Local tractor pullers compete at the fair

Published 10:11 am Wednesday, August 1, 2018

By Andrew Mentock

CASSOPOLIS — Dirt, strength, metal and grit are all major components in tractor pulling. It takes the strength of the tractor to pull a weighted metal sled through thick dirt and clay.

Ultimately, it comes down to the grit and ingenuity of the driver to get the tractor to go that last couple of feet, which very well could be the difference between victory and defeat. This is especially true when some tractors are pulling sleds nearly 300 feet.

At yesterday’s Farm Tractor and Antique Tractor Pull at the Cass County, Max Wright Jr., of Dowagiac, competed against his father, Max Wright, in the 18,000-pound farm tractor class. Max Jr. took home a trophy and a blue ribbon after beating his father by slightly less than 14 feet. It was the first time Max Jr. won a tractor pulling competition.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Max Jr. said. “I moved weight around after my dad pulled and I tried to be in a different position on the track. There’s not a lot you can really do. Just any little edge you can get. I did a few things differently than my dad, but nothing major.”

The event is put on by the Cass County Tractor Pullers, an organization that was started nearly 40 years ago. There were more than 10 different weight classes of tractor pulling competition at the Cass County Fair. The class a tractor is in is determined by the weight of the tractor, the year it was made and how fast it is allowed to go.

“You’re always competing with comparable weighted tractors,” said Jesse Bement, the supervisor of the Cass County Tractor Pullers. “We’ve got three divisions. We’ve got the antiques, which is anything produced in 1958 and older. We’ve got farm stock, which is basically anything else. And then we’ve got what we call fast tractors, which are the modified tractors and they run either a 10- or a 12-mph speed limit.”

The tractors are pulling what is referred to as a boat or a weight transfer sled, Bement said. As this apparatus is pulled, a weighted box progressively moves closer and closer to the front. This causes the sled’s pan to be pushed farther and farther into the ground, creating more and more friction, and eventually, there will be so much resistance that the tractor is unable to pull any farther.

Max Jr.’s total distance was 288.35 feet. His dad’s distance was good for the third farthest pull in their weight class, but since they both used the same tractor, only Max Jr. was eligible to place. Their tractor was an International 1466.

Drivers were awarded prize money based on where they finished:

• 1st — $100

• 2nd — $75

• 3rd — $50

• 4th — $30

• 5th — $25

• 6th — $20

“It’s nice, just as long as it covers my entry fees,” Max Jr. said. “I mostly do it for bragging rights and the thrill of winning.”

Unlike the tractors at the NTPA Regional National Tractor & Truck Pulls competition that took place at the fair last night, which are modified and used solely for competitions, most of the tractors in the Farm Tractor and Antique Tractor Pull will be working on a farm again before the end of the week.

The oldest antique tractor to compete yesterday was a Farmall F-20 built in 1937, according to Bement. Its top speed is 5mph, and to start it the driver must first manually turn a hand crank.

“Honestly, if you think about it in 1937, it would have replaced a team of horses and [its owner would have] had the world by the tail,” Bement said.

Today, the owner of the tractor is Dan Hershberger, of Vandalia. Previously, it was owned by his wife’s great-grandfathers and stored in a barn for decades until Hershberger restored it seven or eight years ago.

Last year, he began to use it in tractor pulling competitions. Yesterday, he finished third to last in the 4,500-pound antique tractor class.

“The only reason I pull it is because it’s the oldest one [that competes here],” Hershberger said. “I hope that when my boys get old enough, they’ll have a 100-year-old tractor that they’re still pulling.”

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