Bill Emerson, a 30-year veteran with the Irving Materials Inc. Greenfield, Ind., flagship, took first place and a $5,000 cash prize in the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association's Third Annual National Mixer Driver Championship. Second ($1,500 prize) and third ($1,000) place winners were Bobby Sanders of Transit Mix Concrete & Materials, Dallas, and Darren Lowe of Knife River Materials, Center Point, Ore., respectively.

A highlight of NRMCA's ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo, Oct. 19-21 in Nashville, the competition saw the three drivers and 33 peers from across the country complete a written exam and negotiate an 11-point challenge course at a truck-staging area within the sprawling Gaylord Opryland Resort. Members of NRMCA affiliate, the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB), sponsored the championship, provided the cash prizes, and delivered rear- and front-discharge vehicles for the course. Also dispatching trucks to the event were Irving Materials' Nashville plant and another local leader, Metro Ready Mix.

NRMCA's Operations, Environmental and Safety Committee administers the National Mixer Driver Championship, which is open to commercial driver's license-holding staff of producer members. Contenders typically have placed at the top of state or regional ready mixed concrete association truck challenges, or similar intra-company events.

An early morning Mixer Driver challenge course run kicked off the inaugural ConcreteWorks. The event brings the long-running Operations, Environmental & Safety Forum and Expo and Business Administration Conference, plus related committee meetings, under one umbrella. NRMCA also has consolidated the fall meetings of its Promotion, Research, Engineering & Standards, Educational Activities and Building Codes & Sustainability committees around ConcreteWorks.