Lena Wi Pull

Lena Saturday Night Pull

The Ups and Downs of Truck pulling.

OK it’s been 5 years since we had a Truck pull in Lena and I remember the track as having somewhat decent clay the last time we pulled there. Ya it had some sand in it but not as much as there is now. We had a rainstorm come thru Saturday morning that dropped about ½ inch of rain on the area. Usually rain helps make these sandy type tracks pack tighter, but not today the Eliminators sunk into the track about 2 inches every time he backed up, and even though they had a leveler and wobble wheel going over the track endlessly the track just never came around. There was even a time where I thought about just chaining ShaZam back down to the trailer and not pulling at all here. But the competitor got the better of me and I pulled anyway. So we had the whole club pulling here tonight all 12 classes so I knew it was going to be a long night.

OK pull started almost on time at 5:30 p.m. My Super Stock class finally came up at 9:30 p.m. With me being the 9th puller of the class of 16 trucks. My Buddy Dean was the Lucky Dog tonight seeing he was the first puller in the class. But we had been talking thru out the night that if he’s anywhere near the 300 foot mark he’d better keep his pull because the track seems to go away as the class goes down, Seeing the first Truck of the class has the best packed track seeing how the wobble wheel and leveler go over the track 4 or 5 times as they reset the sled for the class. So Dean hooks up to the sled and has the best pull Burn n Desire has given him since Iron River MI gets stopped at the 300.62 mark. He keeps his pull and now he has to pace the track as the rest of the class take there shot at knocking him off the top rung of the ladder. 2nd truck to hook to the sled is 20 feet behind Dean, Then the next truck is 38 feet behind, and this trend seem to keep going until Donny Skinkis got up to pull and he got the close at the time to Dean with a pull of 292.31 then Dallas Luther was up next and pulled a 289.07 and Justin Kusch pulled the sled 285.38 so the backwards trend was happening again. And ShaZam’s up next so it’s Hero or Zero time for me tonight I slipped a bigger gear then normal in the box tonight figuring I try to manage my wheel speed this way, when I got all hooked up to the sled
I left the line and played Tractor for the first 50 feet then laid in the throttle and watch the tach to make sure I didn’t over spin my wheels going down the track. And for the most part it worked really well holding at 7700 rpm’s. When Frank hit me with the last stage I was sitting in 2nd place with a pull of 295.38 and the second fastest speed of the class at 17.20 mph. Yes it was a long 28 second pull to get there. The next truck to pull behind me was a Open Stock Truck and he pulled the Sled to 268.76 then the next 5 trucks where falling behind his pull a little bit at a time until Ben Holtger got up and pulled the sled to 280.80 mark, He was the last truck to even get close to Dean and I so we finished the night out in first and second place. A lot better then I thought I do here tonight. So to the trailer I went to change over to the mod tires. Now in Mod I was in the middle of the class again just behind Poker Face. So I told Bruce to make a good path for me to follow.
The first truck to pull in this class made it to the 286.58 mark with the second truck to pull being Craig Emmes and Cold Ethel. Will to put it bluntly Craig had to big of a gear in his truck tonight but he drove it like the veteran puller he is only having to stab the clutch once or twice to get his r’s up into his power band and then driving the sled straight till he came to a stop at the 304.31 mark. Tonight there wasn’t no consistency in the track One truck would go 283.33 then the next truck would 296.04 back to 294.31 for Poker Face then ShaZam ended up with a 292.76 Putting me 4th place for the moment until two trucks later when Donny Skinkis Pulled and dropped me to 5th place for the night with a pull of 295.11. The last two trucks in the class managed a 283.38 and 274.49 So it was time to get the trucks loaded up and chained down. John Hornick started a Camp fire in his portable burn pit and set up the chairs for tonight beer drinking and bull shit session which lasted to 4 a.m. when I finally hit the camper for a little shut eye. Well it was long before Craig was kicking the beer can’s around hollering at Bruce to get up we gotta go. I have a spot that needs breakfast in my belly. So with all the noise Dean got up and headed home and I 10 minutes behind him.

So this was one of the busiest weeks for me in a long time. And it’ time to take a step back and just relax for the rest of the season I’m holding onto 2nd place in Super Stock Points just 3 points behind Donny Skinkis With three pulls to go so it’s going to be a nail bitter to the finish in this class. And I’m currently sitting in 3rd place just 10 points behind Craig and Bruce who are tied right now with 4 pulls to go in that class. The seasons is coming to and end really fast with only 9 hooks to go. Man where did the time go?

OK next week I have Super and Mod in Green Valley on Saturday and just Mod in Oshkosh on Sunday So I’ll see you all there or here…



Dan and ShaZam

Thanks for the play by play Dan . I enjoy them.

Glad to hear you are still in the hunt in the points and everything is still going fine for you.