A little later today we are going to run a big gallery of photos from the 2012 Keystone Nationals, a huge pulling event held in Pennsylvania. This event has everything from the awesome two and four wheel drive trucks all the way through the Pro Stock diesel tractors and the big multi-engine blown alky burning monsters. In this video we will see a beautiful tractor named, “Blue Blazes” make what looks to be a picture perfect pull to start with but the ending is anything but.
According to the video description, the sled setup was changed a tractor or two before Blue Blazes hooked up and the results were not good. The tractor sets off and looks perfect heading down the course, dangling the front tires a foot or two off of the ground and maintaining a nice level plane as the weight box moved forward on the carriage. You’ll notice that the tractor has a BIG head of steam as he comes by the camera and it becomes quickly obvious that the whole rig will not be stopped before the end of the course.
The tractor plows into the dirt berm at the end of the course and that berm is fortified by some concrete or steel posts because it stops RIGHT NOW . The driver climbs out and appears very annoyed but otherwise unhurt. The tractor was damaged and could not make the call to pull again later in the day, according to what we read attached to the video. It is a good thing that there was a concrete post in there to stop what is essentially a very heavy battering ram. As you can see, the only things left in his way were an open garage door and the back wall of the building! That would have been bad and a half!
The video is 5-minutes long but all the action takes place in the first :45. Buckle up and press play!
The *thud* that thing made when it hit the wall was sickening. It resounded through the whole building. Problem was, the tractor that ran before that one had to shut down early because the sled was light, and they lightened the sled even more for this guy. The tractor didn’t appear to be damaged by the hit, but when he came back to pull again at the end of the class, he couldn’t get it to spool up. Unfortunate day for him.