LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For a tractor puller even to compete in the Championship Tractor Pull during the annual National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS) each February is an honor. It is nothing short of a culmination of the previous year’s hard work and planning.

Participation in the Louisville pull is by invitation only. The teams are culled from a list of 600 applicants. To get here, a driver and his tractor must have placed well in enough of the major tractor pull association’s events to be one of the 200 tractor-and-driver teams chosen for the show.

To some people Louisville is the “Super Bowl” of tractor pulls. “For one thing, said mechanic and engineer Joe Batliner Jr., “it is darn near impossible to get a hotel room in Louisville in mid-February.”

Team Batliner consists of driver David Batliner, crew chief Joe Jr., father Joe Sr. and mother Jean. These four are the family members who still put their energy into the quest for a championship.

David said his parents owned a Massie Ferguson dealership in the area before retiring. Now they make all of the travel preparations and are their greatest fans. Of five brothers, David and Joe are the only ones who still pull.

There are too many trophies to count in the workshop where David keeps his tractor. Many of them are from the days beginning in 1985 when he and the others dominated at local Farm Class pulls. Such pulls often have their own rules. Eventually, David and Joe Jr. wanted something more consistent.

“We felt it was time to start participating within a sanctioned body with consistent enforcement of safety and performance rules,” David said. “That was when the idea for Super Hick was born.”

David calls his tractor Super Hick; to him, it is a way of expressing the underdog spirit, plus the fact that Massie Ferguson tractors where once laughed at as serious contenders in fiercely fought rivalries.

For some time the big red Super Hick has competed in the National Tractor Pull Assoc.’s (NTPA) 9,300-pound Super Farm Class. Association rules for that class mean it must keep close resemblance to a normal farm tractor.

Beginning in 2000 Super Hick pulled at the Louisville competition, sporting an 8-cylinder diesel engine configuration. Then, in 2007, an expensive motor blew up and the brothers sat out for a couple of years. During a period of rethinking and rebuilding, they were approached by a Massie Ferguson Co. representative who offered one of the firm’s new Agco Sisu motors.

The Batliner brothers drove again in the late 2000s with different tractors, but it wasn’t until 2010 that they were able to engineer a configuration with the Agco Sisu that would work for them.

Through the use of special testing called Dynometric testing, the Batliners grew in knowledge of what parts and methods would work for the Hick. After trial and error and “time in the gym,” as David calls Dyno testing, they were back in NTPA competition.

David said in 2010 and 2011 he drove in 16 NTPA regional and national events, scoring 8 top 10 finishes in their class. “Dyno testing makes you strong,” he said.

Joe Sr. likes going to the Dyno tests as much as the racing. He is pleased to see the immediate the results of the engineering.

“In the past we have destroyed complete engines looking for the right performance formula,” David explained.

Along the way the David and the Super Hick have gathered many fans. He has found there are a lot of diehard Massie Ferguson acolytes out there. Also, among their fans is one group of European power pullers who come to the NFMS every year. They make sure to gather in the workshop for fellowship and photos.

The 2012 Championship Tractor Pull begins on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and culminates with two shows that Saturday, with finals Saturday night at 7:30. Ticket information and show schedules for the four-day event can be viewed at www.farmmachineryshow.org/Tractor%20Pull/Default.aspx