GOLD DIGGERS - CablePrice

TRACK & WHEEL
TOP EXCAVATOR OPERATOR SET
TO DEfEND NATIONAL TITLE
In March 2010, champion
digger driver Brett Hollyman
retained the title of New Zealand’s
number one multi-skilled operator,
winning the National Excavator
Operator Competition finals for
the second year running.
Brett, from Clive, was the first ever
Hawke’s Bay winner and is only the
second champion to successfully defend
the title in the competition’s 15-year
history.
Brett is a manager with Contrax
Technical Services, and defeated 12 other
regional champions from around the
country at the two-day event held at the
Field Days in Feilding, Manawatu in early
March 2010.
“I’m delighted to have brought the title
home for Hawke’s Bay two years in a row,”
he says. “It was a very tough competition,
with more competitors than last year.
“The organisers sprang some surprises
on us but I just went in to it focused
on what needed to be achieved and it
worked out.”
After his first win last year, Brett
celebrated until 5am – this year it was
4am enjoying “some live music and
a few beers” with some of his fellow
contestants.
The event, organised by the New
Zealand Contractors’ Federation, is
famed both for the rigorous nature of the
competition – designed to test operators’
skills to the utmost – and for some of the
more unusual tasks finalists are required
to do.
This year that included using the
Hitachi 12-tonne excavator to pick an
egg up out of sand and balance it on
the bottom of a small plastic cup, and
picking up a half round wooden post
and balancing it on top of a road cone
– where it had to stay for at least 10
seconds.
Brett’s success is even more
remarkable given that the 12-tonne
Hitachi machines, provided for
the competition by major sponsor
CablePrice, are much larger than the
three-tonne machines he uses at work.
The Federation’s executive officer,
Malcolm Abernethy, says Brett, who also
won the One Day Job category of the
competition, was a very worthy winner;
“Brett is a very modest, self-effacing sort
of person but he just stands out when he
is competing. He is very confident and
thorough, has very extensive knowledge
and just did everything right.”
Runner-up was 2008 National Champion
Brian Hoffmann, representing Auckland,
who also won the Truck Loading category.
Brian is the only other contestant to have
won the trophy consecutively, having also
won it in 2007. Third place went to Myles
Carson, the Wellington regional champion,
who won the police-sponsored Load
Security section.
As well as many practical challenges,
including building a construction project
from scratch, finalists were required to
demonstrate their planning and project
management abilities, show extensive
knowledge about the machine, health
and safety measures and land transport
regulations, and deal with emergency first
aid and environmental scenarios.
With the 2010/11 competition already
underway, Brett’s automatic right to
defend his title will again be challenged
by some of the country’s best operators in
Manawatu in March 2011.
Region Date Email Cell
Gisborne 9 Oct 2010 gisborne@nzcontractors.co.nz 027 768 3675
Hawkes Bay 17 Oct 2010 hawkesbay@nzcontractors.co.nz 021 889 190
Canterbury 12 Nov 2010 james@jclasphalt.co.nz 021 999 457
Taranaki 20 Nov 2010 pds.admin@xtra.co.nz 0274452070
Northland 4 - 5 Dec 2010 fox.earthmovers@xtra.co.nz 027 224-0500
Otago 22 -24 Jan 2011 ross@waiholax.co.nz 03 417 8601
Bay of Plenty 12 Feb 2011 andrew@hickeycontractors.co.nz 0274 308 480
Auckland 18 - 20 Feb 2011 mark.gregory@hirepool.co.nz 027 284 3294
Wellington/ Wairarapa 26 Feb 2011 david@ccl.co.nz 021 243 6656
Manawatu 27 Feb 2011 manawatu@nzcontractors.co.nz 06 354 9998
Final 17 - 19 March 2011 service@nzcontractors.co.nz 0800 692 376
28 CablePrice