by Nick Drew | Thu 30 Oct 2014
Flying Finn wins the 2014 Case Rodeo International Final
Hat’s off to Janne Leppänen from Finland who has taken the title of best construction equipment operator at the 2014 Case Rodeo International Final, held at the Case Customer Centre in Monthyon near Paris, from October 24th to 26th.
After a spectacular, action-packed tournament, Leppänen was declared overall winner among 42 highly skilled operators representing 15 nations from Europe and Africa. The ‘Best Team’ award was scooped by Denmark, thanks to the first-class performance and quality of its drivers. For the first time in its history, the International Final welcomed a team from Africa, with a delegation of three operators from Angola. The weekend offered much more than just a highly technical competition. Operators, dealers and media representatives, together with the Case team involved in the event, had a unique chance to share ideas and strengthen their relationships in a festive environment and enjoy a memorable time at the impressive Chantilly Estate.
The finalists were the three best operators of the national Rodeos in each country. They arrived at the Case Customer Centre on October 24th for an afternoon of machine tests before the Final. On October 25th they competed against each other demonstrating their exceptional skills at the controls of Case equipment in four technically challenging contests of ultimate machine control, speed and precision operating.
The first challenge was “Little Wolf Wheel”, with drivers using a 321F ZB compact wheel loader to transport a pallet through a slalom path, before placing it in a perfect vertical position on another pallet in order to display a Case logo. This round went to Bendt Martin Risom from Denmark who correctly completed the task in just 2’ 06”.
The “Speeding Spider Skid” required the operators to drive a TV380 compact track loader with a ball, in balance on a cone, placed inside the bucket. Once they reached a target area, drivers had to throw the ball to drop a set of nine skittles and then return to the starting point. This challenge was won by Richard Christian from the UK who knocked down the most skittles in just 1’ 19”.
In the third challenge, called ”Big Foot Excavator”, operators were asked to insert a pin, hooked on the bucket of a CX180C crawler excavator, into four small tubes in a specific order. Top points went to Toni Herger from Switzerland with an impressive time of 1’ 35”.
“Black Hawk Loader” was the last test. Using a 695ST backhoe loader, competitors had to fish small plastic ducks from a pool using a hook fixed on the rear bucket of the machine and then place them into a basket without touching its edge. Janne Leppänen won the challenge with the most ducks fished within the maximum allowed time of 2’ 30”.
With the highest points total, Leppänen was the overall winner and he will hold the cup and title until next year’s competition. He also won a trip to Japan to visit the Case plant for crawler excavators, plus a sight-seeing tour of Tokyo.
Thereafter, the Awards were presented by Enrica Oderda, Marketing Director for CNH Industrial Construction Equipment Europe Middle East and Africa, who revealed the three best operators for each Rodeo challenge and handed over the prizes to the winners, before announcing the overall champion to the anxious audience. Janne Leppänen then stepped out to receive an enthusiastic applause from the room. He was also honoured and surprised to receive an invitation letter signed by Akira Kato, General Manager of International Sales at Sumitomo Construction Machinery, CNH Industrial’s partner in Japan, welcoming him to visit Tokyo. A gala dinner and a live music event concluded the evening in a festive atmosphere.
The UK team consisted of James Binks who is a veteran of the Case Rodeo event and came in 22nd, Peter Bell was 30th, and Richard Christian was the highest scoring UK competitor coming in 7th overall.
The Case Rodeo is becoming increasingly popular and a must-see event for operators,customers and dealers across Europe. Its global appeal has been broadening this year to new European countries as well as to Africa.
We now look forward to 2015 Case Rodeo, which I am sure will provide another memorable competition.