Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/591462
4 | BULLDOG | 2 0 1 5 V 3 M ore than 240 Mack owners sub- mitted photos of their trucks hoping to be chosen for the 2016 Mack Trucks Calendar. That means there were 40 entrants for each available spot. So no won- der the owners and drivers of the six trucks ultimately chosen were really excited. For many, it was personally important, while for others it was all about bragging rights. No matter which reason, it turns out these folks really like to polish their trucks — a lot. The winning trucks were photographed in their local setting, which meant the Mack team traveled throughout the summer to Iowa, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, California and British Columbia. Mack photo- graphed these trucks in parking lots, on test tracks, in fi elds, in mountains, on roads and in holes (technically a quarry). There's no question, the winners are pas- sionate about Mack and they obviously spent a great deal of time and creativity preparing their trucks for their cameo. In fact, at least half of the trucks also make regular appear- ances in truck shows. Meet the winners Ron Wiemers' winning Pinnacle TM AF is his seventh Mack, and with 1.4 million miles, he's just getting started. He's very particular about the truck's appearance. During the photo- shoot in rural Iowa, he fretted (politely) for a few minutes over a haphazard rag swipe by one of the photo crew until, unable to stand it anymore, he rubbed out the smudge to his own satisfaction. Mark Shelmire's Pinnacle AB has more lights and polished metal than a carnival, but attracts a better class of people. It also has two sets of locomotive horns. Mark's photo- shoot was dramatic: The light was good — perfect even — for less than 15 minutes at the very start, then clouds and rain. We got the shot. Jason Bossert's twin-steer Superliner has so many lights in so many unexpected places that it could have doubled as the alien moth- ership in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," though he really thinks of it as a Transformer. Even a humble TerraPro TM refuse truck did its driver proud. Kevin Adams and Triple T Trucking of Brattleboro, Vermont, showed that no matter what your load is, a Mack hauls it in style. A heavy fog shrouded that photoshoot for several hours. But once the clouds fi nally lifted, the TerraPro shone. The Titan by Mack, driven by Jonathan Threatt, with Big Iron Rentals near Los Angeles gleamed, too. But since it was pho- tographed in California during the worst drought in state history, making a construc- tion equipment heavy hauler sparkle took a lot of elbow grease and very little water; plus plenty of sweat, since the parking lot was about 115 degrees Fahrenheit that cloudless August afternoon. There was a serious side to this contest, too. For two of the winners, appearing in the calendar was a chance to honor their fathers who started the businesses they now carry on. Jason Bossert of Sher Holdings Ltd., Kamloops, British Columbia, dedicated his calendar appearance to his father, who tragi- cally passed away after a long illness shortly after their trucks were photographed. The calendar competition is the "biggest thank you I can do for him to showcase the company he started and show him we're good stuff," Jason says. "This truly is an honor and especially I think to my father, who always praised Mack for being a truck that builds a company," says Tom Bennett of Red Coach Trucking in Fairfi eld, Connecticut. "To me, it's a present that I'm giving my father at the end of his career." He brought all seven of his Mack dump trucks to be in the photo, along with his drivers. And Tom held a "victory party" on Oct. 3 for hundreds of guests to celebrate being in the calendar. He also used the occa- sion as a fundraiser to fi ght cancer in memory of his recently deceased aunt. "Without this competition, nothing would have happened that would have touched so many people," Tom says. Pin-up trucks 2016 Mack Trucks Calendar includes six Mack Truck owners and their winning trucks HEADLIGHTS