Dan Z. of Beatrice Ready Mixed competed in the 2018 NRMCA National Mixer Driver Championship at Gaylord National Resort near metro Washington, DC. After winning the Nebraska mixer driver championship, he was able to advance to the nationals and competed against a field of 87 drivers from across the United States.
The drivers took a written exam, did a walk around visual vehicle inspection, and a driving skills test. Some of the challenges in the test included a tennis ball drive-through challenge, parallel park challenge, on target challenge, scale box challenge and backing stop challenge. They also had a chute a hoop challenge, shooting a basketball into the chute to make a point. A break an egg challenge, swinging the chute over an egg and getting as close as possible without breaking it. A bowling challenge, where a bowling ball is attached to the final chute of a mixer truck, while the truck drives backwards and tries to knock down the pins in one pass. Reaction time was also tested with a computer program that records how quickly a driver reacts to the changes on a screen.
Dan finished outside the top 5 but had an great experience. Dan won the 2018 championship for Nebraska in June.