Comparing tractor pulling to a country club. April 22, 2024 03:05AM
I started to think about the different classes at the national level pulling and started to compare them to a country club membership, and I realize that it's very subjective I do believe that pulling has a distinction from class to class. Having said that here is my opinion of six classes that I'm going to give their level of membership in the club.

The Platinum level has two members, the Pro Stock class has risen to be the highest level of pulling. From the start of a "intro" class of tractors that were making less than a 1000 HP to the current edition of 5000+ HP the class has become a crowd favorite. Witness that PS's having only evening sessions at BG and 4 sessions at the NFMS. The second Platinum class would be the Unlimited/PPL mods. The class with 4/5 engines, 15,000 HP and amazing wheel speed is a crowd favorite. With the right track and plenty of shut down space their show is like no other.

The gold level of pulling would be the mini class. I realize that to some that's a strange ranking. However if you look at the current pullers in the class they come from a almost every other class in pulling. And with the refined chassis and rear ends the class put on a fast and exciting show. The other gold member is the SSD 4x4 class. The class has been on a steady growth curve. With the numbers on pickup trucks that fans drive it's no wonder that this class has been a crowd favorite. And it's maybe the one class in pulling that appeals the a broad range of motorsports fans.

And finally the silver level class, one of the silver level classes is the DSS class. Unfortunately a class that was once the elite Platinum class has suffered with low numbers and constant breakage. At a 2 day event the number of DSS that make the second day is greatly reduced. TWD, love them or hate them no one can deny that's one of the very few classes that have national uniform rules. And I imagine that's why there seems to be about 5000 of them around the country. And you have to admit that a great portion of the pullers in the TWD class have stayed with the class for decades.

And for the rest of national classes I found it very hard to do any sort of ranking.
While this is my opinion/ranking please feel free to ripe it apart.

On a side note if the Lt Mod class has a strong growth in pullers and PPL adopts the class it may some day shakeup my rankings.


Dick Morgan

www.PULLOFF.com
Independent Pulling News
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Re: Comparing tractor pulling to a country club. April 22, 2024 03:49AM
I mostly agree with the levels you placed everyone in. Except that I'd probably put the modified class in the gold section, you didn't mention them.

I'd also leave the TWD class out of the levels completely. As far as I'm concerned that class is a good chance to get up walk around the pits, get some food, hit the bathroom etc.

I do think that a lot of people still see the DSS class as a platinum level class. It's still one of the fan favorites. But it is unfortunately dying off.

I also hope to see the Light Mod class take off, I think the Europeans and the Outlaws have proven that class to have large amounts of potential.

Your mini ranking will take flak but I agree with you. I think that class is one of the most fun to watch because of the wild rides and sheer amount of horsepower.
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Re: Comparing tractor pulling to a country club. April 23, 2024 06:45AM
The SSD trucks aren’t a gold class by any means, not sure where it’s growing at because it’s not for NTPA or west of Ohio and Indiana. DSS is still the most requested promoter class even with its poor numbers so it’s the standard for tractor classes in my opinion.
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Re: Comparing tractor pulling to a country club. April 24, 2024 01:40AM
I think your really close, I would bump the minis up since they seem to be a highly talked about/watched class, and it has the numbers now. The TWD is a good class one of my favorites to watch and it has the numbers. But watching 70 of them gets a bit boring especially when the track changes. Which it will. One question I have isn't the PPL mod class closer to the NTPA mod class not the unlimiteds? I thought PPL changed there rules a year or 2 ago to make them closer and easier to cross over. You see more NTPA mods cross over than you do unlimiteds. I also think the unlimited mods should be dropped down and the mod class moved in there. There are allot more true mods than unlimiteds. The unlimiteds back in the day were the class to watch. Now there are only a few true unlimiteds and the last time I seen them they weren't real awe inspiring. To bring the wow factor back to the mods we need to figure out how to get the different aircraft engines back involved like overseas. That's what made that class exciting but we decided to push them out. I'd like to see semis in the heap but there aren't that many and lately there hit and miss weather they will put on a show. Even with there issues there are allot of people that would travel to just see them.

With our sport you can ask 10 different people this question and get 10 different answers.
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