CAT OPERATOR MARK MORLEY TAKES ON THE WORLD’S BEST IN JAPAN MBD Contracting’s Mark Morley has wrapped up a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” competing at the Asia-Pacific round of the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge in Japan.
“To even get to that stage of the global competition is pretty mind-blowing. It was a wicked experience; I’m really grateful to Terra Cat for being so supportive and for providing this opportunity. It’s something I’ll never forget.” Local Japanese operator Norio Miyajima (NCD Japan) won the Asia-Pacific round, and he’ll be joined by Shane Poole (Hastings Deering) and Tim Lamb (WesTrac) at the grand final at CONEXPO in Las Vegas in March.
Across the challenges, competitors were judged on consistency, accuracy, safety and speed, but in hindsight, Mark says he sacrificed speed by focusing on making sure he’d done a good job. “In the real world, you always focus on doing the best job possible, otherwise you’re coming back the next day to fix it,” he explains. “Looking back on it, this is a competition where you had to balance all four factors. I would’ve got a better score if I’d completed each of the challenges quicker, at the expense of doing the job perfectly.” Despite missing out on qualifying for the world finals in Las Vegas, Mark says he’s proud of the job he did.
The Greymouth-based contractor pitted his skills against 19 of the best operators from Asia and Australasia across a range of demanding challenges in dozers, wheel loaders and excavators, ultimately finishing seventh. “I absolutely loved the opportunity to get involved with the competition this year, and it was definitely a step up from the Wheels at Wa- naka competition where I’d qualified for Japan,” Mark reflects. “It was a bit overwhelming at the start with so many people and lots of cameras chasing us around, but spending time with the Terra Cat team, and getting an idea of the machines we’d be using helped settle the nerves. That allowed me to concentrate on the job at hand.”
Click to learn more about Mark's Challenge.
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