Tractor pulling is a motorsport that has been around for close to a century but started gaining in popularity during the 1950s. It has gone through many changes in its history as technology and advances in engines for power have changed the possibilities. And while the looks of the trucks haven’t changed in a while, the components under the hood are definitely not your grandpas’ engines.
Speak to someone who’s into the sport and they’ll definitely say it’s extremely hard compared to other racing phenomena; there’s a significant amount of classes and tractor shapes, and several rules you must stick to. Plus, the main thing in tractor pulling is very hard, even for people who race all the time.
What Is Tractor Pulling?
Tractor pulling is a fairly simple concept. Teams design and modify tractors and semi-trucks to get the maximum pulling force possible and attempt to pull a weighted sled as far as their tractor will pull it. Even though some of these trucks can be twenty feet long and weigh close to ten tons, the competitions often come down to mere fractions of an inch to decide the victor.
The sled that the tractors are dragging gets heavier and heavier until no one can pull it anymore, and then someone wins. Also, it gets harder each time they pull because there’s a thing that moves the weights towards the front, so the sled starts to dig into the ground and gets stuck more.
Class Rules
There are almost as many different classes as there are types of tractors, and each class is both restrictive and wide-ranging. While the majority of these tractors look almost like they were ridden in off a farm, they are in no other way like a traditional tractor or semi. Some classes allow jet engines and multiple turbos, as long as they fit into the standard tractor frame.
For each competition grade, there are different rules about how weighty items can be or how big the engine is – it’s really varied; there are contests meant for all kinds of vehicles from tiny, lawn mower engines to those massive semi trucks you see on highways. Trying to pick which competition you fit in can feel extremely tough because the rules are so strict. Once you’ve found your group, you then have to look at if your ride’s motor, outer shell, and how much it weighs meet the official rules before they make you go through the checks to see if you qualify.
When An Inch Is Nearly A Mile
As mentioned earlier, these competitions are frequently decided on fractions of an inch. But, when we are talking fractions here, we are talking thousandths of an inch. The distances these pulls are decided by can be so minute they are almost indistinguishable to the naked eye. To put it into a bit better perspective, imagine a pull so close the difference was the width of a single human hair.
When you are measuring wins by such minuscule margins, every single ounce of power matters. You have to make sure that every calculation and part of your engine are perfectly tuned, or you could lose it all to a distance you cant see. With every other motorsport, tuning is extremely important, but it isn’t as often that those races are decided by such a small margin of distance.
Tractor Pulling Is Not The Best Paid Motorsport
While drivers for some motorsports can make some serious money, tractor pulling has never reached a level of popularity that can afford these drivers the same level of payout. That is why, for most, tractor pulling is more of a passion sport or a hobby they are active in. But, that doesn’t mean these guys don’t work just as hard or harder than most to keep the sport they love going.
Tractor pulls are really noisy and excited ; they’re focused on showing off who has the most powerful ride, with a large amount of engine smoke everywhere. Fans love these things . When the drivers step on the gas, man, you can tell how strong those engines are because they’re even louder than the crowd’s cheers.
Tractor pulling probably isn’t most people’s idea of a spectacular sport. Still, there are people who are really into it, for them, it’s a very large deal; the teams and drivers work extremely hard on their tractors – like getting really sweaty and tired – all to win and be called the ‘Champion’. Winning is like the best thing ever to these people.
