THE TOUGHER THE BETTER
Teams participate in the Ram Tough Truck Pull in downtown Windsor on Sunday. “The start is the hard part,” Windsor Chrysler’s Jeremy Bouchard said. “It’s OK once you get it going.” Last year’s event raised $45,000 for United Way Windsor-Essex.
John Leparskas briefly considered ditching his teammates at the Ram Tough Truck Pull held Sunday on Riverside Drive.
Leparskas and his co-workers from Sutherland Global were the first group to try their hand at pulling an auto transport carrier loaded with six Ram 1500 pickup trucks for 100 feet.
“I almost didn’t come,” Leparskas said. “I thought it wasn’t going to move for us but that was so much fun. I loved it.”
His Sutherland teammate, Zachiah Sealey, threw her arms triumphantly in the air when they had finished.
“That was hard,” said Sealey who was taking part in her first truck pull, all for the benefit of the United Way.
Three previous truck pulls have raised more than $150,000 for the local United Way.
“It’s all for the United Way,” said Jeremy Bouchard, still trying to catch his breath after helping his Windsor Chrysler team cross the line. “The start is the hard part. It’s OK once you get it going.”
A total of 25 teams took a turn at lugging some 85,000 pounds worth of trucks. Workers from different divisions of FCA accounted for nine of those entries.
The LiUNA 625 team was looking for its third Guts and Glory Cup, having taken home the trophy last year and in 2013.
“They’re definitely coming at us,” team member Mike Vieau said of the friendly opposition.
Vieau was part of last year’s winning crew. He said they like to organize their 15 participants from shortest to tallest for best results.
This year, however, LiUNA was edged out by a team from Integrity Tool & Mold.
The Integrity crew walked away with a winning cumulative time of 56.90 seconds for three pulls. LiUNA was second at 58.05.
Integrity’s group was also the top team fundraiser, bringing in $6,255.
Last year’s event raised $45,000 for United Way Windsor-Essex. FCA manager of communications, Liam Price, anticipated topping that number with seven more teams competing this year.