A few days before I left for Munich, Germany to attend bauma 2022, I had the fortunate experience of attending the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge Regionals in Clayton, N.C. As a fun drone preview video depicted beforehand, the competition featured the widest representation of all the major Cat equipment types: excavators, wheel loaders and backhoe-loaders.
The drone loops overhead and circles around operators, dodges between the spaces between worksites and flits in and out of open equipment cabs, foreshadowing the finesse and precision the competing operators would need to possess at the challenge. The drone buzzes by a woman in an office room, eliciting a particularly humorous toss-up of papers and a, “Hey! I’m rehearsing in here!” shout. Watching the preview video left me enthused to attend and witness these best-in-class operators in real time.
Finally, 36 operators descended on the Raleigh area on Oct. 18 and Oct. 20, with intentions of demonstrating their best possible skills. A rainstorm the night before did not dampen the competitive spirit, due to the Edward J. Rapp Customer & Training Center facility team, led by Matt Smith, a Caterpillar marketing leader, laying down gigantic tarps across the competition sandboxes, which the team then weighed down with the competition equipment to prevent the tarps from blowing away. Thus, the demonstration dirt was clean, dry, and ready for digging, compacting and moving on the first day of the competition.
I enjoyed interviewing several of the leaderboard competitors, all of whom said the excavator is their favorite piece of construction equipment to operate. The excavator portion of the challenge was highly technical and specific, requiring exact digging and avoidance of a strategically buried “utility” pipe during operation. The wheel loader challenge proved more flashy, requiring the competitors to cart around a Cat yellow 1980s-era Chevrolet Blazer.
Fittingly, this issue of Equipment Today has a special focus on backhoe-loaders, which were a highlight of the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge Regionals, as well. Specifically, the competitor needed to cross a deep, pre-dug trench with care and without holding the loader bucket too high. Then, the competing operator had to pluck three sports balls off the top of orange safety cones—a tennis ball, a basketball and a soccer ball—and deposit them from the loader bucket into a barrel.
One competitor stood out during this challenge, operating with gentle nudges and careful but confident maneuvering – John Schiedeck of Texas, who ended up winning the entire North American eastern regional challenge on Oct. 18.
“The backhoe seemed like 30 minutes,” Schiedeck said, who completed the challenge in well under 15 minutes. “I had to tell myself, ‘Slow down, slow down,’ because I didn’t want to rush it and then mess up.”
Schiedeck owns his own contracting company, Schiedeck Construction, and purchases equipment from Caterpillar dealer Holt Cat in San Antonio, Texas.
“It makes me feel accomplished in my career and it kind of reaffirms what I feel like I can do, you know?” Schiedeck said, expressing gratitude that his wife, children and in-laws could be there to cheer him on throughout the several-day trip to North Carolina.
Schiedeck, along with Matt Ferris of Kinkaid Civil Construction (Empire Cat), the winner of the North American western regional challenge, will compete for the world title at the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge Finals at CONEXPO in Las Vegas in March 2023. Keep an eye on ForConstructionPros.com/Equipment and our Equipment Today social media accounts for live coverage of the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge world championships final at CONEXPO!
