WINNIPEG — Neither wind, nor sleet, nor snow… OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but truckers in Manitoba sure didn’t let the weather get in the way of showing off their stuff.

Despite inches of rain that fell throughout the course of the day, Manitoba’s professional truck drivers showed up at Peterbilt Manitoba in Winnipeg on June 27, to show their skills and professionalism at the 2009 Manitoba Professional Truck Driving Championship.

In total, 39 competitors and over 50 volunteers withstood the rainy conditions to ensure that the day went off without a hitch.

And in the end, Ed Eagle of Canada Safeway was named the Grand Champion. He also won the Tandem-Tandem category.

Other category winners were: Garth Deschamps, Step Van; Gene Wertepny, Straight Truck; Brian Hrabchuk, Single-Single; Frank Klassen, Single-Tandem; and Ken Wiebe, Super-B.

The First-Time Entrant award winner was Matthias Maassen of Penner International and the top team honors went to TST Overland Express (Howard Thomson, Gene Wertepny, Ron Poirier and Denis Roberts). The winner of this year’s Bjornson Memorial was Brian Hrabarchuk of Con-way Freight.

Also presented was the 2009 Manitoba Volvo Driver of the Year Award, to Dennis Barkman of Penner International. He has more than 27 years of driving experience, a clear driving record, and millions of accident-free kilometers.