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By LUU HATTER
Rappahannock Newt Staff Writer
What do you get when you combine 2,000 horsepower, four tractor tires, a dirt track, 1,500 spectators and a sunny Saturday afternoon?
The second annual Amissville Volunteer Fire Department Truck and Tractor Pull on May 31.
It was a great success according to the spectators, participants, sponsors and the Old Dominion Tractor Pullers Association, which sanctioned the event.
The pull attracted competitors from all across Virginia and neighboring states. They wheeled into the pit area in heavy-duty trucks hauling large trailers loaded with awesome-looking, brightly-painted machines bearing names like “Virginia General” (Winchester), “Dixie Digger” (Warrenton), “Super Thing” (Newton) and Salty Dog (Culpeper).
Tractor pulls have their roots in pre-motorized times when farmers had friendly competitions, often at the county fair, to see whose horses could drag a large, heavy skid the farthest distance.
In more modern times, tractors have replaced horses both on the farm and at the fair. The first pull in Virginia was in 1965 in Augusta County.
According to Bill Simmons, one of the organizers, both the equipment and the idea were simple. The tractor was hitched to a large metal skid. Down the track, on each side, 20 men stood at measured intervals. As the skid passed, the men stepped onto it. Whoever pulled the skid the farthest was the winner.
The same principle of progressive resistance is used in today’s pulls, but the equipment has evolved dramatically. At that first pull the largest tractors put out 50 horsepower, Mr. Simmons said. “Now even the smallest have over 100.”
One of the modified tractors which competed at Amissville, “Little Bit” owned and driven by Charles “Nick” Nicholson of Culpeper, broke the dynamometer
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