Finnish operator wins the 2014 Case Rodeo International Final in Paris

30 October 2014

Hat’s off to Janne Leppänen from Finland who has taken the title of best construction equipment operator at the 2014 Case Rodeo International Final, held at the Case Customer Centre in Monthyon near Paris, from October 24th to 26th.

After a spectacular, action-packed tournament, Leppänen was declared overall winner among 42 highly skilled operators representing 15 nations from Europe and Africa. The ‘Best Team’ award was scooped by Denmark, thanks to the first-class performance and quality of its drivers. For the first time in its history, the International Final welcomed a team from Africa, with a delegation of three operators from Angola.

The weekend offered much more than a highly technical competition. Operators, dealers and media representatives, together with the Case team involved in the event, had a unique chance to share ideas, strengthen their relationships in a festive environment and to enjoy a memorable time in the impressively beautiful Chantilly Estate.

A Tough Competition Among the Best
The finalists were the three best operators of the national Rodeos in each country. They arrived at the Case Customer Centre on October 24th for a whole afternoon of machine tests before the Final. On October 25th, they competed against each other demonstrating their exceptional skills at the controls of Case equipment in four technically challenging contests of ultimate machine control, speed and precision operating.

The first challenge was “Little Wolf Wheel”, with drivers using a 321F ZB compact wheel loader to transport a pallet through a slalom path, before placing it in a perfect vertical position on another pallet in order to display a Case logo. This round went to Bendt Martin Risom from Denmark who correctly completed the task in just 2’ 06”.

The “Speeding Spider Skid” required the operators to drive a TV380 compact track loader with a ball, in balance on a cone, placed inside the bucket. Once they reached a target area, drivers had to throw the ball to drop a set of nine skittles and then return to the starting point. This challenge was won by Richard Christian from the UK who knocked down the most skittles in just 1’ 19”.

In the third challenge, called ”Big Foot Excavator”, operators were asked to insert a pin, hooked on the bucket of a CX180C crawler excavator, into four small tubes in a specific order. Top points went to Toni Herger from Switzerland with an impressive time of 1’ 35”.

“Black Hawk Loader” was the last test. Using a 695ST backhoe loader, competitors had to fish small plastic ducks from a pool using a hook fixed on the rear bucket of the machine and then place them into a basket without touching its edge. Janne Leppänen won the challenge with the most ducks fished within the maximum allowed time of 2’ 30”.

With the highest points total, Leppänen was the overall winner and he will hold the cup and title until next year’s competition. He also won a trip to Japan to visit the Case plant for crawler excavators and as well as enjoying a beautiful sight-seeing tour in Tokyo.

A Broadening Success
The Case Rodeo is becoming increasingly popular and a must-see event for operators, customers and dealers across Europe. Its global appeal has been broadening this year to new European countries as well as to Africa.

The 2014 Rodeo Championship kicked off on April in Bucharest, with dealer Titan Machinery Romania welcoming the country’s best operators at the first-ever Romanian Rodeo. The competition then moved across Europe and Africa through 24 national rounds held in UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Hungary. With seven preliminary rounds, France had the largest number of Rodeo events, followed closely by Italy with four events. For the first time, Case brought the Rodeo to Africa on the occasion of the presentation of TANGOLA, its newly appointed dealer for the Angolan market. The last heats before the grand Final were held by dealer Romana Diesel during the October Truck Fest in Rome.

“The 2014 Rodeo Final confirmed itself as a truly representative celebration of the technical skills of our operators and the outstanding performance and precision of Case equipment,” said Enrica Oderda. “We are proud of the extremely positive response received by the Rodeo Challenge throughout the year as it turned out to be a complete success at all regional events. To top it off, it was a great privilege to host so many talented construction equipment operators at our Centre and to welcome a team from Africa for the first time ever. “Once again, the Rodeo Final turned out to be a fantastic event and it is even more encouraging to see that its success increases from year to year. We now look forward to 2015, which I am sure will be another memorable competition.”