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Trucks
shine at Great American Trucking Show
Polishers
overcome the elements to take first place
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Albert
Wilbanks' 1971 yellow and black Peterbilt placed first in the Antique
Truck Category at the GATS Pride & Polish truck beauty contest.
See the full list of winners. |
November
18 --
Truckers
lined up Nov. 18 to find out who would take home top honors in the second
annual Great American Trucking Show Pride & Polish truck beauty contest.
After
three days of polishing, shining and rubbing, more than 60 awards were
given out in 25 categories, ranging from best antique truck to the AT&T
most technologically advanced truck. Dozens of entrants polished their
chrome in the cold Dallas air hoping to take away top honors.
Albert
Wilbanks, an owner-operator from San Antonio, Texas, did just that winning
the antique category with his 1971 yellow and black Peterbilt. "It's
been cold and the rain didn't help, but this has been lots of fun,"
he said.
Wilbanks
has owned the truck for five years and restored it himself. The truck
has logged more than a million miles and averages 60,000 per year now.
Wilbanks hauls mainly steel on a flatbed.
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| Wade
Griffin hangs off his 1995 Pete. Griffin won Best Bobtail 1992-1998
at the Great American Trucking Show Pride & Polish truck beauty contest. |
Wade
Griffin also won best in class with his 1995 Peterbilt. His truck was
entered in the Bobtail 1992-1998 category. Griffin says he just paid the
truck off and has been showing it for two years. The truck averages 100,000
to 120,000 miles a year. He hauls mail and oil out of Ankeny, Iowa. "It
was tough out here," he said. "You couldn't get the wax off.
Hot we can deal with, but this cold is something else."
Dallas
temperatures hovered above freezing for much of the week and a number
of drivers found keeping the truck shined wasn't as easy in winter as
it is in summer.
Griffin
said it was all worth it though. "We weren't expecting this. We just
came down here to have some fun. I'm very honored."
Sponsors
for the GATS Pride & Polish include: AT&T, Bridgestone/Firestone,
Caterpillar, Chevron, Fontaine, Freightliner, Panelite, Peterbilt, Western
Star, Z-Max, the Midnight Cowboy and Truckers News magazine.
The
show will return next year to GATS on Sept. 6-8.
--Sean Kelley
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