Young European Truck Driver 2010 Youth beat experience in the German national finals

26 July 2010

Patrick Schilli won both a ticket to the European finals as well as a trip to the U.S. with his fiancée.

The winner Patrick "Schilli" Schildmann from Grevenbroich

Scania Deutschland broke new ground this year with a major partner for its national YETD competition. Germany’s main automobile club, ADAC – Europe’s biggest, with 17 million members – cooperated with Scania to arrange the contest, raising the number of applicants to more than 3,000.

“The ADAC involvement helped to raise awareness of the competition and to increase the understanding among car drivers of the job of truck drivers,” Thomas Bertilsson, MD of Scania Deutschland says.

Crowded on and off the track

And Christoph Walter, Head of Safe Driver Training at ADAC, is equally enthusiastic about the cooperation:
“We feel very comfortable with Scania; we have the same way of thinking. I´d say we are both characterised by competence, experience, willingness to innovate and dynamism.” The regional finals took place in ADAC’s training centres throughout Germany. Three drivers from each heat qualified to the national finals at the legendary Nürburgring race track, in connection to the 25th International Truck Grand Prix.

With the ADAC cooperation this year, the German competition had no age restrictions – although it was still integrated into Scania´s international Young European Truck Driver. Of the top ten drivers in the finals, eight were above the YETD age limit of 35 years, evidence that experience pays off when it comes to safe driving. But the winner, Patrick “Schilli” Schildmann, showed maturity well above his age of 27.

“It was a very hard competition. All the moments in the finals were extremely difficult. I knew I was driving well, but in the end I could hardly believe I had won it,” he says, with his hands full of winner cups, travel checks for the U.S. and a ticket to the European finals in Södertälje, Sweden in October.