Con-way Driver Wins NTDC
This story appears in the Aug. 25 print edition of Transport Topics.
PITTSBURGH — Immediately after he was named Grand Champion at the National Truck Driving Championships here, Con-way Freight driver Jeffrey Langenhahn said he felt like he was in a dream.
Back home in Plover, Wisconsin, last week, the dream lingered.
“My feet are starting to touch the ground a little bit, but . . . everybody around here is just really, really excited,” Langenhahn said.
“It’s still pretty exciting,” agreed Nicole Langenhahn, who accompanied her husband to Pittsburgh.
COMPLETE NTDC COVERAGE: Photos, video and more
Founded 77 years ago by American Trucking Associations, NTDC this year drew 426 drivers, including a record 11 women, who competed in nine divisions.
The first phone call the couple made after Langenhahn’s name was announced as Grand Champion at the Aug. 16 awards banquet was back home to their five children, four girls and a boy ages 4 to 20.
“We came home from the airport, and they had a nice thing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk — ‘Congratulations, grand champion trucker,’ ” said Langenhahn, who has logged 28 years as a truck driver, with more than 1.9 million miles behind the wheel.
Driving competition is a year-round family effort for the Langenhahns, he said, with the children helping him set up practice courses and their mother preparing sample questions to help him on the written tests.
This was Langenhahn’s fifth national competition and the first where he took home trophies.
In addition to the grand championship trophy, sponsored by Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Langenhahn took first place in the twins division.
The Monday after his big win, he was back on his night run, driving a twins rig 470 miles round-trip between Con-way terminals in Plover and LaSalle, Illinois. At each end, drivers and terminal workers celebrated his victory, he said.
Drivers who prevail at nationals, after having to first win their state championships, said the thrill is incomparable.
Christopher Shaw, a FedEx Express driver from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who won first place in the step van competition, came down from the stage after picking up his trophy saying, “amazing, just amazing.”
The National Step Van Championships are held each year during NTDC.
Like Langenhahn, this was Shaw’s fifth time at nationals.
James Quarles, known as “JB,” carried his trophy in the 4-axle division through Pittsburgh International Airport on his way home to Laurens, South Carolina.
“I told them I wasn’t going to put it down on the scanner,” said the 42-year-old Wal-Mart truck driver.
“I mean, this is the top of the top,” Quarles said. “One day, I hope to get the Grand Champion award.”
As with the Langenhahns, the Quarles family — his wife, Stephanie, and their son and daughter — participates in the competition.
They traveled with Quarles to nationals after first attending the regional and national meets that Wal-Mart holds each year to decide which drivers will then go to their state championship events.
“Oh, I was hollering; I was so excited,” Stephanie Quarles said about the moment her husband’s win was announced.
“Incredible” is the word Brendan Sharp, 28 and a FedEx Freight driver, used to describe victory in the straight truck division.
“It still hasn’t sunk in yet until I look at my trophy,” he said.
The trophy is sitting on the fireplace mantel of his and wife Mila’s new home in Thornton, Colorado.
Sharp’s quest to win a national trophy started four years ago at the Colorado state championships, where he won last year and this year in straight truck which allowed him to go to nationals two years in a row.
“I’ve worked my hardest of anything on this,” Sharp said of the driving competition, adding that he plans to compete again next year.
Drivers must be accident-free for a year to compete at the state and national levels.
The competition is known as the “Super Bowl of Safety,” a theme that runs through the event. Drivers who compete said the years of practice they put in to reach nationals make them better.
“Every time I compete and leave that competition,” Wal-Mart’s Quarles said, “I’m more aware of my surroundings; I’m more cautious in what I do; it just improves my driving habits so much after competing.”
Philip Byrd Sr., chairman of ATA and president of Bulldog Hiway Express in Charleston, South Carolina, said at the awards banquet that as ATA chairman, he has met with President Obama, attended the State of the Union, attended two national prayer services and testified before the U.S. House and Senate.
The experiences, incredible as they were, “pale in comparison” to being at the championships, Byrd said.
“Being with you, being onstage and shaking the hands of 426 champions is an awesome experience,” he said.
