February 1, 2018 (Louisville, KY)
The VTPA Teams Up With The National Tractor Pulling Legends Series For Shipshewana, IN And Louisville, KY
The Vintage Tractor Pulling Association and National Tractor Pulling Legends Series have teamed up for two upcoming vintage pulling events. Each series celebrate the history of the sport of pulling, featuring trucks and tractors built pre-1980’s.
The National Tractor Pulling Legends Series (NTPL), based out of Northwest Ohio, was founded 6 years ago by Mike Ott who wanted to create a series that was governed and organized with a set of rules that preserves and protects tractors built before 1980. The National Pulling Legends Series chose 1980 as the cutoff date for the vintage modified tractors because that was a pivotal year of changes in the industry, where tractors were starting to be built on a larger scale with production “cookie-cutter” style designs and racing chassis of modern-day pulling.
These are the actual, original tractors that started the modified tractor class back in the 70’s-80’s and are effectively museum pieces. The group has a goal to keep their tractors as original as possible, using original parts and maintaining the original appearance as much as safety protocols will allow. One special aspect of this series is the multi-engine modified tractors. This breed of tractor come from the introduction of the crossbox which allows for multiple engines to be used on a single driveshaft. This gave birth to all manner of strange multi-engine designs and setups, making the horsepower and torque skyrocket into the multiple-thousands.
Series founder, Mike Ott has THE original multiple-engine tractor. Built in 1972 by Carl and Paul Bosse, this was the first crossbox-driven four-engine tractor (or vehicle) ever built for competition. It runs 4 Holman Moody engines, which were basically the Rousch engines of it’s day. These four motors were designed and built by Robert Yates of Yates Engines, and were originally NASCAR engines in the 1970s. The tractor can make up to 2,600 horsepower at it’s peak. Every component is performance racing quality. The entire setup runs on an International I-9 rear end.
Mike is also currently in the final stages of building a tractor that runs a Continental V-12 tank motor which feeds into a John Deere 4020 rear end.
The National Tractor Pulling Legends Series currently has 16-18 members but is continually growing. Being a non-competitive series, the NTPL will hold exhibition pulls in 7 states with 10-15 events this summer.
“These unique tractors are certainly stars of the show,” says VTPA founder Tom McConnell. “The strange combinations of different engines, turbines, aircraft engines, you name it. This was experimental tractor pulling back in the day, as builders began pushing the limits on power and performance. The Vintage Pulling Series is excited to team up with the National Tractor Pulling Legends Series for these events because both of our organizations are dedicated to preserving the history of the sport of pulling.”
The National Tractor Pulling Legends Series will be featured this weekend at the Vintage Tractor Pulling WinterNationals held at the Michiana Event Center (MEC) in Shipshewana, IN on Feb. 2-3, 2018.
Three unique vintage modified tractors will be in attendance at Shipshewana including Kevin Dick’s “Little American”, Steve Swartz Twin Chrysler 440’s and Rick Pildner’s “City Slicker”.
The National Tractor Pulling Legends will also make an appearance at the Vintage Tractor Pulling Nationals, held in Louisville, KY on November 17-18, 2018. Drivers for the Louisville show will be announced at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
For more information about the National Tractor Pulling Legends series, please visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NTPLseries.
For more information about the Vintage Tractor Pulling Association including photos, videos, pulling schedule and more, please visit www.vintagepullers.com
