By CINDY LADAGE

Illinois Correspondent

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In 2016 the Championship Tractor Pull celebrated 50 years. This granddaddy pull of them all is a prestigious event – and by invite-only.

Featured as part of the National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS), the event takes place in Louisville’s Freedom Hall. This year Farm World had a chance to interview a few drivers honored to add their names to those pulling at this big event for the first time.

Fred Tjoelker of Custer, Wash., may be the new guy on the block who is traveling the farthest. Pulling in the 2-WD Super Modified Trucks series, Tjoelker said he brought his truck Thunder Struck to the Midwest early so he didn’t have to worry about weather being an issue.

“My truck is in Marion, Indiana. It is almost 2,500 miles from Custer, Washington, to Marion, Indiana,” he noted.

For this father and grandpa, while it is his first time pulling at Louisville – an honor he is over the moon about – he is by no means a novice. “This is the first time I applied to go to Louisville; a ‘bucket list’ thing. I was really happy; everyone said, ‘You won’t get invited!’

“I started pulling with my dad’s farm tractor when I was 18 and progressed from there. It was a Massey Ferguson 165. That was back 45 years ago, and I’ve been pulling ever since.”

The reason he said he is still pulling is people. “The biggest reason I pull is I have met so many friends over the years. Some are in their eighties but they still enjoy seeing one another.”

Tjoelker graduated from farm tractors to modified tractors. “We had the first twin engine modified tractor in the state of Washington,” he explained. Building it with aftermarket items he added, “we built our own chassis and put two Chevy motors on it.”

He was spurred to action when he heard about people doing it out east. “We used the rear end of a Minneapolis Moline for a low profile; that tractor is actually still running, and we did it 20-some years ago.” (It is now somewhere in Oregon.)

From modified tractors, Tjoelker moved on to trucks. His family has had four or five over the years and the one he plans to run at Louisville is a 1923 T bucket with a Brad Anderson motor. “The chassis is all custom-made. Normally my daughter, Melanie (Lankhaar), drives this, but this is the one that we wanted to enter at Louisville. I said since it’s the first time, I’m driving it.”

The Tjoelker team is family. Not only Lankhaar drive, but so does his son, Ty.

When asked about the pronunciation of his last name, he said when it is a new announcer he just goes up and writes “Chocker.” “I was born in the Netherlands; my name is Dutch. We actually came here in 1962. We came by boat and landed in New York … My grandpa had been here and he went back to the Netherlands to get married.”

Although his grandparents never made it to back the United States, his father did. He talked about the courage and fortitude his parents had to begin again in a new land. He said his father sacrificed to farm, and told them when he accomplished it, that his family were living his grandpa’s dream.

With this background it is easy to see where Tjoelker gets his determination. To pull on the West Coast is no easy feat, either: “My closest show is six hours (from home) or so. I will go 1,000 miles to pull.

About Freedom Hall, he said, “We have to gear the trucks down. We have sandy tracks, so that is going to be my learning curve. We have to learn how to read the tracks.”

North-bound

Gary Witty is another first-timer. Hailing from Morrison, Tenn., he is driving in the 9,500-pound Limited Pro Stock Tractors series. Like Tjoelker, Witty is a father and grandfather and this is a family hobby.

Married to Darlene, their daughter Heather and husband, Nathan Brown, and young children Witton, Addelyn and Brookelyn are part of the pulling package. Witty’s youngest daughter, Megan, recently married Brent Hollis – so he is also a new pulling fan as well.

Witty is deep into agriculture. “I have always been from a farming background and enjoyed going to tractor pulls. Tractor pulling got real popular around here in the (19)90s and I got the fever. We bought an old tractor; it was a pulling tractor, but it was just a farm stock tractor.”

Taking that souped-up tractor, his hobby flourished from there. “This is the first pulling at Louisville,” Witty said, “I’ve been going to the NFMS for the last 30 years but this is something I always dreamed of doing, and we finally got there.”

The name of his tractor is Double Vision. “It started out as a D21 tractor and we updated the sheet metal. When we bought it we kept the name for awhile. After we changed the sheet metal, we wanted a new name. Since it is basically two tractors now, when the song came on, ‘Double Vision,’ that seemed right.

“When I first started going to the pulls, those old D21s pretty much dominated them. Everything we farm with now is pretty much red, with a bit of green. When I was growing up, everything was Allis-Chalmers. There is a soft spot in my heart for Allis-Chalmers. I restored a 160 AC for my grandson,” Witty said about his admiration for Persian Orange.

“Whenever our kids were growing up, we’d always look around and the kids would be at the tractor pull with us. We are all looking forward to it.” He added, “My oldest daughter recently just had twins, so she’s is just like the name of the tractor Double Vision! We have been fortunate, really blessed.”

Right at home

Matthew Meadows of Tollesboro, Ky. will be pulling for the first time in Louisville in the 500-pound Light Pro Stock series. “I started pulling in 2004,” he said. “I started pulling Farm Stock, then a new class was added and we ran a 540 cubic in with a 3-inch turbo.

“We saw the opportunity that it would be a fun class and it would easy to switch. We started out with a farm tractor and kept changing and evolving.”

Meadows said his original tractor was a 1466 International “that we pulled out of the weeds. Now, there is not much left. It has newer style sheet metals.”

He stayed with IH because “we wanted to match tractors on the farm. My family and I have a farm retail store, retail business and agronomy business, and we farm about 1,850 acres. We are all Case International equipment. We are red guys.”

Meadows’ tractor is named Relentless. When asked how the name came about, he said, “The name just came to us. I saw an ad on a CD album; it fit.”

He has been part of a farm since the get-go. “We live ag everyday. My dad, Jim Meadows, pulled some at the local fairs and I’ve been in the pulling.” As for the NFMS, this is just part of their history: “I’m 32 and I’ve not missed a year. Dad has taken me every year.”

Being a puller instead of a visitor has been something Meadows has aspired to for a long time. “It’s always been a dream to be there. I have pictures of walking around there as a kid sitting on other people’s tractors; it was something we’ve always dreamt of doing. My father, we actually purchased another tractor, so he is running as well. We always go together.

“I was ecstatic when I found out I was in the pull. We were very excited to be in it. It is walking around as a kid dreaming of it, and getting a chance.”

This year, he will be taking his own family: wife Jill, daughter Mollie and son Miles. He may be getting pictures of them on tractors – and they may start making dreams of their own.

Nathan A. Vegh of Shelbyville, Ky., may be one of the youngest new pullers. This second-semester freshman is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky and is pulling in the 500-pound 4x4 Super Stock Diesel Trucks series.

“This past summer was our first season with the truck and my first season pulling in general,” Vegh said. “We applied and it was a big deal. We haven’t been doing this for very long.”

His father, Ferenc Vegh, used to pull when Nathan was young. “Then growing up, sports happened and he had to sell his truck. Then when I started driving, we built this truck along with and our friend Will Hardesty.

“I do the driving and our friend Austin Ruble also helps as well,” Vegh said. “Our truck is a 2016 Ford F350. We use a Power Plant motor.”

When asked about their name for the truck, Vegh said, “My dad came up with a nickname. All his trucks are named after something to do with the Rolling Stones, and this one is Jumping Jack Flash. It runs pretty strong.

“We built it from scratch. We bought the frame from the Ford plant in Louisville. We got the cab from a third-party source, and it was built from the ground up.”

Being inexperienced really isn’t too daunting for Vegh, 19. “This was the first year pulling. I’ve always had a fascination, an idea what it would be like. It was nerve-racking the first few times. It took a while to get the confidence; you can’t really practice, is it an all or nothing thing. I had the Rookie Card on me this year.”

The Rookie Card didn’t seem to hurt his chances at all. “We were elated when we found out we were going to Louisville. I only live 40 minutes from Freedom Hall and I don’t think I’ve missed a session in 15 years. It’s crazy. It took a while to settle in,” he explained.

Check out these new pullers and all the other drivers at this year’s main event. The Championship Tractor Pull takes place Feb. 13-16; visit https://champpull.org for details.