Do you love the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) Pinewood Challenge?
Of course you do. Everyone does. It’s fun.
Whether you’re a regular participant or just an attendee, the HDAW Pinewood Challenge is a wonderful cap each year to a busy week in Vegas.
The contest pits suppliers against distributors, engineers against salespeople and sends everyone back in time to their youth. It’s Boy Scouts, but with trucks.
And next year, Michael Lambie says MeritorWABCO will be in it to win it.
Spurred by the joy and excitement the company’s employees have experienced attending past Pinewood races, Lambie says MeritorWABCO will host its own corporate derby later this year for its employees (at MeritorWABCO and joint venture partners Meritor and WABCO) with the top cars earning the honor to represent the three businesses at HDAW’s 2018 race.
“We’ve been so impressed with the Pinewood Derby over the years and have wanted to get into it,” says Lambie, senior marketing manager. “We think it is a great way to build camaraderie between employees.”
Lambie says MeritorWABCO is currently working with HDAW organizers to purchase a Pinewood truck track for its employees. Lambie says finding the track has been difficult since most are built for the smaller Boy Scouts’ cars, but that he’s hopeful to have one on site at MeritorWABCO in Troy, Mich., later this year.
He says employees at all three businesses are already chomping at the bit at the idea of a corporate contest—“kind of like a regional”—to determine who represents the businesses in Las Vegas next January.
“I already have four teams signed up just from MeritorWABCO,” Lambie says.
Early plans as of now have the MeritorWABCO Great Lakes Regional (my term) taking place in the fourth quarter. Lambie says employees across the companies have already started working on their trucks.
HDAW rules state a Pinewood Challenge truck can be no longer than 20 in. long, 5.5 in. tall, 3.75 in. wide and weigh no more than 4 lbs. Lambie says MeritorWABCO’s contest will follow the same rules, but other than that teams are free to design their trucks however they’d like.
“They can decorate it and design to look really cool if they want. It just has to be able to get down the track,” he says.
The winning team at MeritorWABCO’s event will win a trophy in addition to its entry into HDAW’s contest, though Lambie admits thus far intra-office bragging rights seem to be the driving force for most teams. The friendly competition is bringing out the best in everyone, he says, and has created an excitement throughout MeritorWABCO.
And if this year’s corporate regional works well, Lambie says he may even open next year’s event to other suppliers in the greater Detroit area. It’s clear from HDAW’s contest that there would be interest. He’s also considering adding a charitable cause to the program. He says that’d make for a human-interest story no media outlet is turning down.
“We’d like to bring trucking to a positive light” in the media, he says. “They always show the bad stuff, but [trucking] contributes to all sorts of charities and does so many good things and the world never hears about it.”
