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on the trucks as he exhorted from the judges’ stand: “Let’s hear all you Ford fans out there . . . Come’on, give that Chevy a hand . .
He agreed, however, with Mr. Hitt that despite the camaraderie among the competitors, “when you hook up to that sled, everybody’s out to win.”
Even the sled has become a specialized piece of equipment costing many thousands of dollars. Long gone is that metal skid filled with husky fanners. The first sled designed just for tractor pulls, handcrafted by Mr. Simmons’ agriculture students at North River High School in Augusta County was primitive by today’s standards.
The “Shenandoah Sled” used Saturday has a large box which can be filled with varying amounts of lead ingots. Pulled by a chain, it runs on rails from a point over the wheels at the rear of the sled to the front, where it exerts increasing force on a metal pan sliding on the ground. The speed at which the box moves, and thus the increase in resistance, can be controlled by an operator riding in a cabin on the back of the sled. He also can shut off the tractor or brake the sled to a halt with a console full of safety switches.
Despite the cost of the sport, Lee Hitt said that “the most expensive machine doesn’t always win. Nobody hits it all the time . . . even the little guys win sometimes.”
Saturday was one of those days for Mr. Hitt. After winning first place at Wakefield, Va., his first time out this year, he finished fifth
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