Gillett WI

TRUKPULR July 4th 2010, 1:40 pm

Gillett WI Pull

OK I had to make the wife happy today before I could head out to this Saturday evening pulls at Gillett WI that is 62 miles from my door, so I can make it there in about 48 minutes when I put the hammer down to 75 mph.

OK to make the wife happy I had to put in 300 Square bails in the barn so her critters have food for the winter. As the old saying goes you have to make hay when the sun shines. Well it was a clear 78 dreg. Low humidity but in the barn it didn’t matter there was little to no air moving, so it was a sweatshop. The farmer called me at 1:15 told me he’d have my first wagon of 150 ready to go in an hour.

So I headed over that way at 2:00 for the 10-mile drive to get the first kicker wagon of hay. Well he told me he’d set me up with his two best wagons for road travel. So as I got to the field there was a wagon full waiting for me so I hooked to it and headed home at 2:15 with the first load. 28 mph was as fast as I could get before the trailer would start whipping franticly so we pretty much held it at 25 to keep in behind me. Made it home @ 2:45 and the wife and I started to unload the hay. OK Now the pull had registration from 3:30 till 6:30 pull starts at 7:00 so there a timing issue here so I had a few extra hands coming to help, but they didn’t show up till we had the first wagon half unloaded, But that’s ok thou they did made it there to help. So 150 in and back on the road for the second wagon load 3:30 the ride back the wagon followed much better letting me get to 35 mph before it would get out of hand. As I pulled into the field @ 3:52 there was the second load all done just waiting for me.

At least this farmer had it going on as far as the timing of the wagons. So I hooked up to the wagon and got back on the road @ 3:55. Well this wagon wasn’t as good as the first one it got out of hand anything close to 25 mph so I tried to hold it at 22 mph, Pulled into the barn yard at 4:25 And when the last bail was placed in the barn it was 4:55. Now my wife is happy and all I have to do now is get the wagon back to the farmers field get back home hook up the my big trailer and hit the shower before the drive to Gillett.

So I hit the road for Gillett at 5:30 call one of my buddies who’s was there already to go registers me and I’d pay them when I got there. So with that done all I had to do was drive there and not worry about nothing. So I pulled in to Gillett and got parked at 6:29 and headed to the registration booth to get paid up. And asked how the line up was going to be tonight seeing how I had to change at least 2 tires to get ready for the first class. She said they might mix it up tonight so don’t do anything till they do the drawing of the classes. OK so I headed over to the food booth to get a Big John burger to fill my belly.
Now this Big John burger is the best burger at any truck pull I ever had. It’s 2- ¼ pound beef patties smothered with Fried Onions 2 pieces of cheese on a bun, oh ya and a slab of butter just to make it gooey drippy as you eat it. Hummmm hummm the best.
Tonight we had Jim Luedtke’s Yellow sled ran by Pat Hawks this is one of the most consistent sled I ever ran with.
So the pull started almost on time I think the national anthem played at 7:20 Now the Truck count was a little low at this pull, So classes where moving right a long pretty good
Super Stock finally made it up @ 9:00 p.m. and I was the second puller in the class with seven truck total. When Pat was setting up the sled for Super Stock Pat asked me what Truck would be the top truck in the class. I told him ShaZam would probley be one of the top trucks, And Pat’s pretty good at setting his sled and he told me I’ll try to keep off the black top. Which at the Gillett Track there’s a black top road at the very end of the 250’ track and I told Pat it works for me.
Before the class started I heard the scale was weighing heavy by 150 # so I asked Ed who was going to be the first truck in the class, did he want to remove the weight or just go heavy in the class. Ed said to put ShaZam on the scale and see how ShaZam scale and well determined what we do from there. Well I drive on the scale and it reads 6280 so I’m 80# heavy, Ed Said close enough, then Ed got on the scale and I don’t know what it read but Ed ended up pulling off 100# weight and he came and told me the scale guy wants to be dead on. So as I got back on the scale the guy there tells me to remove 20# and where good.
So Ed McClain and his Going Crazy Truck got all hooked up to the sled and pulled it 236.76. Ed told me later he forgot to turn his steering on till mid track and he should have turned his pull down but he didn’t and off the track he went to his trailer to change tires. The guy on the leveler Tractors was doing his best to hide all the woop woops in the track But I told Pat when he came back after Ed I wanted him to head 2’ South to give me a stagger of the ruts that had developed in the track. As I got ShaZam all hooked up I got the chain tight then held the r’s up @ 3000 for a few second trying to build some heat in the motor before I spanked on it. Hit the tach record and flipped the other switches all on then dropped it into 3rd gear and road it out of the hole the best I could with out busting the tires loose At the first set of cones I was @ 3500 and just easing into the throttle some more and playing tractor tonight by mid track I was @ 5000 and I finally felt the tires hook to the clay and I gave ShaZam the rest of the throttle and the Tach went to 7000 7800 8200 and back to 7900 and I knew I’m hauling a$$ big time When the last stage hit the ground I was sitting at 242.38 and I knew it was a good hook for ShaZam. So back to the trailer to change tires, During the class I went to talk with Pat some telling him the set-up was spot on and to leave it that way for Mod and we’ll be close to the black top for that class. Now there where two Super Stock truck coming up that could possible better what ShaZam had done today, So while I was changed Tires I had one ear listening to there pulls. Derek Peetz was up next and put down a good pull of 239.77 Close one there, Then Tommy Scheffen came up next and he had Ignition problems and pulled 166.42, Then came Steve Swanson the last Super Stock truck I knew could put me one down came up, but they broke the shifter linkage as they where pulling onto the track so they pushed him off the track and gave him till the end of the class to get it fixed. Next up was Ben Holtger Yes Ben’s just a Open Stock truck but he’s beat me before So I had to dodge a bullet when he hooked up, As it turned out he had hopping issues tonight and pulled 227.36. Ben ended up getting back in the ruts, and it launched his rear end out of the hole.
Now the last Open Stock truck that jumped up in class came up and pulled the sled to 224.48. And then as the sled pulled back into staging Steve had his truck fixed and ready to rock and roll. Hooked up but he felt it was running a little lame but gave it his best and pulled the sled to 239.15.
So they read off the class placing and they say Derek Peetz was 1st Steve was 2nd and Ed was 3rd and I said hey hey there’s a problem here So up the announcer stand I go and ask how a pull of 242.38 gets beat by a 239.77 pull for 1st place. She said she was sorry they missed that and they’d make the correction. Well I don’t think they ever announced the correction but I got the 1st place envelope so cool beans.
OK a few filler Local stock classes and the Semi’s came up and put a great show on for the crowd.
Then came Modified 4x4 OK we had 5 trucks in the class, One real 650 Cid Alcohol injected Modified truck Called Cold Ethel and the rest where Super Stock truck jumping up in class. Steve Swanson Dropped out with a blown head gasket. So the class looked this way Derek, Craig (Cold Ethel), Ed then I was the last truck of the class.

Derek hooked up and got into those ruts the did Ben in and pretty much did the same with him, He bounced and then got out of it and back into it and broke and axle and tried to make a decent run out of it but stopped at 213.84. Next up was Craig and Cold Ethel has really been coming around this season. Now these alcohol motors idle so much different then a Gas motor they almost sound like there not running really well but you put the hammer down and they come to life. So Craig get all hooked Finds his direction down the track and head out of the hole at the first set of cones his rear bounces once then it took a set and he’s hammed it at just the right moment and he hooked so hard he dame near pee’d his pants, when he came down to the big end he had so much speed he felt he could leave off the throttle a bit just to give the rest of us a chance and ended up 256.21 on a 250 foot track. Next up was Ed and he laid down a very impressive run of 253.33. But while Ed was getting lined up I talked to Pat and told him I need to be as far north this time as possible. So with the sled almost off the North side of the track I get ShaZam lined up and hooked to the sled. I have the ruts staggered no problem so I shouldn’t bounce what so ever. Playing tractors seem to work good in Super Stock so I tried to do it again in Mod.
As I left the line I tried to keep the tires hooked by giving it just enough to get things rolling and as I hit mid track I was at 5500 and then I laid in to ShaZam and the tach went to 7200 then 7500 finally hitting 7800 and riding it out till the last stage hit and ShaZam came to a hole digging 266.32 pull. The flag guy said you’re in 1st, Well Cool beans again but I didn’t know I put 10 feet on the other guys.

OK Final Thoughts on last night pull. Pat usually can put everyone in a 2-foot Grouping. So to put a 10-foot Pull over the 2nd place guy is a Big Woody time for me.

So Made the Wife happy twice during the weekend.

OK Next week I’ll be at the Francis Creek Days Pulls.
Friday Modified and Saturday will be Super Stock.

See ya there
Dan and ShaZam