Not your average tractors
By TIM LATSHAW
|
7/26/2007 - OBSERVER Staff Writer
The entires at the Chautauqua County Fair meet of the Western New York Garden Tractor Pullers' Association (WNYGTPA) can't mow your lawn, but they might be able to drag your house to a better yard.
Pullers competed at the fairground grandstands Wednesday night in two rounds of standard tractor pulling in separate classes. The fair is one stop on a summer schedule that ranges throughout the region for the WNYGTPA.
The basic rules are relatively straightforward. A tractor is attached to a sled carrying a large weight. As the tractor moves down a dirt track, the weight travels up an incline, creating an increasingly more difficult load to move. When a tractor is no long able to move forward, the distance is marked electronically. Whomever travels the farthest is the winner.
Of course, a run-of-the-mill garden variety tractor would likely not provide much power for this type of sport. The machines are souped up and altered; in higher classes up to the point where they no longer resemble tractors as much as hot rods. But how else would you be able to call your John Deere "The Terminator" and get away with it?
Bob Mesmer of Grand Island has his own version of "souped up": a Club Cadet with a turbine engine. Although not qualified for official meets, Mesmer made a couple exhibition runs with the rare setup, carrying the load smoothly down the more than 200-foot track each time with the type of hefty whine normally reserved for jets.
The rest of the competition did not have as smooth a sound, yet they still had one as powerful as each tractor fought down the track.
Nearly every tractor was able to move past 100 feet, most managing more than 150 feet. There were some unfortunate breaks for some drivers, though, including Forestville native Chris Johnson, whose machine blew smoke and bled oil after breaking down beyond 50 feet.
Another local driver had much more satisfying results, especially for his first time participating in a pull. Nick Herman of South Dayton placed second and third in the two V-8 class runs, the most populated.
Herman said his results were better than what he expected since his tractor's engine recently had to be replaced with a less powerful one. His good first experience on the track, however, seems to have cemented a love of showing power in the lane.
"I don't even hear the motor running," Herman said. "I'm just like, 'Oh, it's so cool.'"
The entires at the Chautauqua County Fair meet of the Western New York Garden Tractor Pullers' Association (WNYGTPA) can't mow your lawn, but they might be able to drag your house to a better yard.
Pullers competed at the fairground grandstands Wednesday night in two rounds of standard tractor pulling in separate classes. The fair is one stop on a summer schedule that ranges throughout the region for the WNYGTPA.
The basic rules are relatively straightforward. A tractor is attached to a sled carrying a large weight. As the tractor moves down a dirt track, the weight travels up an incline, creating an increasingly more difficult load to move. When a tractor is no long able to move forward, the distance is marked electronically. Whomever travels the farthest is the winner.
Of course, a run-of-the-mill garden variety tractor would likely not provide much power for this type of sport. The machines are souped up and altered; in higher classes up to the point where they no longer resemble tractors as much as hot rods. But how else would you be able to call your John Deere "The Terminator" and get away with it?
Bob Mesmer of Grand Island has his own version of "souped up": a Club Cadet with a turbine engine. Although not qualified for official meets, Mesmer made a couple exhibition runs with the rare setup, carrying the load smoothly down the more than 200-foot track each time with the type of hefty whine normally reserved for jets.
The rest of the competition did not have as smooth a sound, yet they still had one as powerful as each tractor fought down the track.
Nearly every tractor was able to move past 100 feet, most managing more than 150 feet. There were some unfortunate breaks for some drivers, though, including Forestville native Chris Johnson, whose machine blew smoke and bled oil after breaking down beyond 50 feet.
Another local driver had much more satisfying results, especially for his first time participating in a pull. Nick Herman of South Dayton placed second and third in the two V-8 class runs, the most populated.
Herman said his results were better than what he expected since his tractor's engine recently had to be replaced with a less powerful one. His good first experience on the track, however, seems to have cemented a love of showing power in the lane.
"I don't even hear the motor running," Herman said. "I'm just like, 'Oh, it's so cool.'"
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