The Washington state bus Roadeo contest is the morning of Aug. 23 at the C-Tran lot, 2425 N.E. 65th Ave., Vancouver. The event is expected to begin at about 8 a.m. and continue into the early afternoon. The public is welcome to come and cheer on the drivers.
Top winners in Sunday’s local bus Roadeo:
In the Class A fixed-route contest: Randy Smith, first place; Jim Bennett, second place; Devon Large, third place.
In the Class B-fixed route contest: Thomas King, first place; Mary Sanders, second place.
In the Class A C-Van paratransit contest: Julia Jones, first place; Heather Payne, second place; Jeff Larson, third place.
C-Tran bus operator Richard “Mac” McHugh sipped his coffee Sunday afternoon as he sat behind the wheel of a 35-foot-long transit bus and looked out over a parking lot dotted with tennis balls, traffic cones and barrels.
He was about to cross the starting line and participate in his first-ever C-Tran Roadeo, a contest that tests bus drivers’ skills on an obstacle course.
The contest challenges operators to drive down narrow lanes between tennis balls without bumping them, negotiate tight turns around cones while going forward and in reverse, and accelerate to at least 20 mph while driving down a tight alley between 50-gallon barrels.
As McHugh maneuvered around cones, the event’s emcee, C-Tran Director of Operations Jim Quintana, told spectators a little bit more about the man in the driver’s seat: McHugh has been a fixed-route bus operator for more than 20 years; he’s an Army and Air Force veteran; and his hobbies include boating, fishing, hunting, assembling guns and target shooting.
Quintana also talked strategy.
“Part of it is bus placement, and the rest is mirrors and steering to get back into an alleyway,” Quintana said as McHugh backed the bus in between two rows of orange cones.
In the end, McHugh knocked over a few of those cones — and a couple of empty barrels as he sped toward the finish line. He placed fifth out of the five fixed-route drivers in Class A, and said he had hoped for a better run.
“I did better in practice than I did here,” he said. “I took out some cones.”
McHugh, a Vancouver resident, still had plenty to celebrate. To qualify for the Class A competition, he had to have a stellar driving and attendance record, with no traffic crashes or customer complaints. Operators who don’t meet those qualifications could still compete in Class B.
“This is more than just driving buses through cones,” Quintana said. “It’s about performance all year.”
Top winners in Sunday's local bus Roadeo:
In the Class A fixed-route contest: Randy Smith, first place; Jim Bennett, second place; Devon Large, third place.
In the Class B-fixed route contest: Thomas King, first place; Mary Sanders, second place.
In the Class A C-Van paratransit contest: Julia Jones, first place; Heather Payne, second place; Jeff Larson, third place.
McHugh also said he plans to retire this year or next year, and he wanted to try the contest at least once “for grins and giggles.”
His colleague, C-Tran operator Randy Smith of Vancouver, took to the course next, and with much more experience in the Roadeo contests. He still knocked down some cones, and bumped others; both meant deducted points on the judges’ score sheets. He finished with 526 points out of about 650 points possible.
Smith finished first out of the five fixed-route drivers who competed in the local Class A contest Sunday, meaning he’ll advance to the state competition in August in Vancouver. He’s won a couple of state contests, he said, and the furthest he’s gone in the Roadeo is placing eighth at the international level. The international contest features drivers from the U.S. and Canada, Quintana said.
Smith said he doesn’t think he’s a competitive person, but his friends might disagree. He started competing in Bus Roadeo about 18 years ago because “I wanted to be the best I could be,” he said. “After the first time, I kind of got the bug.”
After he drove through the course, he said there was one maneuver in particular that he didn’t like: “My right backup — the easiest one. … I lined up wrong.”
Quintana said Smith isn’t so competitive that he won’t give other drivers pointers.
“If it makes them better, that’s perfect,” Smith said. “As long as people have fun, it doesn’t matter how good you do.”
