USA-EAST ‘FINALS’ HELD AT BLOOMSBURG FAIR

PHOTOS BY Bonnie – Eastern Extreme 

As is always the case at Bloomsburg, the crowd was huge, the excitement was all encompassing and the night was cold.  But the stellar crowd of pullers in the infield made it all worthwhile as the 2009 ‘Finals’ for USA-EAST Sled Pulling were contested on Saturday, October 3rd.  The event was produced by Full Pull Productions, Inc. of Jamestown, Pennsylvania with Richard Love’s ‘Decision Maker’ Blue weight transfer machine on hand for the annual showdown.  The back-up sled was the ‘Dirty Harry’ transfer provided by the Southern Tractor Pullers Association of Statesville, North Carolina.  John Banet from Arcola, Indiana brought his scales to Pennsylvania and served as the weigh-master for the ‘finals’ event.

                BIG RIGS PULLING SERIES

Last season’s Big Rigs champion, Richard Scott’s “Silver Bullet I” powered by a V-8 Mack took the Big Rigs class with a pull-off victory against a strong field of nine of the modified semi trucks.  Scott’s team captain, Fred Sanders, finished second with the “Silver Bullet II” with an awesome pull permeated by a huge engine explosion at the very end of the 320’ trip.  Sanders’ QXK-19 Cummins was completely destroyed however Fred ended the season as the Big Rigs Series Champion by virtue of the tie-breaker system.  Third place at Bloomsburg went to the newly acquired “Down and Out” International with KT-600 Cummins power owned and operated by Dale Mitchell from Mt. Gilead, Ohio.  Mitchell also got 4th place with his “Freight Rod” Freighliner that was driven by Bill Reinhart as the Mitchell team showed that they are ready for next season.  The Bloomsburg pull marked the debut of Joe Giulitto’s all-new “Sneaky Pete” semi with Caterpillar power.  Complete event results  of the Big Rigs class are found on our sister site at www.bigrigspulling.com.

                                                                                                                  PRO STOCK DIESEL 4x4

Twenty highly competitive trucks entered the class at Bloomsburg with one goal to try to defeat the defending class champion - John Lorenz and his ’96 Dodge named “Grey Wolf”.  While six utimately made a full pull, it was Lorenz that took the win with a thunderous 320’ run in the pull-off.  Lorenz’ Cummins-powered Mopar also captured the 2009 USA-EAST point race.  The runner-up was Vince Aftuck (‘Hard to Deal With’) and his Enterprise Engine built red Dodge from Scio, New York fresh off of his championship with the Western New York Diesel pullers.  One of the trucks that has come alive in the second half of the season is Sam Tatalavic’s “Gone Wild” from Crawford County, Pennsylvania that ended in third place. Also in the pull-off was the eventual 2nd place truck in the season point race – the ‘Real Deal’ with Bill Debenedictus from Mentor, Ohio - who finished 4th at Bloomsburg.  “On Borrowed Time” with new owner Charlie Frantz from Guys Mills, Pennsylvania was 5th in the pull-off. And the sixth place truck was the GMC Duramax machine of Tim Jackson from Chardon, Ohio named “Ridin’ Dirty”.  Jackson has endured a very rough season and made a spectacular pull with the GMC only to be thwarted by an oil leak that made it impossible for the Duramax to return for the pull-off.

                             SMOKER SERIES

A very competitive field of nineteen tractors representing five different states took to the track at Bloomsburg where Chambersburg’s Cory Forrester seems to enjoy an unbelievable advantage.  Forresters alcohol-fueled “Hot Iron” won for the third time in five years against the best tractors in the eastern United States.  The pull-off also featured a trio of John Deere tractors.  Robert Martin’s “That Darn Deere” and his son Josh’s “Dairy Deere” finished second and third at Bloomsburg making for a top three from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  Fred Hildenbrand drove for Stanley Auen and made a full pull with “Froggy”, but was unable to return for the pull-off.

This event also determined the winner of the 2009 crown for USA-EAST in the ‘Smoker Series’ as Kris Hoyt from Shickshinny, Pennsylvania made a pull of 295 feet with “Nut Case” to barely take the championship.  His adversary, Russell Hildenbrand and “JD Express” from Ruffsdale, Pennsylvania could only muster a pull 292 feet to provide one of the closest finishes in the history of the storied “Smoker Series”.  The third tractor with a chance to take the championship was the “Recycled Red” IH of Aaron Bradish that lost a turbo-charger near the 100 foot mark and lost all opportunity.