(Words and photos by Greg Rourke) – Tractor pulls. The concept is simple, you hook your tractor or truck to a heavy sled, a weight slides forward making it more difficult to pull the farther you pull it. And as usual, hot rodders try to defy physics. In very creative ways.

In my eye, the sport of pulling is a lot like the early days of drag racing. Creativity is rewarded, rather than outlawed in the rule books. Ten machines in the same class usually result in ten completely different ideas on how to drag that damn sled. In many classes, the tractors or trucks look just like the stuff the spectators use on the farm, or arrived to the pull in. Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge rivalries are just as strong as the Deere vs. IH vs. Oliver vs. Minnie Mo vs. whatever. You can see it by the tee shirts adorning the spectators, you can hear it with good natured ribbing in the crowd. And like the early days of the drags, many of the vehicles are known by the names. Durty Deere, Mayhem, Relentless, Another Headache…sounds like names that might have been on a Willys or Anglia gasser back in the day, no? Okay, maybe not Durty Deere, but you get the idea.

And just as the early days when there were numerous “Timing Associations” or ” (fill in the blank) Hot Rod Associations”, pulling has many regional sanctioning bodies. Not everyone can run the NHRA circuit, and not everyone can run the NTPA circuit. Here’s where outfits like the Illini State Pullers fill a need. They sanction pulls at county fairs and small town fests all over my beloved Northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. They cater to to the average guy who wants to have a little fun on the weekend. Machines arrive on everything from 18 wheelers to gooseneck trailers on pickups to at least one repurposed school bus. Some pullers are pretty low tech, all the up to the Durty Deere that uses a fuel management system sourced from Bosch and designed for Formula One. One jet powered machine showed up, but needed a bit more tweaking to compete in his class. Classes are typically divided up by weight, gas or diesel, and boost or naturally aspirated. My favorite class name…”Too Hot To Farm”, they look stock, but are in fact far from it.

This weekend the ISP put on their typical flawless show at Elburn Days in Elburn, Illinois. We had exactly one oildown when a Cummins powered Dodge spit a rod through the pan while spooling the turbo. Cleanup took three minutes. Perhaps we can get Brian out of the climate controlled office at the Big Show and do a little announcing from a flatbed trailer with a card table and folding chair that serves as the tower at these events.

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