New Holland Construction, a company of the Fiat Group and leader in the construction equipment business, organised an exciting competition for the machines operators.  The players of this event were the operators, who drive these products usually on highways, roads and bridges all over the world including telehandlers, excavators and backhoe loaders.

The European Final was held on October 13th in Balocco, a village close to Milan, where the “Yellow Products” built “towers” with huge stone blocks in just few minutes, tested the versatility, the ease of operation and the precision of the machines, with testing manoeuvres.

The best skilled operators of the New Holland Team performed twists on two wheels, some wheel-spinning and even exciting ballets with the New Holland equipment to the delight of the contestants.

The finalists of Balocco were the winners of the local country finals that were carried out in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

More precisely, four operators were nominated in the European Final, one for each specialty. Marcel Schrecke, from Germany, was the winner of the E215B Crawler Excavator category; Antonio Esposito, from Italy, won the W190B Wheel Loader session; Fabio Colapicchioni, from Italy, was nominated for the compact line competition; and Tobias Erbele, from Germany, was the winner of the overall competition, the “Champion of the Champions”.

The Italian final took place in Catania on September 22nd, on the slopes of the Etna’ Volcano.

A total of 44 competitors took part in different tests. Among the products there was the agile and dynamic wheel loader, like the one used in the James Bond movie, which was selected to load an Iveco truck. A small but aggressive and precise mini excavator was selected to carry precision tests. A telehandler lifted a 2.8 tons basalt steel. A skid steer loader was used to carry a pallet with a bucket full of water on an uneven path …without losing even a drop!

The winner of the competition, Andrea Lisetto, got the best time in all specialties and also won the “Champion of the Champions”. He had never driven a New Holland machine before: that can be an effective demonstration of the extreme ease of operation and the high performance of our products.

The Nordic Grand Prix was held in a gravel pit outside Copenhagen on September 27th and 28th.

A total of 10 operators participated in the competition: 2 of them coming from Finland, 7 from Denmark and 1 from the Faroe Islands. Birger Barensen was the winner of the competition.

The Spanish Grand Prix took place on September 22nd with a really successful participation by the operators, who arrived from all parts of Spain.

With the W190B  Wheel Loader from Lecce, they felt like an authentic James Bond and everyone wanted to try this machine at the end of the competition.

The winner of the “Champion of the Champions” test was D. Jose Manuel Gomez Oreja, who proved to be an expert in the handling of any kind of product.

A total of 53 competitors took part in the Final UK Event, with hundreds of visitors attending.

The Skid Steer course proved to be very exciting with twists, turns and sharp slopes, but the excavator session was the most exciting with lots of spectators. 

Drivers proved to be highly skilled and were all really surprised at how easy and efficient it is to use the pilot controls.

The winner was Tony Glover, a keen supporter of New Holland Construction Equipment.

These events were a great success for the New Holland brand, gathering the best operators in the field, and providing an opportunity to get closer to the end customer.

Four sponsors supported all the local finals. ZF, a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of Drivelines and Chassis Technology for the automotive industry. Iveco, a member of the Fiat Group who manufactures commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and coaches. FOR, a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of hydraulic connectors and flexible hydraulic tube assemblies, and Cab Plus, who are intending to play a leading role in the Off Highway Systems.