Heath Taylor wins Prentice Loader Championship at Northeast Expo

The top finishers in the Prentice Loader Championship at the Northeast Forest Products Equipment Expo, May 11-12 in Essex Junction, Vt., are (first to fifth place from left to right): Heath Taylor, Cornish, Maine; Stanley Robinson, Passumpsic, Vt.; Eric Marceau, Lancaster, N.H.; Marc Riendeau, Danville, Vt.; and Brian Vance, Thornton, N.H. The winners are flanked by Peter Webb, The Oliver Stores New Gloucester store manager, on the left and John Scales, The Oliver Stores vice president, on the right.

Heath Taylor, Cornish, Maine, won the Prentice Loader Championship at the Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo held May 11-12 in Essex Junction, Vt.

The competition raised $1,000 for Log A Load For Kids through voluntary contestant contributions and the company’s match. Log A Load is an organization sponsored by loggers and other forest products people to raise funds for hospitals associated with the Children’s Miracle Network.

Taylor’s time in the initial run was 2 minutes, 32.10 seconds. He shaved off a few seconds in the final Trophy Run with a time of 2 minutes 28.47 seconds. Stanley Robinson, Passumpsic, Vt, took second place with a final time of 2 minutes, 33.03 seconds. Eric Marceau, Lancaster, N.H., finished third with a final time of 2 minutes, 39.90 seconds. First, second and third place winners received cash prizes, trophies and Prentice Loader Championship jackets. The fourth and fifth place winners also received jackets. Everyone who competed in the contest was given a Prentice cap.

The Oliver Stores, the Prentice dealer for New England, provided the Prentice 2384B knuckleboom loader for the contest.

First introduced at Expo Richmond in 1972, the Prentice Loader Championship is a contest in which operators demonstrate their skill with the loader by picking up and moving blocks between two checkerboards.

Top five winners

Prentice™ is a brand name owned by Caterpillar Forest Products, the leading manufacturer and worldwide marketer of timber harvesting, millyard, road-building and land management equipment. Products are also marketed under the Cat®, and CTR™ brand names and are sold through a global independent dealer network. The company operates plants in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Caterpillar Forest Products is a division of Caterpillar Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines.

For more information visit www.cat.com for Cat and www.prenticeforestry.com for Prentice and CTR brands.