Holy Cow Tractor Pulling Team

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tomah (session 2)
So, in the off season, pretty much everything changed. We bought a new hauler.We bought a new laptop. All the tools are in a different location. We now have an ATV for the batteries. We didn't change much on the tractor, and it is completely fresh. This is probably the least prepared I have ever been for a pull. I know the tractor is ready, but everything else is new, or at least different.

despite not being prepared, the only thing that we didn't bring was the cable and power supply to read data from the data recorders. We discovered this at about 4:30, and ran into Tomah and were lucky to find exactly what we needed at Radio Shack and a local computer store. (They stayed open just for us)

I pulled right in the middle of the class. I don't know if that is good or bad, but that is what it was. The good thing was that I had some time to get back in the groove before I had to pull. Robert's Double Stuffed had a clutch engage too early and as a result, the twin super-stock powered tractor could not build boost and only went 100'. Veney had a wild ride and DQ'ed. Both LD and Robert's Ultimate Toy bounced and didn't go that far. When I hooked to the sled, there weren't too many that had made good runs, so a nice straight pass would go a long way. Being out of the seat for a year and a half, I eased into it. The tractor was set up perfectly and we made a nice, straight pass. Due to an error by the finish line people, they told me I was in 3rd and towed me back into the holding area. Actually, Doc Christiansen 2 of us and, at the time, was in 2nd, meaning I should have been towed back to my trailer. In the end, it didn't matter and all of us dropped out of the top 3.

Joker probably had the strangest run of the night. As soon as he opened the throttle, the left front tire lifted from the ground. As he progressed down the track, the front just kept twisting until finally, something in the drive train came uncoupled with the front axle about 45 degrees from the rear. Overall, it was a pretty bloody night for the mods. It wasn't the track, it wasn't the sled, it was just quircky little things here and there.

We finished 9th out of 19. Luckily, we were one of the few that didn't suffer problems, leaving the night open for a rousing game of beer pong at Stud Monkey's trailer.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Tomah, the trip up.
This makes the first trip for our new hauler and the first trip to Tomah, or any Super National event for that matter, for crew mate Brad. The trip was uneventful, thankfully. You never really know what you are getting with a used vehicle, especially one purchased from a stranger off of eBay, but we were very pleased. I think the seating position in Big Red was a little more comfortable, or at least more car-like, but the visibility in a semi is incredible. Everyone ducked the first few times we went under bridges. We went across the scales at the Illinois state line on US 24. We have the semi-tractor licensed as an RV, just like Big Red was, but this was out first encounter with DOT in a Class 8 truck. They flagged us through without a hitch. The rest of the trip was without incident. When we got to Tomah, we got the best pit space we have ever had. It was nice to catch up with the pullers we haven't seen in at least a year and a half.

The Tomah crew always treats the pullers well, and this year was no exception. Budweiser sponsored a puller reception, which was fun. Brad won a door prise of a nice Busweiser BBQ kit with 4 sauces and tools. In all, it was a great trip up.

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