety is now just as important as competing, and is strictly enforced. If a bad enough safety breach occurs, a competitor will be ejected from a test. Caterpillar’s safety.cat.com website gives the message which matters: “Safely Home. Everyone. Every day”. The machines in this test are not toys. Safety matters.

When we describe the tests this week, please keep in mind that it’s not just major safety errors which hurt a competitor (or a job site productivity), if a competitor does not adhere to all of the guidelines which surround these challenges, then maximum points are removed from his score. The will to compete must not override what is most important: Protecting the Operator, Ground Crew, and Machine. Nobody yet has successfully operated a machine while recovering in a hospital bed, or from a cemetery.

Having reinforced that message! Let’s get to the competition and start powering all those yellow, metal machines.

“The rain in Spain falls mainly in the Plain”, goes the famous old saying. But the reality seems to be that it mainly falls on the Caterpillar Malaga Demonstration Center. It was a wet Saturday and Malaga was experiencing almost tropical style rain. This in a region which is famed for being a sunny tourist highlight for all of Northern Europe. But that didn’t stop the planes bringing the Competitors, their Supporters, and the Press. It didn’t stop the preparations, but it will stop the Competition if it doesn’t dry up soon..

So, what’s the problem? Don’t Caterpillar machines work in the rain? Well, YES, actually they do:

In fact there are legends of Caterpillar Machines sinking into mudholes, falling into lakes, and other such. When these machines were finally recovered, in some cases years later, a turn of the key started that machine again. Urban legend? Please comment if you have anything to say on this, we’d love to hear it.

BUT, however comfortable Cat equipment and technology (and maybe some highly evolved operators) is in the wet, Rain will stop the competition. This is because rain makes the competition unfair. As you know – dirt, sand, and even fine gravel changes when water is added to the mix, making it heavier, sloppier, and different to drive in. If the dirt is dry for the first competitors and then rain strikes after they are finished, those who come later are automatically at a disadvantage. Some say life is unfair, but true competition keeps the rules the same for everyone. Caterpillar’s corporate values wouldn’t have it any other way!