If you are ever wondering why pulling tractors have roll cages and why the drivers are all suited up and strapped in when they never really achieve that much speed, let this video from the 2014 NTPA Championship event at Bowling Green, Ohio serve as a good lesson. The tractor is a blown, alcohol burning mini-rod and while we don’t know the driver’s name we do know that he was probably chomping aspirin like candy the next day after being bounced and bashed around during this run.
As you will see, the machine got upset early in the pull and instead of settling down, the thing got into a weird porpoising situation that resulted in a massive wheelie. That wheelie made things really ugly because the tractor landed and the front wheels busted off causing it to dig in. Because the guy had a head of steam behind him, the sled then piled into the back of the thing and the tractor was forced over onto its side. All the while the driver is hanging on and bouncing around for dear life in the cage. You’ll see him fight and struggle to get the motor shut down (which he does do) with all of his weight resting on his right side.
Like a big ship that never goes all that fast but has insane energy behind it, so goes the pulling sled. It is not a sexy, racy, piece of equipment but it is large and very heavy and you never really get a sense of how much of either of those things is really is until it tried to bulldoze a tractor and makes the thing look like a Hot Wheels car. That’s the scene here.
Also, we’re guessing that there isn’t another vehicle on Earth with the power to weight ratio of a Mini-Rod pulling tractor. These things make fuel altereds seem big!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SHORT WHEELBASE HELLION OF A TRACTOR DEVELOPS A BAD ATTITUDE MID-HOOK –
