Shakey Super Pull 2011

The sounds of unleashed horsepower along with the cries of ‘Full Pull’ are once again set to reverberate across the fields of Long Marston as the Midland Tractor Pullers Club and Shakespeare County Raceway gear up for another exciting Shakey Super Pull this coming summer June 11^th/12^th.

With two other firmly established tracks at Kirkbride nr Carlisle and the Great Eccelston Showground in Lancashire, the second annual Shakey Super Pull has again been selected as the opening round of the British Tractor Pulling Championships held on a clay track built to European standards by 3.5t British Super Stock champion Dave Jones.

Just in case you’re thinking what on earth does tractor pulling have to do with the every day world of farming! Well, it’s said that around the 1860s when farming machines were pulled by horse, farmers would boast about the strength of their horses. They would claim that their horse could tow large loads, such as a fully loaded hay cart or wagon. Even barn doors were pulled with people on them. This event, called horse pulling, is still carried out today with specially bred horses trained to have high strength and low stamina.

Today it’s down to sheer brute horsepower of the combustible kind with anything up to 9000 horsepower tractors hauling a weight transfer sled over a 100 metre dirt track. The winner of the competition is the machine that can pull the sledge the furthest.

Dubbed ‘The World’s Most Powerful Motor Sport’, tractor pulling has taken place at British based racing arenas before at Santa Pod drag strip, and Shakespeare County in 1999 in conjunction with the Mini Pullers Club and the Super Series drag events. But now the Shakey Super Pull fills a 20 year gap of duelling in the dirt in the heart of Shakespeare Country. Now, since memorable events at the Royal Show’s at nearby Stoneleigh Park, Coventry the sport is returning with a vengeance.

Although most of the BTPA classes are based on the working tractor variety, it will be the 950 kg Mini Modifieds and the 3.5t Modified division who cause the most mayhem. Sometimes packing four, five or even six supercharged American V8 engines at any one time, the site of these tractors thundering towards you is an awesome spectacular which sometimes causes a mini earthquake underfoot. But nowadays, a lot of parts from discarded military machinery are in use, like Isotov turboshafts from Russian helicopters, Soviet Zvezda torpedo boat engines, Continental tank engines, or Second World War era aircraft piston engines in the shape of V12-shape Rolls-Royce Griffons.

Three other divisions were of tractor were also created; Super Stock, Pro-Stock and the Garden Tractor class for kids aged between 8 and 17 years of age. The Super Stock class uses primarily methanol fuel (some are diesel versions), and can generate over 5,000 horsepower by using up to four turbochargers in 3 stages.

The Pro Stock tractors are limited to one turbocharger and diesel fuel is the only allowable source for power, in keeping with the 'spirit' of the original tractors. These engines can reach just above 2000 horsepower while pulling.

The Shakey Super Pull also runs alongside one of Shakespeare County Raceway’s popular Public Track Days where members of the public can race there own cars down the hallowed quarter mile drag strip. The racing also features a British round of the hotly contested American inspired Outlaw Anglia Championship for some of Henry Ford’s finest, Wild Bunch nostalgia dragsters and the raceway’s very own Junior Dragster League.