Indoor tractor pulls are cool for the same reason that indoor monster truck shows are. The action is all right there in front of you and the noise and fury are intensified by the fact that there is a roof and walls to capture the sounds. At the tractor pulls there is a little muffling in the fact that a smoke tube has to be used to capture the copious amounts of soot being produced by the diesel burners but the seating and vantage points still provide a great time at these events. The one drawback is the fact that there is little room for error with regard to course length. Arenas and the like do not have the long run out that some fairgrounds provide and the driver of this John Deere tractor found that out the hard way last week at the National Farm Equipment show pulls in Kentucky.
As you will see, there was a sled failure and the weight box failed to move up the length of the sled as the driver was proceeding down the course. Because of that the tractor built up and immense head of steam and was barreling along far faster than he was able to haul it down. The “double whammy” described in the title is the fact that the tractor plowed into the dirt berm at the end of the course and then the loaded weight box came barreling up the sled and smashed into the top at the end of the sled with massive force. This guy got whiplash once and then head trauma about a second later. BOOM.
We’re not the blame placing guys but should the flagman have notice that something was amiss and thrown the red flag before this happened? Is there any sort of measure to stop a tractor once everyone knows (especially the sled operator) that the weight box is not moving? Fill us in!
It looks like the flag man was asleep at the wheel also. He didn’t throw the red flag until the tractor was in the berm.
The positioning of the flagman looks Darwinian. What could possibly go wrong?
Looks like a full pull to me.
As an official I can tell you that at the en of the track you can’t see the weight box. With the exhaust system on the sled the end flag man couldn’t see the red lights on the sled. The ale operator, who is probably the best there is knew he ha a problem. He pulled the kill switch but it broke and he stood on the brakes of the sled but with the speed the tractor had he couldn’t stop him. Just a bad deal all around.
Wow my auto correct killed me. Supposed to be sled operator. Sorry