Darling Downs sparkie Aiden Lee is off to Japan after winning the Queensland leg of Caterpillar's Global Operator Challenge.
The 24-year-old was visiting FarmFest with his sister, Georgia, who saw the course and was eager to give it a go.
He encouraged her to enter and got badgered into having a crack as well - a decision that paid of handsomely.
The aim of the Global Operator Challenge is to find the world's best equipment operator, with drivers tested on three courses - the Big Dig, the Load and Go, and the Mini Masters.
Almost 30 competitors battled it out at the event run by Australian Caterpillar dealer, Hastings Deering, last week.
Mr Lee, who works for Queensland Electrical Solutions, recorded a time of 10:46 over the three events and was 15 seconds ahead of his next closest competitor.
He said he has always been interested in earthworks and would consider it as a career path down the track.
In second place with a time of 11:01 was Ben Mortenson from Morto's Earthworks and Tank Cleaning, while third went to Jason Leerentveld from A1 Earthworks and Civil with a time of 11:13.
Hastings Deering building and construction manager Richard Guiver said the three courses were really challenging and had tested out the operators' skills.
"First with the 20-tonne digger they're trenching; they've got to trench to a certain depth and length and they've got to try and get that as smooth as possible in a limited time," he said.
"The second phase is a skid-steer; it's an obstacle course and they've got to run around, pick up some dirt, run through the obstacle course without knocking anything over and then reverse back. The final part of that is to roll around, pick up a cone, dump the cone on top of another cone and reverse back into the corner in a limited time again.
"At the end we've got a micro-excavator; it's like a mini putt putt and it's testing their skills to sink the ball using the bucket into holes."
Read more:
Mr Lee will travel to Chichibu, Japan, in October for the semi-finals and if he takes out the title there will compete in the final in Las Vegas.
"My fiance, my mum and my boss - it's pretty much a battle to the death over who will come with me," he said.