National driving competition on extended layover

LANGLEY, B.C. — Even the country’s top drivers can’t catch a break. The organizing committee for the 2009 National Professional Truck Driving Championships regretfully had to cancel this year’s event due to a lack of support.

The national championships were scheduled to be held in the B.C. cities of Abbotsford and Surrey in September.

“We had such optimism for hosting the 2009 event, when we left Ottawa last September. Sponsors were already committed to support our event and the venues were in place,” said Shaun Garvey, chairman of the BC organizing committee.

“Then, the bottom dropped out. The economic crisis hit everyone hard: our sponsors, our industry – everyone was affected. After months of open consultation with our national group, hearing what the other provinces were experiencing with their provincial events, we had no other choice but to cancel this year’s event.”

Garvey added that many of the provinces still intend on staging their provincial championships this summer, including B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces.

While registrations are down in most jurisdictions, mainly due to poor economic conditions and partially due to the fact that this year’s provincial winners will not be attending a national event, each province is still committed to hosting first class events.

“With the reduction in sponsorship commitments, we looked at every option to allow us to continue with the event this year,” he said. “When other provinces weighed in, some were not holding their provincial events; others were not supportive of a national competition without attendance from all of the provinces.”

The 2010 National Truck Driving Championships are slated to take place in Manitoba next year, and organizers are hopeful economic conditions will improve enough to support the event.
 


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