PA women dies at tractor pull

Recently a piece flew off during a Pennsylvania tractor pull & killed a 33 yr. old mother of two boys. Out in the field isn't the only place danger lurks. Careful, folks. Someone may be able to post a link.

ya well when things are stock along with engine rpm. your pretty safe. but when these guys start doing 10.000 rpm and blowing coal to see how fast u can go is a different story. plus they should have scatter blankets or shields. its not the first time or wont be the last time having things fly apart. that stuff dont interest me one bit. i like my old stock antique tractor pulls, and the flag man walks beside you at a snails pace.

https://www.tribdem.com/news/johnstown-woman-killed-in-tractor-pull-accident-loved-working-with-kids-colleague-says/article_ccaa86d2-39f1-11ee-bee3-471a78f74542.html

There are other articles to be found. This one says part of the turbocharger broke off and flew to hit her.

One account said it was an exhaust wheel, so it might have been a turbocharger. Next will be scattershields for turbos, and perhaps rightly so.

I'm with you on this. Kind of the reason I don't pull. Not really any 'true' stock pulls around here anymore. And that's as far as my interest goes as far as competing. So I just stay out of it.

I got some buddies that pull though. And they are all willing to do whatever thier pocket book will allow to improve on thier pulling. And it's all kind of funny. A sh!1 show really. Because every year they go to thier organizations rules meeting, and of course dis-approve of anything that thier own personal pocket book won't allow. And if they fall into the minority, then they are an advocate to create a new class. A new class that exempts everybody else that moved on with the next new expensive accessory. Just an out and out snake pit mess if you ask me. If they can't beat em on the track, then they just ploy to beat em at the rules meeting so they don't have to deal with em next year.

One buddy just said the heck with all that crap. Pass the rules, and alter the classes all you like. He still shows up, and pulls exhibition. Basically has more fans and puts on a better show. Has more following. I kind of admire him for doing his own thing, and not subjecting himself to all the BS.

All the fun can be taken out of something. And all the BS that goes on in pulling, sure would take it out of it for me. But it don't seem to bother some of my friends.

YUP . We played the game . We dealt with the Cry baby's . Ya should have seen them whine years back . They wanted Stock Blocks and heads and only 20% over stock RPM . My accountant came to the shop one day and said LETS BUILD a Puller and You will not like the color . O K FINE . SOOOOOOOOOO we set to Build a Pullen tractor for antique Div. 3 . And do this on a stick budget . So we built a monster and used JUNK parts . Tow internal freeze broken blocks , went dumpster diven for 6 855 Cummins truck engine sleeves He called one of his friend for 6 used Allison 60 over pistons , i went and got 4 Farmall M rods another call went out to one of his friends for two L P heads that came out of texas . The junk blocks went down the road to one of the guy';s i use for machine work . The blocks were bored the sleeves were turned down to fit in the Junk blocks , i welded them in the rods were made to fit the Allison pistons the crank and cam went out to In. to be stroked and cam welded up and reground to a new grind . The intake we got was made to take the HUGE Bendix carb i got from a Mil . serplus yard that was a three inch in and out made back in 43 along with three carb kits some John deere parts werelocated in the form of OLD J D Valves that were made to fit in the heads then the heads were set out for extrusion honing and flow testing and when done the only NEW parts were RINGS , Bearings and custom made gskt's. What that tractor started with life was 335 CU . IN. when done it was NOW 609 CU. IN. and it ran up to 1950 RPM . We tried to dyno it and the 250 Hp . Dyno could NOT even slow it down and almost flipped the dyno over . We ran that tractor in four classes with four different drivers . I ran it in the 6500 Lb class and my accoutant ran the 7500 lb class , we had a small guy thAt ran it in the 4500 class and one other that ran the 5500 class . At the end of the fist year we all were points champ.'s It was never beaten . Depending on the track 45-55 it was road gear and some times i could even run road gear in 65 . You were guaranteed a high speed out the gate ride . Total hard cash in this total build was around 3500 Bucks including the tractor . The closest anybody could get to it was 75 feet and he had 29K in his engine , He was NOT happy . For two years the four of us made for a vary long pulling season for the rest . Only problem we had was a fuel pump failure . The guy that had the most bucks in his tractor at the end of the second year came to myself and my accountant and wanted to Buy it , if ya can't beat the comp then Buy them out So we sold it to him . Him and his brother got messen with it at his house one day in the drive and she blew up sending pieces and parts thru his ranch home thru several walls . So My accountant and i set out to build the next one and three more for others and like always straight out of the shop and to the pulls they were gate shot rides . One was division five tractor and it put a whippen on the rest so bad around here that they ban that tractor as they could NOT shut it down . The only thing i will never do is build a 7 1/2 inch stroke engine ever again sporting 5.5 inch pistons .The hours spent grinding to make everything clear was unreal .

Many years back one of my friends and i took dates to Wooster Ohio tractor pull . It was a really hot day and the only breeze to be had was in the top row of the grand stands and that is where Mike an our dates were setting I don't remember the guys name now but he was running a W 9 I H with two 462 Lincoln V 8's . We were about mid track and as he came screaming down the track with the engines over 5 grand the flywheel on the first motor came unglued and come flying up in our direction. I pulled my date one way and Mike did the same as the flywheel passed between us and out into the paring lot going thru several windshield and roof of cars parked out there and stopping embedded in the back seat of one of them . During my time playen in the lets go fast game i personally have had catastrophic failures , my first engine that i bought came unglued while breaking it in , i had a dual disc clutch explode out on the road , I have had engines come apart on the dyno's and it ain't pretty , my one buddys tractor that we were experimenting on with a Big turbo and AL-KI-HOL let me count the times we made spare parts but the crown jewel was the night she threw the crank and all six pistons out on the track .

I saw a turbo, as in jet engine, fly apart and injured a spectator in the stands about 25 years ago. Dont know is they lived or died. I had enough and left. Havent been back since.

at the beginning it was more of who could drive best,then power race. now its how much $$$ you got. i lost interest during the power race

We went to a pull at Mt. Hope Ohio last year. No prize money paid at all, just bragging rites. No fancy tractors with great big hopped up engines were there, just farm tractors. It was a welcomed change from the big smokers. I don't go to pulls anymore but that was at the steam show there in Amish country and we just happened to be there. We really enjoyed watching that pull.

Cloverleaf Speedway closed in the 80s, shortly after a little girl died and her father injured from we think was an exploded flywheel. The parts came through the fence with such velocity that there wasnt time to ,, lean out of the way,,

Wow ..... nobody messes with you and your accountant right? Your trophy case must be overflowing TV. Any photos of all the silverware? You must have more trophies than LeBron James.

Probably a good idea, turbos can spin up to 200,000 rpm!

We have a true stock pull here at west liberty Ohio on Labor Day and to pull anything exibition it has to be field stock and 1956 or older. I got fed up years ago with modifierds being left i and told them I was out of here unless thinga were changed. I had worked on registration and backfield for several years. They decided to rewrite the rulls and I was put in charge of that. Had a few that left and some that first year complained but whent with them. I tried to get them to split classes to more equal sizes but could not get it done. They have since I was not able to work the pulls to do that. Argument was it would take to long to get pull over and then having to have a couple extra trophys. Still have those trophys for a few years did not have any more antique tractors in those classes. Still hope to get there this year but getting to look questionable.

Was going to add more but hit wrong key. It is a Lions Club and locacal tractor club festiable with no entrances or exibitor fees on tractors. Venders yes and that is where the club makes the money to keep what is owned by the Lions but called the city park going.

That is too bad for the family that lost a wife, and mother. Sometimes stock thing let loose. I had a chevy V8 in my jeep. Winding it up in first, a fan blade broke off, and went through the hood. Never did find the piece. After that I have never stood in front of a fan on a running engine. Stan

I have two questions:

1. Short of staying home and hiding under the bed, what could she have done to be more "careful" in this situation?

2. What do the ones who constantly rail against the "safety nannies" have to say about this?

Of all the tractor pulls I've been to I've only seen one tractor "blow up" and it was in a stock farm class.

Unfortunately stuff happens in life no matter what you are doing. I hope the family of this gal who lost her life has a good support group around them and helps them through this difficult time.

I want to see the 460 Ford that gets 14 mpg.

I get your point Barney but why be so smug & nasty making it? A woman lost her life, sounds to me like it's just another day in the life of tractor pulls to you. Would you like to read a reply like yours if the victim was a family member of yours? I doubt it ....