Pettibone vice president Pete Haikio with Len Mackowiak, winner of skills competition

An Illinois man has beaten 19 other operators to win the grand prize in a telehandler skills championship held during the World of Concrete expo in Las Vegas this month.

Len Mackowiak of Midwest Masonry took home Pettibone's grand prize at the fourth annual telehandler skills championship. He won a 2009 Harley Davidson Super Glide.

The competition involved a series of challenges from depth/height perception to loading skills to decide the best operator in the States.

Operators had to choose one of Pettibone's telehandlers - an Extendo fixed pivot machine or the Traverse, transfer-capable machine - as their equipment of choice to complete the challenges.

The first challenge required operators to retrieve three 2x6 boards from a fixed location and then load all three onto the telehandler forks. The goal was to replace the boards in their original positions on sawhorses.

The second test involved moving down a lane to the base of a scaffolding system and placing the forks into a box resting at the top of the scaffolding.
Mackowiak won with 2 minutes and 53 seconds and second place was awarded to Wayne Sheffield of HJK Masonry who came in 8 seconds after Mackowiak. Sheffield was awarded a $500 Visa gift card.

Michigan-based Pettibone manufactures and distributes telehandlers. The company introduced forward-reaching, rough-terrain machines to job sites in the 1950s.