My Weeknend of Pulling

This weekends pulls Green Valley WI and Oshkosh WI

OK I had a four-pull weekend scheduled for this weekend but I had to make a choice to which pulls I was going to.
OK I had pulls in Arlington WI on Friday P.I. Mod and Saturday P.I. Super Stock, And a Brush pull in Green Valley WI Saturday Evening pulling Super Stock and Modified and N.E.W. Modified Class in Oshkosh on Sunday.

So OK we had to do some thinking on how I was going to make the most out of this weekend pulls. So Arlington WI is 200 miles from my door step, So if I head down that way I’m there for both nights pulling with P.I. and in the past Gary has been the sled there for the past 5 years that I knew of, and lately Gary’s sled and my truck haven’t meshed well. So I had to take this in effect on my decision on where to pull. Green Valley had a pull this spring that got rained out so there a possibility of double payouts lingered in the air there. And then down to Oshkosh 120 miles south on Sunday.

So with all this on my mind I voted to stay home on Friday night get some lawn work done and let my Mom take me out for my Birthday that falls on Sunday that I’ll be in Oshkosh WI pulling.

So Friday Night I call Craig to see how things are going down in Arlington. Craig tells me theirs 17 Mod trucks there, So chances of my little old Super stock truck getting a paycheck there would be tough seeing they only pay down ten places. So my decision was good so far.

So comes Saturday afternoon I head over to Green Valley to find out there wasn’t going to be any double payouts. And they reduced the purse from 250 to win to 150 and that was questionable if not enough trucks showed up. Well as it turned out there was 3 other pulls going on this Saturday and that had the trucks strung all across the state of Wisconsin. So the truck count in Super Stock was only 3 trucks with one truck being an Open Stock that jumps up to play in Super Stock. So as the pulls started everything seemed ok we where there to put a show on for the crowd on hand. Then the other Super Stock truck in my class broke his front-end as he was unloading off his trailer and had to scratch from the pull. Well I guess that must have pissed off the promoter, because the pay out was reduced to 90 buck to win plus entry fees but I wasn’t informed of this until after the pull was over.

First puller in Super Stock was Jack Peters driving his wife’s Open Stock Truck they call Angry Beaver as they iron out the new motor they just put in the truck, And Barb had other things going on that night.
Jack hooked to the sled and Frank knew he was a Open stock truck and left the sled set for the Diesel Trucks class. Jack left the line OK but started to hop really bad as he put the beans to the truck and He stopped at the 314.76 mark and turned his pull down to come back after me being the first puller. Frank told me to keep and eye on what’s going on seeing the sled was set light for this class. So as I got all hooked up and got the chain tight they gave me the green flag to go. So I played Tractor with the sled for the first 100 feet then gave the throttle a hand full of wide open and the tach headed for the moon 7800, 8000 then 8500 settling down to 8200 for the last 100 feet of the track and I got out of the throttle to keep from going thru the Snow fence they had at the end of the track. ShaZam pulled 353.79 feet on a 340-foot track. So I went off to the trailer to change over to my Mod tires, which I wouldn’t have had to seeing I was the only Truck in the class. But seeing how I had to run Mod in Oshkosh on Sunday I need them on the truck.
Now I was the only Truck in Mod so all I really had to do for this class was to hook to the sled and give it a tug to take first place. But being the competitor that I am, I ran my truck hard for this runs also pulling the sled 319.87 to put a show on for the crowd on hand.
But had I known they reduced the purse I wouldn’t had pulled at all. For me to make those two runs down the track for Paul it cost me close to $300.00 in ware and tear plus 3 gals of Fuel @ 18.00 a gal. = $54.00. I know this isn’t a Money making operation. But I’d just like to know they really do appreciate the ones that do show up. So I got 90 buck plus 25 buck in entry fee pay out for each class for a total of $230.00 – the $354.00 it cost to run. Means I lost $124 for the night. So moneymaker I am I guess not.

So Sunday I head to Oshkosh and get there in time to watch them squeezes the water off the track after they got 2.5 inches of rain from 6 a.m. till 7 a.m. To find a place to park to say the least was challenging. But it was windy out so the moisture was drying up fast then I thought it would. The pull was suppose to start at 1:00 p.m. but finally got going at 2:00 p.m. and the Mod Trucks where the last class of the day to pull. And had I been paying attention I might have done better then I did. After watching the Open Stock Truck run Frank was letting them get a pretty good head of steam going down the track with the winning truck pulling 330 feet. I still had my small gear in the box from last night and never thought about going to a bigger gear and stretching ShaZam’s legs a little. Mike Kauss was the first Truck in the class and Pulled 342.00 feet but had a little bounce at mid track so he turned his pull down to come back last. I was the 2nd truck to hook in Mod and got all line up and chained down. This track was made on a 3/8-mile oval clay track so the front stretch had about 20 dregs of banking so we had to pull on an angle, which was a little weird for me anyway. So I made my line the best I could from where I was to the bottom of the hill hoping to pick the fastest line on the track. Well as I left the line the sled seem to pull hard the first 75 feet then it picked up speed faster then ShaZam could with the Rpm’s I was turning 8300 but the tires speed could have been faster. As the last stage hit me I stopped at the 309.91 mark. This is when the light bulb went on that I had the wrong gear for this track. Oh well it’s a learning thing I guess. Log it down in the book.
So next Truck up was My Beer Drinking Buddy Craig Emmes and Cold Ethel, Craig got his Clutch problem fixed from the other night in Arlington where he said his truck Jumped like a gazelle. Craig had a good pull down the track without bouncing at all and pulled a 312.53 for the day and putting him in 1st place at the time. Next up was my odder Beer Drinking buddy Dean Wagner. Needless to say Dean was Challenged today as he left the line his tires hooked so hard to the left he though he forgot to turn his steering on and for a split second he left go of the throttle to check the switch, and then got back on the throttle, but he should have just backed out of it and Started over. This is one of those things we find really hard to remember. But he mustered a pull of 301.42 for the night here. Next up was Derek Peetz and Derek knows he’s underpowered for the mod class but he’s a good sport and he’s going to finish the season out with us no matter what happens. He’ll just have to pull lots of tits over the winter months to build a bigger motor for next season. Derek’s a Dairy Farmer (Pulling tits) hehehe so anyway Derek ended up with a pull of 293.47. Ok my odder beer-drinking buddy is up next Bruce Wagner with Poker Face. Now ever since I put a spanking on him in Seymour WI Bruce has been a little soared to say the least. So he made a few changes on his truck over the past few weeks and he came back for revenge. And he gave it to me with a pull of 314.80 putting him in 1st place knocking me down to 3rd place at that time. Now Mike has his repull and he’s like kicking him self big time here, so you can’t undo a turn down but I know he’d have liked to. This time he pulled the sled just as good as he did the first time but only managed to pull it 312.22 kicking me down one more place to 4th for the day, but like I said earlier it’s all a learning thing for us out here in the pulling world. This was the first time I had pulled here in Oshkosh WI and I’ll make the changes next time I show up here.

All in all I had a great day pulling on my birthday, I’m getting to be an old man now at 53 but I caught back up to my wife so she feels better now. 12 more years and I can retire if I give up pulling. But we all know that’s not going to happen.

So next week I have only one pull to go to in Newton WI and they have a pretty good time down there, so see ya next week.




Dan and ShaZam