The golden age? February 03, 2012 01:45AM
Sometimes I see people talk about the golden age of the sport but I'm sorta new to tractor pulling. Is there a decade that people think was the golden age? What made that decade so great? Who were the stars of that decade?
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 02:11AM
late 80s early 90s because alkies and smokers ran with each other.
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 02:32AM
To me it would be the 80's and early 90's, there were still enough parts of factory origin on the tractors to call them a tractor
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 03:03AM
I couldn't agree more that the late 80's and early 90's were the booming time for the sport. As you may have already seen on the thread featuring old videos, pulling was ahead of the times with sponsors and event support. The sanctioning body had corporate sponsors that helped to provide solid purses for the competitors and television for the fans. I know for several years Chevy was a sponsor and the winner of the series got a truck. Red Man and other companies saw a lot in pulling and the fans of it, thus making the sport as a whole easy to invest in. The cost of the sport continues to increase for the competitors involved but with the growth of other sports the funding has not come as far toward pulling as many would hope. Though I was younger in the 80's and 90's, I remember traveling the circuit with my dad and seeing packed indoor arenas and standing room only outdoor fairgrounds on a weekly basis! I love the sport today but often reflect on the days of old!
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 04:45AM
Looking at European pulling I see a lot of major sponsors. Why did that go backwards here? You would think that all the major tractor manufactures would be on board now. Even though the fans are not as farm oriented as they once where. These companies still provide utility vehicles, law care equipment and compact tractors to the general public. I think it's neat to see Ryan Newman's Dixe Chopper ad on RFD for the NTPA wearing is fire suit. Nationwide could do the same with Jr.. Good cross over ads from one motor sport to another.
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 05:35AM
Being around the sport since the mid 1960's I'll say that the 1970's were the greatest of times..Pullers went from Roosa-Master pumps and 1 turbo to big inline pumps and 4 turbos..The classes all had huge numbers back then and all colors could compete..
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 06:22AM
I would agree on the 70's. More of the build your own going on. Didn't take a million dollar operation to compete. Much more fun for the Puller's and Fan's. Have to admit the safety aspect is much better now!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 06:25AM by Sled-rider.
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Re: The golden age? February 09, 2012 08:53AM
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Sled-rider
I would agree on the 70's. More of the build your own going on. Didn't take a million dollar operation to compete. Much more fun for the Puller's and Fan's. Have to admit the safety aspect is much better now!

miss those days
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 07:33AM
Wayne Rausch had always said the mid80's through the early 90's were the golden years. I have to agree with him. Pulling was at major venues- Madison Square Garden, LA Sports Arena. Put 76,000 fans in the Pontiac Silverdome. Pulling was a year round occurence.
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Pulling is going the way of boxing February 03, 2012 07:44AM
Another vote for 80s through mid 90s. The benefit then (other than the average joe with some mechanical skills could compete nationally) was that there were two tractor classes, pro and super stock, in one national sanctioning body, NTPA. Now, with hot farm, limited pro stock, 4.1 pro stock, Super Farm, Pro stock, super stock, light super stock, light limited super stock, light pro stock and two national sanctioning bodies, NTPA and PPL, plus the earlier ATPA and now the Outlaws, every class is so watered down that a true champion is hard to decern and the average joe has no appreciation for what it takes to compete at the highest level because to them, the turned up 1066s and 4010s at the local fair seem the same as Red Line Fever or Rampage. So as a result, the Grand National classes become even more exclusive because the promoters at local fairs can draw the same number of people weather they put on a super farm class as a super stock class, but the super farm class doesn't carry as steep of a price tag to host the event.

It's the same as boxing is today. In the 60s through the 80s, there was one heavyweight champ. That's why everyone, the ones around then anyway, remember the big title fights, Ali-Frazier, Ali-Foreman, Tyson-Douglas and others. Now there are about 5 or 6 heavyweight titles, so how so you know which is better. So people quit watching altogether, much like the general public has with pulling. Like so many other posts on here, pulling needs national rules for classes and the outright elimination of some classes just because they are so similar. Two things have caused this proliferation of class variation, the first being cost. The parts available today making anything possible that you can afford, so the haves and have nots get separated financially rather than on the track, which is wrong but it's just the way it is today. Second, politics seem to play a role in all these classes. One puller can't win in a certain class, or one guy constantly wins and never moves up in the sport, so new classes are formed to exclude the ones not welcome in the sandbox.

A "salary cap" could solve the first issue, but there's no way to enforce it. The second one might be easier to fix, and that is to grow up and go pull, but stay within the rules. Everyone likes to compete, have a legitimate shot at winning and have some fun at the same time. But those things erode away when one or two guys aren't playing by the rules and dominate the field. I don't have to win everytime down the track. I can still have fun and get my butt kicked, but let the buttkicking come because of something I miscalcuated on, such as the track or missing the weight, not because some are bringing a howitzer to a gun fight. Many people, myself included, tend to avoid bringing their tractors out if they have no chance to win.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 07:56AM by Oliver1655.
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 08:31AM
The late 80s and early 90s. One national sanctioning body with just about every state being a member state and having national pulls there, the Pro Stock class had color to it and wasn't a GN-exclusive class (like it's becoming), diesels and alkys could compete together in the Super Stock class and you didn't need a million dollars to be a top competitor.
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 09:40AM
One simple word destroyed it: "LIMITS"


Floating Finish - the German Tractor Pulling Web Show and EU Live Streams: [www.youtube.com]
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 10:33AM
80`s were awsome for mods, new combos every year, more and more power!!! Minis were upping the power as well. alky supers were just coming on then. that would be my vote.
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 11:13AM
80 and 90's , equipment still showed up at the pull on open trailers ! We gained fans on the way to the pull and had plenty people take pictures and ask questions every time we stopped for 75 cent gas!
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 11:49AM
on a personal note the late ninties to early 2000 because there were so many pro stocks. but the common sense vote is the same same as everybody else. late 80's. The allis tractors ran great then and i know shrameks tractor still does but there is only one and no green tractors left in the ss classes. i also completly agree with what sascha said! very short and to the point
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Re: The golden age? February 03, 2012 01:16PM
Thanks for agreeing...
Seriously.. what did the limits bring us?
We have made it to the point where you can overspeed the tires.. and because of limits only have expensive ways of doing it. We fooled around a little on the computer... if it would still be 9000 ish unlimited:

That's almost 14.000 hp....

Now that's what would keep us a as a team REALLY into it.. and I am sure the spectators, too.
Instead we run two "limited" tractors nobody gives a sh... about and worry about politcal BS getting "fair treatement". Run what you brung, pay the top 40 of the day.. and forget about the rest.


Floating Finish - the German Tractor Pulling Web Show and EU Live Streams: [www.youtube.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 01:19PM by Sascha.
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Re: The golden age? February 04, 2012 01:57AM
I would like to vote for the 70s-90s for the above mentioned reasons and one other - innovation. It was during that era that technology and practices considered standard and commonplace today were in their infancy, still evolving, and made the sport what it is today, sort of like drag racing was in the 50s. Think about it, what groundbreaking developments has the sport seen in the new millenium? None that compares to the introduction of alcohol to SS, custom overhead cam heads, etc. as seen in the latter decades of the previous century. Now we're just spending more money on a smaller turbo.
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Re: The golden age? February 04, 2012 03:55AM
..and have less people watching!


Floating Finish - the German Tractor Pulling Web Show and EU Live Streams: [www.youtube.com]
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Re: The golden age? February 04, 2012 02:43PM
"Postulator", what I think you really mean is not "the introduction of alky in SS" (since it really was pretty well there upon the introduction of organized pulling - thank you, NTPA) but the introduction of individual port induction/injection for alky in SS is what really brought the alky burners to life and able to compete without all that whizzing, popping, sneezing and banging (certainly my "Py-eyed Canary" did enough of that!).
Each decade have their pros and cons. The 70's by far saw the biggest changes in terms of tractor appearance and horsepower increases due to technological improvements. This era, like "long time puller" and "sled rider" receive my vote.
The downside to the late 80's was the motor mania in the Mods, up to seven per tractor. Although neat to see these creations pull, it had a detrimental effect upon class participation. The fallout was tremendous and it took a decade or so to recover. Thus, Sascha why "limits" were implemented, as I'm sure you aware. Right or wrong, I'm not entering that topic.
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Re: The golden age? February 05, 2012 12:39AM
The mid 90,s was the starting of the declind in pulling. I remember Doug Roberts and the Barnyard Beast John Deere winning Bowling Green in 1995 with 33 in the class and 9 in the pull-off. Macon was the same way with over 25 in each class. Now numbers are way down. At Troy, Jefferson City and other NTPA events out west there is only at best 8 to 10 Diesel Supers in a class or 5 or 6 Alky Super in the Unlimited super class, and only 7 or 8 Light Supers in a class and it is all alky except for 1 tractor, and this is on NTPA,s best program, running for points. Even the 4WD class is down to about 10 trucks, and Unlimited Mods are down to about 5 or 6. The cost to these promoters to pay to have classes with few numbers like this makes it hard to come out on these pulls. I think this is why you see a lot more co-sanctioning of associations at places like Troy and Jefferson City. Outlaws had twice the hooks as NTPA at Jefferson City and did it in the same amount of time. Outlaws light supers had over 20 in a class and half are still diesel burners and you never know which is going to win. Outlaws had 20 limited pros and top 5 was less than 7 feet apart. Limits must be working for some associations as they have lots of tractors show up to pull. All other motorsports have limits and different levels of competing.
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Re: The golden age? February 05, 2012 04:46AM
You need both, unlimited and limited...
For the fans and for like 2 - 3 hours of the show on the top level -> Unlimited. That's like most car manufactures build some "prestige models" in limited numbers, that nobody drives, but everybody talks about.

Then you need numbers and there you need limits to keep it "affordable" to compete.
As it has turned out, most of the limits put in place ended up allowing more horsepower than what was actually thought you could do for a much higher price.
I find it crazy, to see what kind of money is e.g. spent on Super Farm Tractors - and how little power they actually make out of that money. I mean.. for 100.000 $ you can probably build like 5000 hp. In this case the fans are getting kinda screwed on the performance for the money they spent.


Floating Finish - the German Tractor Pulling Web Show and EU Live Streams: [www.youtube.com]
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Re: The golden age? February 05, 2012 05:12AM
The grass is always greener mentality! The greatest time in pulling has to be now! Or else why are we still here ? Seriously though nothing stays the same in whatever sport you want to discuss. Everything gets faster and more expensive. The "limits" comments are interesting ,.....however if you think you can legislate economy into our sport you must be a voting liberal democrat!Eye Rolling Safety is way more prevelent today,..... which in it's self should be the only reason everyone should agree that now is the best time to be a puller.Thumbs Up
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Re: The golden age? YES IT IS February 05, 2012 08:24AM
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Blackletterz
The grass is always greener mentality! The greatest time in pulling has to be now! Or else why are we still here ? Seriously though nothing stays the same in whatever sport you want to discuss. Everything gets faster and more expensive. The "limits" comments are interesting ,.....however if you think you can legislate economy into our sport you must be a voting liberal democrat!Eye Rolling Safety is way more prevalent today,..... which in it's self should be the only reason everyone should agree that now is the best time to be a puller.Thumbs Up

This is a excellent point,, Really we cant go back, wishing for what was is a complete waste of time. Although remembering the stands FULL of spectators at every pull in the 60s and 70s was nice.. Every motorsport has always had a wrestling match with technology and the dollars spent. There are some incredibly inventive people involved in this sport, that inventiveness comes with a price. Unfortunately the high price of keeping abreast of this technology limits the newcomer unless they are well heeled to say the least. Rules imposed by any sanctioning body that are supposed to limit the cost of a competition vehicle most often wind up costing the participant more and more money.. I wish I had a answer for the cost of the sport but I don't, other than staying home and mowing the lawn..Spinning
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