FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Subject:                     Truck-Lite Trophy Winners

Date:                          December 14, 2005

 

Truck-Lite Trophy Winners Named by NAST

 

December, 2005, Falconer, New York - - After two years with the same trucks in podium positions, the race for the 2005 Truck-Lite Trophy brought in new faces. It resulted in some of the tightest competition in Truck-Lite Trophy series history. Series winners were determined at the last show of the season.

 

The winners of the 2005 Truck-Lite Trophy, symbolic of the National Championship of the National Association of Show Trucks (NAST), are:

1^st Place, National Champion ­ Pierre Cinq-Mars, Iron Bridge, Ontario, Canada

2^nd Place, Runner-up ­ Bo Trout, Tecumseh, Michigan

3^rd Place ­ Neil Finegan, Jr., Litchfield, Michigan

Truck-Lite¹s Senior Vice President of Sales Tim Walker assisted by Jamie Lindemuth and Sherry White of Truck-Lite¹s Marketing Department presented the Trophy. The competition went down to the wire, with contenders struggling for every point on judging day, November 12^th. They had to wait one more day until the Trophy was finally awarded on November 13th at the Meca ­ South Florida Truck Show, the final Truck-Lite Trophy event of the 2005 season. It was held at Meca Truck Chrome & Accessories, Medley, FL.

 

The award-winning competitors all share a love of trucking and a desire to improve its image with the public.

 

Pierre Cinq-Mars made showing his red 2002 Western Star a family affair. His wife, Kerry Lee and sons Matthew (12 years old) and Mitchell (10 years old) attend as many shows as possible and help prepare the truck for each show.

 

A former mechanic and logger, Pierre now hauls wood products and industrial equipment. He is leased to Muskoka Transport, Bracebridge, Ontario. The truck is adorned with 313 Truck-Lite lamps, a mural of a maple leaf on the hood and a Canadian lynx on each side. ³The Sentinel,² a local newspaper from Thessalon Ontario gave the truck its name, ³Maple Leaf Pride.² The newspaper followed Pierre and the truck throughout the NAST season.

 

Pierre started trucking full time in 1991. He has been showing for three years, but only at two or three shows each of his first two years. ³I always wanted a show truck,² he said. ³I did it a little at a time. I met (former Truck-Lite Trophy winner) Bob Brinker and he encouraged me.² Asked what he liked best about show truck competitions, Pierre said, ³As long as there are people around to look at the trucks, it¹s all worthwhile. We¹ve also made many new friends. Now we hang around with people we didn¹t even know at the beginning of the year, people we just read about in the magazines. I guess now we¹re one of those people.²

 

Truck-Lite Trophy runner-up Bo Trout, Tecumseh MI, operates Bogie¹s Express, a small fleet transporting aviation fuels to small airports in the eastern U.S. He grew up on a farm, and started his trucking career hauling grain and sugar beets. ³I started showing in Coldwater (MI) in 1996. I was proud of my equipment and I just wanted to meet others who felt the same way. Then I just wanted to make my equipment look good. It¹s pride of ownership. I want everything I run to look the best it can, even if it¹s a pickup or a snowmobile.²

 

Bo¹s latest truck, this year¹s Truck-Lite Trophy runner-up, is decorated as a tribute to military aviation and the armed forces. The 2005 Kenworth T2000 is muraled with a modern Navy F-14 Tomcat jet fighter on the driver¹s side and two World War II aircraft on the passenger¹s side, an Army Air Forces P-51 Mustang and a Navy/Marine Corps F4U Corsair. Each of the drive wheel fenders is painted as an aircraft carrier launching and retrieving aircraft. The six-axle tank trailer has the Bogie¹s emblem near the tractor, an American Flag running toward a POW/MIA emblem near the rear on each side. On the back, Bo has the Twin Towers burning, an American Eagle with a tear in its eye, the USS Arizona burning a sailor and a nurse at Pearl Harbor and the question from Darryl Worley¹s classic, ³Have you forgotten?²

 

³I meet lots of vets and great people who run the airports we deliver to. Their reactions every day, and the reactions of the people who se it at the shows, that¹s what¹s best about this truck. That¹s what it¹s all about.²

 

Bo has more than 325 Truck-Lite lamps between the tractor and trailer. In addition to showing his truck, Bo has been instrumental in making the Truck-Lite Trophy series function so smoothly. He serves as NAST¹s vice president.

 

Third place went to Neil Finegan, Jr, Litchfield MI. His immaculately preserved 1974 Peterbilt 352 cabover has just 720,000 actual miles and still has its original Cummins 350 engine. Neil¹s truck, titled ³Tribal Dance² is decorated with a mural of Native American themes on both sides and back of the bobtail. The artwork reflects his wife¹s family heritage. ³I¹ve had the truck three years, and I¹m just the third owner. It has no power steering, and the heating and air conditioning are distinctly 1974 vintage. The suspension is Peterbilt¹s 4-leaf, not air, but it works good enough for local use. I rarely take it over-the-road. Mostly, I shuttle trailers to and from warehouses. It if goes more than 60 miles from home, it¹s when I get a load to go to a show.²

 

When asked why he started showing, Neil replied, ³We¹re not in it for any glory. We just love trucks and at shows, we meet all kinds of great trucking people. In the summer, the kids go to all the shows. Each has his job and he¹s very proud of it. The oldest, Jacob (13 years old) does the wheels and tires. Travis (11) does the interior and glass. Our daughter, Baylee (7) is the fill-in. She tries to help with everything, under the watchful eye of my wife, Teri. The truck is a work-in-progress. We have just 18 lights now; the ones that came with the truck. We hope to have the truck lit up with Truck-Lite LEDS for next year.

 

³I really can¹t thank Truck-Lite enough for what they do for NAST and for the image of the trucking industry.² Neil said.

 

All three Truck-Lite Trophy winners for 2005 will be at the 2006 Mid America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY, either on display in front or competing in the MATS show out back.

 

For more information, please contact:

Truck-Lite Co., Inc.

Sherry White

Manager, Marketing Communications & Services

310 E. Elmwood Ave.

Falconer, NY 14733

swhite@truck-Lite.com

1/800/562-5012

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