Labor day weekend was an exciting weekend for the Fully Loaded Team. It was our hometown event on Friday night! Tons of friends and fellow pullers came and packed the fairgrounds for the event. 

Fans from around our local area were able to see the Fully Loaded up close, meet the team and ask questions about the tractor. We also celebrated one of our crew members birthday! Happy Birthday Austin!!!!! 

The track at Stark County Fair was once again superb! Hats off to the Schmucker Family and crew members who did, yet again, an AWESOME job on the track! Our first run down the track was picture perfect. Weighted perfectly, the motor was running just right, and we went the furthest distance of 349 feet! The full pull was set at 340 feet. We were in the pull off along with Scott Cantrell and Frank Keener!

(Thanks Nick G. for the video from the stands!)

Now comes the quandary. We are focusing very hard on trying to win the PPL ULSS Championship…we came to the Stark County Fair because all of our local fans don’t get the chance very often to see us so close to home and also because this year we have Brechbuhler Scales / B-tek Scales, LLC on board as a sponsor. So the question is… Should we pull in the pull off? Or just settle for third place and save the tractor for the next PPL event in Waynesburg PA the next weekend. Tough decision! As many of you know who have personally met the members of the FLPT, we have a very competitive “let’s do this” attitude! So of course we were going to do the pull off!!! With the help of some friends, Andy Brechbuhler, David Sicafoose, Tonia Baker, Tom Haun, and everyone else, we checked the necessary things, cooled down the turbos and the motor as much as possible, made some fuel adjustments, and we were ready to go for the pull off with less than 10 minutes to spare! 

As we hooked to the sled, and tightened the the chain, we were ready to rock the dirt! As the RPM’s came up the motor was sounding awesome again! We began to let the clutch out, starting our journey down the track, looking for the win! The front end came up just as it did before and we were just starting to really pick up momentum! When all of a sudden the front came crashing down and the engine RPM’s went high and we came to a dead stop. We ended up second place to Keener who won the event.

When we got home we had found the clutch stand bolts broke…which caused a lot of unhappy parts with in the clutch can. The clutch discs, stands, stand bolts, floaters, and pressure plate were destroyed. 

The team has a ton of work to do before the next PPL Champions Tour event the following weekend. 
Through the enormous help of our awesome crew, Karlen Motorsports, and the SoupLine Express pulling team, we were able to round up parts to get us going in time for the Waynesburg PA pull! Thanks souch to everyone who assisted and offered to assist in getting us back together! The amount of support and willingness to assist was truly appreciated!!