(June 30, 2016) Making a return after last year’s event was cancelled because of poor weather, the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League truck and tractor pull brought more than 1,000 spectators, crew and participants to the fairgrounds in Pocomoke City on Saturday.
The stars of the show were, according to organizer Gloria Smith, the weather, the track, the participants and the 36 pieces of equipment all working together to make for an exciting, family-friendly event.
Clear sunny skies with an occasional breeze marked the event, keeping the shade cool and the motors hot as they strove to drag a 40,000-pound sled 300 feet in the shortest amount of time.
Last year, rainy conditions all but ruined the track at the fairgrounds, which would make the pulling difficult and both the audience and participants unhappy.
“The people who know dirt work understand — the track came together beautifully,” Smith said.
When dealing with high horsepower and high performance machines, a track that’s too wet is as undesirable as one that is too dry or sandy. While pulling a load, Smith explained, the tires need to grip the surface and bite in to gain enough traction. Otherwise, fuel and horsepower are wasted on a futile effort.
A track that is too wet or dry is also more likely to be slippery, and cause the high-precision machines to perform poorly.
With the town getting rain in the week preceding the event, Smith said there was an early concern the track wouldn’t be ready.
“It hadn’t been worked up in two years. The crew started working in the morning, because the tractors like a hard track,” she said.
Chisel plows, a wheeled smoothing device that was loaded down with blank granite headstones and other pieces of heavy equipment to provide weight, put in a long day before the first key was turned in the first competing tractor.
What was left was a Goldilocks-zone strip of earth about 500 feet long in total, although only about 300 feet of that was competition space.
That track had to not only contend with, but also achieve, a baseline of consistency for 36 entrants, all of which would be dragging 20 tons of weight behind it.
Between pulls the track would be resurfaced and leveled, but one a division began, that work took mere minutes.
The winners in each division were as follows:
— 466 Hot Farm Class: Ray Norris, California, Maryland and driven by Davey Moore, Boonsboro, Maryland in an unnamed John Deere tractor.
— Four-wheel Drive Diesel Pickups: Norman Newswanger, Gardner, Pennsylvania in a truck named “Chapter 11.”
— Super Stock/Pro Stock Tractor Class: Tim Ammons, Hagerstown, Maryland in a tractor named “Ultimate Harvester.”
— Two-Wheel Drive truck class: Steven Wilson, Prince Frederick, Maryland in a truck named “Running Bare.”
— Modified Tractor class: Len Brookhart, Bel Air, Maryland in a tractor named “Radial Reactor.”
The atmosphere for the competition appeared to start behind the scenes, as it was not just grease-stained mechanics working to prepare the trucks to compete. Campers filled with families were in the pit area sporting a clear party atmosphere. When it came time to compete, the teams were ready, but before that time everyone was a spectator.
“I like that it’s not just a guy’s sport. Every division, except for one, had at least one female driver,” Smith said. “We even had a brother/sister team, a father/daughter team and a husband/wife team.”
Some of the funds raised from this event will go towards the Great Pocomoke Fair, scheduled form Aug. 4-6 this year. This is the final fundraising event before the fair.
For more information, visit www.thegreatpocomokefair.org.
The stars of the show were, according to organizer Gloria Smith, the weather, the track, the participants and the 36 pieces of equipment all working together to make for an exciting, family-friendly event.
Clear sunny skies with an occasional breeze marked the event, keeping the shade cool and the motors hot as they strove to drag a 40,000-pound sled 300 feet in the shortest amount of time.
Last year, rainy conditions all but ruined the track at the fairgrounds, which would make the pulling difficult and both the audience and participants unhappy.
“The people who know dirt work understand — the track came together beautifully,” Smith said.
When dealing with high horsepower and high performance machines, a track that’s too wet is as undesirable as one that is too dry or sandy. While pulling a load, Smith explained, the tires need to grip the surface and bite in to gain enough traction. Otherwise, fuel and horsepower are wasted on a futile effort.
A track that is too wet or dry is also more likely to be slippery, and cause the high-precision machines to perform poorly.
With the town getting rain in the week preceding the event, Smith said there was an early concern the track wouldn’t be ready.
“It hadn’t been worked up in two years. The crew started working in the morning, because the tractors like a hard track,” she said.
Chisel plows, a wheeled smoothing device that was loaded down with blank granite headstones and other pieces of heavy equipment to provide weight, put in a long day before the first key was turned in the first competing tractor.
What was left was a Goldilocks-zone strip of earth about 500 feet long in total, although only about 300 feet of that was competition space.
That track had to not only contend with, but also achieve, a baseline of consistency for 36 entrants, all of which would be dragging 20 tons of weight behind it.
Between pulls the track would be resurfaced and leveled, but one a division began, that work took mere minutes.
The winners in each division were as follows:
— 466 Hot Farm Class: Ray Norris, California, Maryland and driven by Davey Moore, Boonsboro, Maryland in an unnamed John Deere tractor.
— Four-wheel Drive Diesel Pickups: Norman Newswanger, Gardner, Pennsylvania in a truck named “Chapter 11.”
— Super Stock/Pro Stock Tractor Class: Tim Ammons, Hagerstown, Maryland in a tractor named “Ultimate Harvester.”
— Two-Wheel Drive truck class: Steven Wilson, Prince Frederick, Maryland in a truck named “Running Bare.”
— Modified Tractor class: Len Brookhart, Bel Air, Maryland in a tractor named “Radial Reactor.”
The atmosphere for the competition appeared to start behind the scenes, as it was not just grease-stained mechanics working to prepare the trucks to compete. Campers filled with families were in the pit area sporting a clear party atmosphere. When it came time to compete, the teams were ready, but before that time everyone was a spectator.
“I like that it’s not just a guy’s sport. Every division, except for one, had at least one female driver,” Smith said. “We even had a brother/sister team, a father/daughter team and a husband/wife team.”
Some of the funds raised from this event will go towards the Great Pocomoke Fair, scheduled form Aug. 4-6 this year. This is the final fundraising event before the fair.
For more information, visit www.thegreatpocomokefair.org.