ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, July 8, 1996                   TAG: 9607080112
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL CROAN STAFF WRITER 

`ROADEO' GIVES BUS DRIVERS TIME TO SHINE

VALLEY METRO'S ANNUAL BUS ROADEO tests the skills of its drivers and mechanics and serves as a ``morale booster.''

Jimmy Carter always gets nervous before a roadeo.

But it's not bucking broncos and stampeding steers Carter worries about - it's those pesky little orange cones.

Carter finished second to Steve Fisher in Sunday's Valley Metro Annual Bus Roadeo, an extensive obstacle course designed to test the skills of metro drivers and mechanics.

"I like a challenge, and I think it gives me an opportunity to polish up my driving skills," Carter said. "It lets me know what I can do out here in a tight situation."

"Driving a bus isn't as easy as it looks," said Valley Metro general manager Steven Mancuso.

The competition gives Valley Metro a "chance to recognize [drivers] and thank them and treat them to a little cookout," Mancuso said. "It gives operators a chance to demonstrate their driving skill."

Carter hopes to three-peat as state champion in the bus roadeo and improve on his 1995 second-place finish at the national competition later this year.

"I would like to come in first in all three [competitions] one year," Carter said hopefully.

Valley Metro drivers first competed in the bus roadeo in 1981 against drivers from the city schools, Mancuso said.

However, the intra-city contest was scrapped because of the difference in buses. The next year, drivers began competing against drivers from other cities such as Lynchburg and Charlottesville.

Cash prizes are awarded to the top finishers on the local and national levels.

Carter said he's won more than $1,500 in cash over the years, his latest and largest purse coming last year for his second-place national finish.

"We always give something," said Roy Meador, a Valley Metro employee for 45 years.

"It's a good morale booster, you know ... [it] gives the drivers a little bragging rights," Meador said.

However, not just any employee can compete in the roadeo.

"They have to have a good record to be able to compete," Meador said. If employees have any preventable accidents on their records in the last year, they are not allowed to go to the state competition.

"You might be the best bus driver there ever was, but if you're not a good employee" you won't compete, said director of transportation David Lofgren.

LENGTH: Medium:   65 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY Staff    1. Judges look on while Jimmy Carter 
          glances in a mirror as he backs the bus into a small area of cones, 
          trying not to touch any during his drive at the Valley Metro Annual 
          Bus Roadeo at the Roanoke Civic Center.|
             2. Driver Kaye Scott takes part in Sunday's roadeo, 3. as does 
          Phil Sheets, the driver of the bus at right. To compete, Valley 
          Metro employees must not have preventable accidents on their records
          for a year. color.