Fully Loaded Pulling Team

The team travelled to Henry, Illinois for the 19th Annual America’s Pull at the marshal-Putnam Fair. Great and comfortable weather for the one day event. 

Fans signed up for a chance to be drawn as the winner of a Carlyle Tools Screw Driver set and complimentary can of B’laster while visiting with the team in the pit area before the pull.  Congratulations to Bruce Mekley for being drawn as the winner of the screw driver set and B’laster! 

Prior to the pull we had the privilege to be interviewed by one of the three talented announcers of the America’s Pull, Miles Kreiger. Miles, who has the website, Milesbeyond300.com, when able, likes to do what he calls the “road show interviews” with different pullers at the different events that he announces. It is a very neat way for the audience to get a “personal” “behind the scenes” kind of feeling by listening to the questions Miles asks and the responses the interviewed puller gives as to their perspective on the topic at hand.  We had a great time interviewing with Miles and I’m pretty sure the crowd enjoyed it as well! Thanks Miles for the opportunity and keep up what you are doing to grow the sport of pulling!

With the final track preparations underway, we were finally ready for pull time! Our class, the Unlimited Alcohol Super Stock Tractors, would be pulling on the infield side of the two track facility and would follow the Limited Pro Stock Tractors. A total of 140 vehicles would compete at this event!

We made some adjustments to the motor this past week with hopes of the changes to increase the performance of the Fully Loaded tractor. And it worked! The team was able to come home with a 3rd place podium finish, following closely behind the two Chizek V8 tractors of Terry and Josh Blackbourn. (See below for distances) Congratulations Terry and Josh on number one and two finishes!

America’s Pull

Henry, IL

MAVTV Unlimited Super Stocks – Unofficial Results

1 – Extremely Armed & Dangerous – 310.78
2 – Armed & Dangerous International Threat – 308.36

3 – Blaster/Napa Auto Parts Fully Loaded – 300.91

4 – Lessons Learned – 297.35

5 – Runnin Bare – 296.1

6 – MMG 1000 – 281.18

7 – The Squealer  – 280.27

8 – Out of Time – 278.97

9 – Dominator Deere – 278.89

10 – Dad’s Toy – 272.5

11 – Home Brew – 254.27

12 – Full Tilt – 105.78

The team now is on its way back to the Buckeye State. We need to check some things out on the motor to make sure all is ready for our next event which will be at the Elkhart County, Goshen Indiana Lucas Oil Champions Tour Event!

Holly cow! The Midwest Summer Nationals in Freeport Illinois was definitely a hot one on Thursday! The team installed a new cam shaft from Riverside Engines Inc. After making some fuel adjustments, we made a short test run at the conclusion of the afternoon session. Everything seemed to be in order but we found we could lean the motor out on fuel. So back to the pits we went and made those adjustments for our official run in the evening session.

The team made a real nice pass and ended up in third place! Another podium finish! 

We learned from the pass we made that we needed to make some more fuel adjustments. After checking everything out and not finding any issues, we were ready to go for Friday’s session of the Midwest Summer Nationals!

Friday came and brought with it some cooler temperatures and a little bit of a very welcomed breeze when compared to Thursday. Much more tolerable weather!

The team headed to the scale, being towed up the hill from the pit area by some of the best track crew around! Hats off to the crew of the Midwest Summer Nationals! They did an awesome job with the track and the organization of all their crew people and the way they were able to get all of the pullers to the hot pit area was terrific! Great job guys! 

The Fully Loaded team was next to last to hook in the Friday session. The track was different from the awesome track condition of the previous evening. Looking back on it now, we probably did not chose the best location on the track. The pull was a very nice pass… Front end carried well, weights and tire pressure was just about right and the motor ran great. Didn’t even have to touch a brake to keep straight. But our distance wasn’t as good as we would have liked. We ended up Fourth place. Still not bad, but we were hoping for better!

Next stop is Henry, Illinois at the Marshall/Putnam County fair pull! The America’s Pull with the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League! See you there!

Wow! What a great job by the Barga Family of Ansonia, Ohio! This family worked like crazy to put on a two day Lucas Oil Champions Tour Event at the York Woods, Greenville, Ohio facility! This event was the 10th annual Ohio State Benefit Pull benefitting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. All proceeds and profits from the pull were donated by the Barga Family to JDRF of Southwest Ohio! 

From meals both nights for pullers and families served by the Barga’s, to excellent hospitality and fun…this for sure was going to be a great pull AND for a great cause!

The two day event, Friday night and Saturday we’re sure going to be tough, not only for us, but fellow competitors as well because for most of the pullers in our class it was their first time out for the season. 

Friday night our class was the first up, and we were lucky enough to have been drawn as first hook. The pressure was on! 

So after careful consideration of possible sled location on the track, we chose to take the far left side of the track just about four feet of the left side line. And it worked! With a distance of 306 foot we came home with our very first win of the 2017 season with Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League Champions Tour!

We were presented this awesome trophy for our accomplishment of first place and had a great time interviewing with Leslie Mears and the rest of the Lucas Oil Production Studios staff! 

(All classes at the Ohio State Benefit Pull, both nights, will be aired on National Television later this summer on MavTV and other networks.)

Saturday, the team made some more changes to the fuel system and had a very nice pull as well! With a distance of 330 feet we ended up third place! Another podium finish! Second place was 334 feet and first place was 336 feet. We were definitely in the hunt!!! Congratulations to Jeff Hirt and the Running Bare Tractor on getting the first place finish and also to Neil Getting with the Lessons Learned Tractor on his second place finish!

The team is off to a great start this year and we look forward to seeing what the rest of the summer has in store for us!

Thanks again to the Barga Family for putting on such a great event and for donating the proceeds to JDRF!

Next pull will be in one week at the NTPA Grand National Event in Tomah, Wisconsin!

After a hectic spring with building a new chassis from Karlen Motorsports, obtaining a new intake manifold from Riverside Engines, Inc and making improvements to the exhaust plumbing and turbos, the team made it to the first NTPA Grand National pull in Benson, North Carolina! A beautiful facility, owned by Earl Wells of the Galot Motorsports Team Unlimited Super Stock Tractors piloted by Brent Payne and John Strickland, things couldn’t have been better! Excellent hospitality by Mr. Wells and his staff including a meal provided for pullers and their families.

The Fully Loaded headed to the track for the first NTPA event of the year not knowing exactly what to expect from the tractor with all the changes made over winter and early spring months. We made a test run or two at a local brush pull, but we really didn’t have anything to compare to as no other tractors in our class we’re at the event.

We ended up doing very well placing 4th place Friday night at the Mule City 300! We were extremely excited! We knew we still needed to do some adjusting on the fuel, water, and boost combination but we would use Saturday night for another trial!

After our run Friday night we returned to the trailer and made some adjustments to the fuel and water system on the Fully Loaded Tractor. Saturday pull time came and we ended up in 6th place. We quickly learned the direction we went in the changes we made were the wrong way. 

The team spent the night Saturday night and enjoyed the scenery and fellowship of other pullers and their families.

Next event… Greenville Ohio with the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League Champions Tour Ohio State Benefit Pull!