T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH Jim Large, an employee of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 11 at the Morristown Garage, stands with the sign made in his honor after he won ODOT’s statewide truck driving competition in 2017.

MORRISTOWN – A local man who already has been a state driving champion is headed back to statewide competition in Columbus next month.

Jim Large, a Highway Technician 3 working for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 11, won the truck driving portion of the district’s annual Roadeo competition that pits employees against one another to showcase their skills. The contest was held June 4 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

Large has worked for ODOT since the early 1990s and finished second at the state-level competition in 2012 but claimed the overall title of state champion truck driver in 2017. Now he will try to replicate that result during the 31st annual contest on Aug. 28 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus.

Large, who grew up on a farm just east of Morristown, has been operating a variety of trucks and heavy equipment for most of his life. From pick-ups to tractors, bulldozers, loaders and dump trucks, he has been behind the wheel of many different large machines. When he won the 2017 title, he attributed his success to that experience.

After winning that contest, Large took a year off from competing, but this year he is back at it and has high hopes for his performance next month. While he will be driving in the truck competition this year, he also has competed in the loader portion of the contest in previous years.

Lauren Borell, spokeswoman for ODOT District 11, said many district employees look forward to the contest each year. She said it provides a way for them to have some fun participating in a friendly competition while also showing off their skills, which are so important to road maintenance in the Buckeye State.

Large said things at ODOT have changed quite a bit since he first started working there. For one thing, individual work shifts are generally shorter these days. He recalled the large blizzards of the early 1990s, especially in 1993, that kept employees working around the clock for up to 36 hours at a time. He said many staffers couldn’t get home from work, and they pulled 16-hour shifts working to clear massive snowdrifts from area roadways.

“We had a lot of snow to push,” he said. “Nothing else has ever come close to the ’93 blizzard – not like the drifts I’ve seen.”

Large said he spends about three months a year working mostly on snow removal. In fact, he drives District 11’s newest truck used for that purpose – one that sprays brine on the road surface to melt ice, rather than scattering chunks of salt.

The remaining nine months of the year are focused mostly on construction work for Large and other District 11 employees. The experienced worker said he believes the annual contest is a good experience for everyone.

“There are only a few senior people left” in District 11,” he said. “The contest is a good event for our younger people. It helps them understand what we have to do.”

During the truck field test, drivers must navigate a course that includes challenges such as a pre-trip inspection of the vehicle; making a serpentine maneuver, or figure-eight, through the course; backing into a dock; traveling through a narrow lane while pushing a barrel to a target; driving through off-set lanes; driving through “parked cars” and driving as closely as possible to an obstacle without actually striking the “mailbox;” and driving to a designated stopping point and dropping the plow blade on the truck before reaching the mark.