Hands-Down Truck Winner
It started Tuesday and went night and day: twenty-four contestants trying to outlast each other at keeping a hand on a 1999 Nissan pickup.
Saturday afternoon it was over. An Alabama resident was the hands-down winner of the truck after more than 107 hours. CBS News This Morning reports.
On Tuesday, 24 people had begun holding a truck in Joe Mallard's Nissan in Longview, Texas.
Other than timed bathroom breaks, contestants must have one hand resting flat on the truck at all times. And whoever is the last person touching the truck wins the $15,000 vehicle.
Participants in the Hands on a Hard Body contest clustered at dawn Tuesday to begin a standing marathon that will last until mistakes, chilly winds and exhaustion peel all but one participant from the steely skin of the truck.
Most years, a winner is declared after 90 some grueling hours. Around the gleaming truck, the line between comedy and tragedy is smudged.
"There are so many aspects to this contest people don't think about," organizer Jan Maynard said. "It is a real human drama."
Filmmaker S.R. Bindler thought so. Bindler shot a documentary of the contest in 1995, and it was released last summer. Hands on a Hard Body traces the hilarity and heartbreak of the days-long event.
Last year one tired woman in a waking hallucination dreamed she was on her way to a dance club. She wandered away from the truck and was immediately disqualified.
Every hour contestants can take six minutes away from the truck. They dash either to the bathroom inside the dealership or to makeshift rest stations set up nearby.
Brian Root of Mobile, Ala., was the hands-down winner of the truck after more than 107 hours of staying in touch.
©1999 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report