Tractors pull loud crowd
Horsham Motorsport Club’s first foray into the world of competitive tractor pulling drew one of the largest crowds to Kalkee’s Blue Ribbon Raceway.
With a week of clear weather allowing a volunteer crew to build and prepare the specially built racing surface for Down Under Tractor Pulling Association, the scene was set for a fantastic day of pulling.
First out on the track were the vintage tractors.
Some of these old machines were completely ‘stock’ while others had turbochargers and fuel systems tuned for better performance.
It was great to see competitors getting their front wheels off the ground as the heavy sleds they dragged pulled them to a stop.
One of the highlights was the appearance of Graham Pickering in his Pietsch 4WD 871-powered beast which, without a concrete wall stopping it, would have probably kept going until it hit the Murray River.
As this was a non-competition event officials took no measurements, but many tractors made a full pull of about 100 metres.
Modified events were on two of the three tracks.
Pro Stock Open tractors had two competitors in the event, the Cornfoot brothers Norm and Brendan both finding the going hard with mid to three-quarter track runs and Brendan not making a third run, giving Norm the win on the day and closing in on the season lead.
Pro Stock tractors saw the local crew of Hicks and Wilkens with Red Devil driven by Chris Hicks against Old Smoke driven by Ainsley Magee both make three pulls.
Red Devil had a commanding win which included a massive pull of 112.581 metres, keeping it well ahead in the season standings.
The ‘big bangers’ of the open class featured the three-engined Plum Crazy pitted against the mighty four-engined Coyote.
Unfortunately Coyote suffered a gearbox issue and was not able to compete in the first two pulls, which saw Plum Crazy and Doug Williams pull 113 metres in the second of three pulls. After battling all night to get back on track, Coyote hooked and the sound of 8000-plus horsepower rang around the track. Unfortunately it all came to an end at half track when a fuel fire engulfed the left rear engine.
Driver Peter Mann was unharmed. Coyote still leads the season.
Super Modifieds provided some of the closest racing on the night, with David Cornfoot on $crap Value and Matt Reeves on Disorderly Conduct swapping wins.
$crap Value won the first pull by less than a metre and both full pulls. Disorderly Conduct took the second and $crap Value the third and established the win by seven metres, maintaining a narrow lead on the season.
Limited Modified class machines produced results where almost half their pulls went over the 100-metre full-pull mark.
Shillberite won with two full pulls over Full Throttle with one full pull. Flat Stick with a full pull and a 99.263 was close in third. In Two Wheel Drive trucks Sudden Impact and Chilli Town Thunder battled all night with the full pull of the Land Cruiser, Sudden Impact, establishing the win and retaining top spot in standings.
On a mini track, mini modified, super mini mods, outlaw and open minis showed that competition was not all about size.
These tractors might be small in stature but with fuel-injected, super-charged and normally aspirated V8 engines they are a sight to be seen and the action was intense.