Holy Cow Tractor Pulling Team

Monday, June 30, 2003

A Non-Pulling Day
Pleased to have not broken anything at Rochester, we sat and discussed what we wanted to accomplish this week before North Branch. Things that came up were fixing the crack in the grey water tank in the hauler, installing an awning on the hauler, and painting the hauler. During this discussion, Stacey let Holley out into the back yard and the sweep (the weatherstripping on the bottom of the door) fell off. I pulled the door of the hinges to see why and found the wooden core of the steel door was rotten. I guess somehow water was getting inside. So, today we installed a new door in the Kitchen on the back of the house. That also ate up enough time the not consider painting the hauler. Which means probably again, it get pushed out past the end of the season.

Sunday, June 29, 2003

Rochester
We went up the night before to watch my old econo mod class run. That class has come a long way. We made a short pass with our big mod to sort out so engine issues. The track was dry and hard. We awoke Saturday morning to so the sound of rain drops, but that ended quickly enough. It was an overcast day with very spotty drops. As pull time approached, the rains started and went away. They whipped the track into shape and the pull started only a little late.

Unfortunately, we only had four mods present. One HSTPA mod just got parts back from the machine shop and could get ready in time and another was not there. The pull in Arcola took three mods that may have shown up, and, while being co-santcioned with Michigan, no Michigan 3-engine mods have been out this year. Don Deane made a nice pull, but went out too easily and the sled was reset. I misread the track and was nose heavy and only made it 280 feet. Wayne Krider also missed nose weight, but was closer and made a full pull. Mike Schoenemann broke a coupler warming up and only went a hundred feet and change on two motors. Don came back and was balanced well, but rode the right brake hard most of the run and stopped short at 262.

Thanks to the promoters and fans at Rochester. I feel the staff on hand did the best they could with the hand Mother Nature dealt them. I was also really impressed with the brass eagle trophy we received for second place. I hope to be back again next year.

Friday, June 27, 2003

New Puzzle Pics
I didn't realize it, but I ran out of pics for my puzzle. While attendig Tomah, I snapped some shots both in the pits and the hot pits and uploaded those. Todays shot: Buckeye Binder from Ohio.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Larry Jr

The main reason most of us pull is the enjoyment of interacting with the fans. We were pleased to be presented with Larry Jr by some dedicated pulling fans from Ohio. It is the roar of the croud when you make a good pull and things like this take make the thousands of dollars and the months of hard work all worthwhile.

Directions to Rochester
From the south, take US 31 1.5 miles N of SR 14. From the north, take US 31 south towards Rochester just past the Rail Road Bridge. Turn East on 150 N or Bobolink Ave. Enter the fairgrounds at the top of the hill.

Sunday, June 15, 2003

Imlay City
We are hoping for a pull that weather is not a factor, but still haven't had one yet. Louisville had the ice storm. Brigden got rained out and required a tow tractor to get the semi unstuck to leave. Imlay City started with getting stuck as well. As we pulled into the pit, I stopped to look for a parking spot, and that was all she wrote. A 4-wheel drive front loader hooked on to us and spun all four wheels as well. On the second attempt, we were moving and got parked.

The weather would have a big affect on the pull as well. I heard from fans the region received about 1 1/2 of rain the day before and as a result the track was very soft. This was probably one of the poorest shows I have seen simply due to track conditions. There was very good iron present including last years GN champion in each of the classes that ran on the GN level, and the RN champion in the SF class. The track was very soft to the left and soft to the right. Both Klink and Diekman ran nose heavy and got it out the gate. Krider finished 3rd with a very high pass, but a distance of only 238. Everyone had problems controlling their tractors and a most shut them down early to stay inbounds. We made a driving error and DQ'd on the right side. Congratulations to Klink for a good win. It wasn't a pretty pass, but he was the only one of the night to figure it out.

Saturday looked to be a better day. The track was opened up and allowed to dry. The weather was warm and clear. But as the mods were called to the starting line, the left side was still soft. First up was Jerew, a three motor trator from Ohio, that got it out the gate with ease. Just as the day before, the sled couldn't get a hold of the track and stop the tractors. The sled was reset and we pulled. We had to tap the brakes a few times, but made a nice pass to 285. Klink was nose heavy, which worked the night before to his advantage, but only managed 247. Slagh made a nice pass out the gate. Soisson was next up and had a nice hole shot, but something appeared to have broken in the drivetrain, and then his big turbine let go. All the safety equipment worked as designed and there were no injuries. Then the track fell apart. Snyder couldn't get a hold of anything, Jostock, Barga, and Tedder all made nice looking passes, but never got any ground speed and just broke the 200' mark. Muffy broke right out of the hole, and Jerew broke a belt shortly into their run. While we were pleased with 2nd place, it was really an early hook that made the difference.

TAR 3
Did get a chance to update prior to leaving for Imlay City. Again, not a partically fundimental episode. I am glad to see the Air Traffic Controllers hanging on. I am bothered by the fact the models are again featured quite a bit. Back about the time of the first Survivor, I was listening to a talk show on the radio and the hosts made a comment about the editing. They said that basically 2 members will be heavily featured on a given episode. One will be eliminated at the end of the episode and the other will win the game. I find this statement to be pretty accurate. It only makes sense, that you want to feature your winner, so a dark horse doesn't win, and you also need to focus on the next loser. Given that they need to condense 72 hours of stuff into a 45 time slot, it only makes sense you need to ignore the non-important people. So, to this point, very little has been shown of the clowns and you can assume they will not win. I am bothered by the fact that they models get more than their share of the camera, and I hope that is not a harbinger of their ultimate victory.

Monday, June 09, 2003

Brigden, Ontario
Saturday nights session looked to be a good one. There were only 9 tractors present, but all very tough tractors. We hooked as the 3rd class following Super Farm and TWD. We drew test hook and made a fairly nice pull, but stopped short at about 260'. The officials and sled operator agreed to lighten the sled and restart the class. We dropped six and headed back to the pits to refuel. When we returned to the line, Wayne Krider was in the lead with 295 on a nice run on a new set of Puller 2000's and different gear ratio. He was pleased and he really didn't know about his combination. Gary Diekman was next up and made a nice straight run for 298. We felt good about the tractor, but knew we needed a FP to win. We made a nice hook and and really picked up ground speed, until about 200', the front motor broke a belt and we came to a stop at 281. The only other run we saw was Barga on the Judge. They also had a very nice run and got it out the gate in the only full pull of the class. The finishing order was Barga, Diekman, Krider, Miller, Piekarski, Jostock, Smith, Schoenemann, Martell. Everyone from Piekarski down had a problem of some type. We wrenched hard the next day and could find no problems with our motors and were ready to pull again. About an hour before show time, a fairly heavy rain show moved across the fair grounds and the pull was canceled.

The trip home was not as uneventful as the trip up. First, we were stopped at the border and subjected to an agricultural inspection. That really was no big deal, but just a hassle. The inspector asked if I understood why such inspections were necessary and I just agreed with him (Mad Cow disease), but in reality I don't. Just because we are loosly considered a tractor does not mean that our tractor is never near a farm animals, let alone a cow. (This is probably more funny give the name of our tractor). But, even if the fairgrounds had been used by a rodeo or something that put cows on the tractor or the pit area, then our hauler would be just as infected as the tractor. While the tractor was dirt free when we rolled through inspection, the same cannot be said of the truck. The pits got really wet and most of the pullers needed to be pulled out with a tractor. So, the truck was quite muddy as was the trailer, but that didn't seem to both the ag inspectors, eventhough the dirt they were looking for on the tractor was liberally applied all over the hauler. We also passed Tom Harmon going to other way (back into Canada) was we pulled up to the toll both. He really would have been too late if he was going to the pull and I sure he had already passed a bunch of pullers, so I am guessing he was denied entry back into the US.

Then we were headed south on I-69 between Charlotte and Marshall, MI and out of nowhere the winds just blasted. I am guessing 60+ mph. It was just ripping leaves, limbs, and branches from the tree and blowing them across the interstate. We hit a medium sized branch in the windshield, but it did no damage. The clouds looked really ominous and we were looking for a tornado. We didn't see one and quickly pulled into a rest area. The winds seemed strong enough to roll the truck and that just didn't seem like a good idea. We pulled up next to the Cabeen TWD team who were just minutes ahead of us. We waited out the storm and continued on. It was really "exciting" there for a while.

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