Technically, my trip to the NTPA truck pull in Chapel Hill, Tennessee this weekend was my second truck pull, however it is the first one I’ve been to where I’ve actually seen the action. For years now, I’ve known that truck pulling has been one of Brian’s favorite motorsports, but I’ve never quite understood the draw. I get that they made huge power, and that’s cool. I knew the Unlimited class was pretty much that, absolutely effing bonkers in a way that would make people in the NHRA reach for heart medication, and that’s cool too. But past that? It’s a tractor pulling a sled. I’ve got experience with tractors: lawn tractors in crazy grass-cutting action, the violence of bush-hogging, and the spectacular action of mowing, wind-rowing and bailing hay. Hold on to yer hat, Ethyl, he’s makin’ another left turn! 

Even when my boots hit the ground at Chapel Hill, I wasn’t convinced. The police and event staff that were working security were really cool and helped me out (probably a little more than they should have, but thanks, guys!) I started wandering and the first thing I saw wasn’t an Unlimited with five nitro-snorting Hemis hanging off of the fun end, but was an eight-wheeled Case IH tractor. I’ll admit that I like tractors for two reasons: they are pure work, and they are freaking huge.

Can I get one that’ll do highway speeds? I want it for Seattle traffic.

Actually, never mind. I’ll take THIS ONE!

A little more tooling around and I found the displays. John Deere, Case and Kenworth were showing off their goods (and that KW T880 dump truck they had there was sweet.) GM had a trailer set up with a bunch of new vehicles and the Corvette Brickyard Pace Car. But there was a huge, gaping hole in the field…that ended up being filled with hot-air balloon shortly, courtesy of Touchstone Energy.

Did you know it only takes two and a half politicians talking to fill that thing?

The place was varying levels of swampy, ranging from “wet beach” to “Everglades”. I had mud in places I didn’t think possible before any truck or tractor turned a tire in anger. I wandered through the pits trying to get pictures. The guys who let me shoot were very cool about it, and some even took a couple of minutes and explained their setup. Most, however, were…I want to say “panicky”. One team in particular saw me coming with my camera and hustled to put a cover over the engine. I understand why they did it, but you still can’t help but get the feeling like you’re tainted. It’s like a mother pulling her child closer to her in Wal-mart because you walked by covered in grease.

After a bit of that I was getting dejected and decided to go find some food. The nice thing about these small town events is that a considerable amount of the food available is homemade. Whoever was cooking the pies and brownies especially…I am in your debt. Once fed, I loaded up my Camelbak, made sure I had my photography spots picked out and got ready. After the high school history teacher sang the National Anthem (and did a damn good job of it too), they announced the drivers, then brought out the GM vehicles on a parade lap, and to show off the pageantry winners.

Somewhere, a Corvette fan just clutched their chest.

From the second the first truck hooked up, I got it. It’s not outright violence like drag racing, but instead you get to hear the power buildup. The trucks and tractors start off digging and then you hear the engine go under load, and that pitch just makes it that much better. At the end of just over 300 feet these engines are more worked than any day in the field, a lot of them showing it. I was loving it right up until it got dark…from the time the sun dropped until I had to leave, me and my camera were having a full-on fight over who’s commands were right.

The highlight of the evening? L.D. Nations’ 4 Aces Unlimited tractor lined up, with five very, very violent Hemis drunk on nitro made one hell of a pull…then, as I was going for an up-close shot, things went bad quick. At least one of the Hemis was done with life, may have taken out a second one, and had spewed fuel everywhere, including out of the coolant puke tubes. Then, right as I was snapping the picture, it caught fire.

That’s not right.

There wasn’t much for heat, but there was a LOT of flames, and I was a lot closer than the picture indicates to that thing. At one point the entire engine rack was burning, and it took a good few minutes to put out the flames. As they were wheeling the wounded tractor off the track, one set of headers lit up again, like one of those joke candles.

If you get the chance. check these things out in person. You’ll be glad you did, especially if you’re into diesels or are just a junkie for engine noise…it’s like a dyno pull with a lot of flying dirt.