Holy Cow Tractor Pulling Team

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Connersville, IN
The final HSTPA hook of the season and we go into with a 7pt lead. There are only 6 members signed up for points, so all I need to do to win points is move the sled.

We had a mag slip at Wauseon and spent the previous day fixing that and doing some valve work on one of the motors. We were confident in our setup and ready to run hard. We drew test hook and got hooked up to the sled. 2.8 seconds after hitting the throttle, we lost a belt on the motor we had worked the previous day on. We had a poor hole shot and only managed 238. I took the hook (not to repeat my bad decision at Greenville) but thought I went too far for losing a motor right off the bad. I figured the sled was too light and was thinking they might restart the class. So we headed back to the pits to try and change the belt. The Mr. Thundermaker crew joined in, but after 3 or 4 tractors, we realized the sled was right. We ended up 10th of 12. I didn't see a single pass of anyone else and can only offer this commentary. Gary Diekman won again Barga in the pull off. Tedder, Boyer, and Stahl rounded out the top 5. Krider bounced real bad and finished last.

The only other point of interest was Todd Feiss (Sno Farmer Extreme) came and bought a per hook membership for his twin engine tractor. He was definitely out classed, but I am told he made a very nice pass and finished 8th. If Todd ever decides to put on a third motor and run HSTPA, I think he will be a force to contend with.

So, a poor showing for the Cow, but we did win out second HSTPA points title which does make the evening a little better.

Wauseon, OH
Probably the best deal in pulling. I think it is $8 for a ticket. Two Tracks and 7 huge classes including a lot of big name pullers.

We were the fourth class on the infield side and I was about halfway through a class of 15 mods. Since this was also the RN Enderle pulloff, as a makeup for last weekends rained out Ft Recovery, there was some very good iron in this class.

Our trip to the pull was spent almost entirely in rain, but up to this point, the pull had remained dry. As we started to head to the scales, a light mist started to fall. This continued on and off during the first "session" of mod pulling. It was raining just enough to get everything wet, but not enough to affect the track. We were pulling the Orange Ironman sled, and much like Singer, didn't have a weight at the front of the pan. First up was Wayne Krider. He started bouncing, shut it off, attempted to re-pull and bounced again. Tedder was second hook, he also bounced some, but drove out of it. And so it went. Tractor after tractor either bounced so bad they shut it down, or they just had a bad hole shot, but drove out of it. There was a pretty mad scramble in the hot pits and pullers adjusted weights and tire pressure in an attempt to get a good run.

My turn at bat. I tried a side of the track that no one had run. Apperently, my right side motors, the crank to crank ones, stalled while pulling onto the track. Since the pull was going so weird with the rain and the bouncing, I was distracted and didn't realize that they had shut off. I left the line and I reallly thought I was just spinning the tires and wasn't hooking. At least that is what my highly calibrated butt was telling me. Actually, I was only running on one motor, but didn't know that at the time. I shut it down, and reset the sled more in the center of the track (although that probably didn't make a difference). When I restarted the tractor, naturally all three were running and I started out making a good pull. Like everyone else, I started out good, started bouncing, drove out of it, but broke a blower belt in the process and only went 247. It was not a good run at all, but put me actually pretty far up because of all the breakage. So we went back to the trailer.

I didn't see any of the other tractors run, but you could head they were still having bouncing problems. Mike Krause ran and it sounded like an ugly run, one that ended with a pretty loud boom. The Announcer went silent and I figured something bad happened. When I got up to the track for a look, I saw Mike driving off and figured all was OK. Then there was long silence. There were only a few left in the class, but none of them were making a pass. Finally we got news in the pits that the sled was broken. Normally, this would have been the end of the pull, but since it was the Enderle and there was a second sled, we switched tracks and sleds and started over. At this point, many of the mods that had already pulled were loaded in the haulers. So, again, there was the mad scramble in the pits. We hurried to get another blower belt on. At this point, the rain had stopped and it had turned into a nice night.

This time, Bauer left a weight in the front of the pan. Krider still bounced on his first hook. I don't know what he changed, but his generally good looking runs for 2004 have reverted back to the bouncing of 2003. Everyone else made good looking passes. Gary Diekman held the lead at 328 when we pulled (floating finish). We squeeked out to 309.2, good enough for second place. As the class wore on, there were a lot of vehicles between 305 and 309, but none could get past me. Finally, the last hook was Jack Kielmeyer from Minnesota. He was here for the Enderle from Region III and he showed everyone why he was the in the Enderle. He made an absolutely fantastic pass out to 349 to win the pull and the Enderle. Good job Jack. We finished third. Gary Diekman finsihed second in the pull and second in the Enderle. Chard Shultheis finished third in the Enderle. He followed me, so I didn't get to see his run, but I am told it seemed like he broke the coupler between his front two motors and really screamed the front one, at least until the belt broke. He finished way back and probably has some major damage.

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