From: hotrod@dixie.com (The Hotrod List)
Subject: tractor pulls
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 17:54:12 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.
To: hotrod@dixie.com
Reply-To: hotrod@dixie.com
Posted-Date: Thursday, Jan 28 12:53:55
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 Earlier today I got a free entry into the USHRA tractor pull in Little
Rock.  It was much different than what I'd expected from what people
who'd been to previous ones had said, or from what I'd seen on TV.

 I was a guest of one of the sponsors, a local Chevy dealer.  None of
the track officials were in the least officious, most of 'em being
downright friendly.  The drivers were friendly.  Everyone was friendly.
It was downright eerie.

 I was with my buddy Tommy, who was driving a wrecker in the parade lap.
We're sitting there waiting to drive in, and I noticed there's a girl
with something-Arfons on her jacket.  "Hmm," I mention to Tommy.  "I
wonder if she's related to Art Arfons?"

 "Who?" says Tommy.

 "Never mind."

 Then this older guy comes up, just sort of hanging around, you know?
There are people wandering around all over anyway.  Then he turns
around, and it's Art Arfons.  For some reason I keep thinking he's dead,
though it was Breedlove who kicked off some years ago, not Afons.

 "Hey, Tommy - it's Art Arfons!"

 "Who's he?"

 "You're a cretin, Tommy."

 I didn't get a chance to talk with him due to the noise, but he seemed
like a nice enough guy.  The girl (Dusty) was either his daughter or
granddaughter, I didn't catch which.  They both ran twin engined
turboshaft diggers.  She beat him in the last round.

 The sponsors/family/pit crew seating was right by the starting line -
you could lean over the rail and touch the tractors as they came in.
We got a good view of how the sleds work, which I thought was very neat.
After dealing with the Safety Nazis of the NHRA, the sight of the sled
operator *riding* the sled, with no helmet or body armor, was slightly
shocking.  The clay surface was so hard none of the machines even threw
dirt.

 Dusty Arfons got massive applause every time she fired up the Dragon
Lady.  I'd noticed the Coliseum looked more-than-normally sad.  It
turned out that during the first two days of the event, she'd blown
eight foot flourescent tubes, ceiling tiles, and 4x8 sheets of
corrugated iron out of the ceiling "like falling leaves" according to
Tommy.  I guess she'd shaken loose everything that'd fall by the time I
got there, 'cause nothing else fell down.  Need I mention the noise of
twin-engined jet diggers in a smallish building?  How about the
four-engined piston jobs with zoomies?  There at the starting line the
sound pressure was so high it was blurring the viewfinder of my little
Nikon.

 One class was "funny car" pickups with hydraulically operated hinged
bodies.  Again, I was a bit startled to notice about half of them had no
firewalls - one guy had his foot pedals mounted on the bellhousing, and
propped his foot on the valve cover of his Arias 8.3 while waiting to
stage.  Turns out that although they run 8-71s and alcohol, most of them
only turn 5500 to 6000 RPM.  Quite a few run the engine an entire season
between teardowns.  Compared to drag racing, it's pretty low budget
stuff.

 Well, anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I might go again sometime.
                                                                                                           

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Posted by: emory!chaos.lrk.ar.us!dave.williams (Dave Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.hotrod,wiz.hotrod