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District 5 & 6 roadeos showcase new and developing skills

Practice make perfect…or at least close to it.

Every year, ITD hosts an equipment roadeo in every district. It is a training event that every employee can participate in. Each contestant gets the opportunity to show off their skills, or at least try to obtain some, by inspecting a dump truck, and operating a backhoe, loader, and snow plow through a tricky and challenging course. This year, District 5 and District 6 each held their roadeos in late May.

Watch video here.

District 5 held their roadeo May 22 at the Pocatello maintenance shed.

Starting the morning with coffee, beautiful weather, and donuts, we had a great turnout — 28 contestants this year! Each contestant was put through the ringer, with a narrow and trying course. Testing their skill and knowledge to every degree, we ended the day with a close race.

Our finalists: 5th Mike Vansell, 4th Jed Gregersen, 3rd Brandon Steffens, 2nd Matt Beckstead, and in 1st place…Bruce Dial!

Though not everyone could be a finalist, we all had fun, enjoyed the wonderful weather and appreciated each other’s company. Even if we could never settle the mystery of who put the half- eaten donut back in the donut box!

District 6 held their roadeo May 31 at the Sugar City shed.

This year's roadeo had a huge turnout, with a total of 36 contestants. The day started off with stunning weather, warm and sunny, with few clouds in sight. Everything began smoothly and the contestants were smokin’ through the course. Things then took a turn for the worse early afternoon, immediately after lunch. Clouds rolled in with a vengeance and quickly turned into a few tornado warnings, wild winds and hail/rain. A tornado actually touched down just south of the shed.

In spite of the wild and rugged weather, our team pushed on and finally finished the course at 5 p.m. It was a long day, but we tallied up a very tight race.

Our finalists: 4th Dalton Rice, 3rd Sheldon Jones, 2nd Trent Maupin, and in 1st place…Stacey McCurdy!

We had a great time and got to see more of what our crazy weather can do here in Eastern Idaho.

Quite a talented team will be headed to compete at the state finals June 19. Good luck to our finalists as we look forward to watching you all at the finals in District 2!