NATPA PULL BEWARE

Hello everybody! I am a big fan of tractor pulling, and the past few years been thinking about building up my old AC WC. I always like to go to wauseon to watch the antique pulls and admire the tractors and the competive spirit the guys and gals have. I have been in other forms of
motorsports like dirt track racing etc. and have NO LOVE for cheaters! In a game of inches like tractor pulling, I have noticed its not too common to put 30 or 40 feet on a class that has been all within 10 feet of each other. I watched this happen at Wauseon fair last year and was
amazed of a Allis Chalmers putting that kind of distance on the whole field!! Later I learned he would not allow anyone to check his hitch heighth. Things like this are not attracting new pullers like me, and is a black eye for the entire sport! Other guys were not weighing out and it
looked like a circus. I have put my project on hold and am going to the NATPA Summer pull to watch and hopefully be inspired to continue with it. I think, like in the racing world, guys like this need to be called out and watched where ever they go!! The tractor said pulling since
1981, you would think they would know better than to cheat if they have pulled that long!

Tractor pulling is just like any other sport. You have good competent pullers and you have cheaters. At the pulls that I go to if you refuse to be checked you would be disquailfied.For me I pull for the fun of it and its a good feeling when you can out pull a tractor with a lot more HP than yours.

You mentioned Wauseon Fair and NATPA, to my knowledge, NATPA has not had a pull during the Wauseon fair.

There is the NATPA November pull at the Wauseon fairgrounds, tractors are weighed and hitch height checked on the way into the track. There is no requirement to weigh out or to check height on the way out, however the officials have the right to recheck any tractor. Participants have the right to protest a tractor, provided they do it before the class is over.

I hope what you saw was just a misunderstanding.

Rich

I believe this to be a Maumee Valley Pullers issue than NATPA. Just wanted to let the NATPA and everyone else know they need to watch their hitch. At the Wauseon fair hardly nobody was watching anything. And they wonder why there numbers are down. NATPA looks to be a very nicly ran pull and hope it will always be. I have seen this happen in other types of motorsports when people get complacent or lazy and dont check anybody, and the next thing you know there is nobody showing up anymore. That is a very sad thing. Hope the rain stays away and you have a good pull! Good luck to all the pullers.

Did you make it to Napoleon yesterday?

This was not typical of NATPA pulls, the grounds were soaked and forced everyone to park a long ways from the scale, which slowed progress. At first there was one set of scales, which slowed things down, eventually a second set of scales were set up, this helped immensely.

The scales and hitch were mostly honor system, there was little supervision at the scales, and no control in the pits. But I do not have a problem with this, I believe the membership to be honest and trustworthy.

The sleds had really short chains, everyone had issues with insufficient nose weight, but not real good traction. This caused a lot of wheel-stands and wild rides.

Later
Rich

The insufficient nose weight was because of too much traction, what a biting track! Broke an axle right off of an Oliver. Great pull.

Your opinion, my opinion was the short chain made it look like high traction.

just because someone puts 40 feet on the rest of the class doesnt really mean they are cheating it happens all the time but if they refused to have hitch checked the y must of been hiding somethingl

At the natpa pulls I have been to all weighed in just before pulling and had hitch height checked before leaving scale. Our local pulls all adapted to same procedure pulled off scale onto track. rpms checked at the far end.Paul