Local 533 driver Rex Schrock celebrates his fourth consecutive Roadeo championship, qualifying him for another trip to the nationals.

For the fourth year in a row, RTC Ride driver Rex Schrock won the Grand Champion Award, automatically qualifying him to advance to nationals.

His score of 518 points topped all competitors. The 12-year RTC veteran also took home $1,000 in first place money for winning the Best of Transit trophy.

Schrock then got icing for his cake on an icy afternoon by winning $257 in a cash raffle drawing.

He will drive in the American Public Transit Association national competition for the fourth consecutive time. His best finish came in 2007 when he took 14th place. This year's event takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, April 30 through May 5.

Teamsters Felipe Tango (486 points) and Gerald Waters (421 points) took second and third place money in the Best of Transit category, $500 and $250, respectively. All three drive for RTC Ride, the Sparks-Reno-Washoe County public transportation system.

Drivers navigated their 19-ton vehicles between tiny tennis balls aligned for parking, orange barrels for precision in narrow spaces and other maneuvers designed to test safety skills.

"Teamsters Local 533 was proud to step in to help fund the event when other sources of money dried up this year," said Paul Tea, Local 533 Secretary-Treasurer.

Fifty-eight contestants signed up in addition to Sparks Mayor Geno Martini, who told reporters that he once drove buses in college.

Hizzoner then proceeded to flatten an innocent plastic orange cone which has reportedly retained legal counsel in order to apply for permanent disability.

The windblown afternoon crowd was warmed by the music of Roadkill, an eight-member all Teamsters retro rock band. Earlier in the day, attendees were entertained by the Sierra Express rock band and "standby comedian" Doug Webring, who is also a Teamsters member and RTC Ride transit operator.

Schrock won the Grand Champion Award by outscoring Best of Charter winner Tommy Parker (352 points) of Reno who drives for Amador Stage Lines. Amador is not a union signatory company.

Teamsters Local 533 represents 2,300 workers at a wide range of public and private sector organizations throughout northern Nevada and eastern California.

The union's jurisdiction covers 180,000 square miles from Bishop, Calif., to Tonopah and Ely, Nev., on the south; Cedarville, Calif., to the northwest and the Nevada/Idaho/Utah border to the east.