Tim Jackson of Chardon, Ohio has marked himself as ‘the one to beat’ in 2011 after gaining his second straight win in the Pro Stock Diesel ranks.  Jackson was the winner at his hometown pull in Burton, Ohio on Saturday night with the ultra-powerful “Ridin’ Dirty” GMC with V-8 Duramax power.  Tim’s win was the highlight of the 4th annual NORTHEAST OHIO CHAMPIONSHIPS tractor and truck pull at the Great Geauga County Fairgrounds.  Despite ominous weather conditions the pull went off without a hitch before a huge crowd that packed both the grandstands and the pit side bleachers.  This event was sanctioned by USA-EAST Sled Pulling and was produced by Rick Feicht’s Full Pull Productions, Inc. of Jamestown, Pennsylvania.  Jim Timmon’s Farm of Burton and Ronyak Paving, also from Burton, were instrumental in producing a very good pulling surface for the pullers on this overcast evening.

D&W Performance Diesel of Cleveland, Ohio as well as their marketing partner MBRP Performance Exhaust were the sponsors of the event for the first time this season and both of these companies had set up displays that attracted large numbers of very interested buyers to their merchandising areas.  Cen-Pe-Co Lubricants, also from the Cleveland area, was also represented at the event by local sales agent Scott Sell from nearby Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  Corey Tyler representing D&W Diesel Performance home office in Auburn, New York made the trophy presentations in the first two photos.

The Pro Stock Diesel class was the most closely watched division on the four card slate on Saturday night because the number of locally based competitors in the field of fifteen awesome modified diesel pick up trucks.  The “Brother’s Diesel” team from Springville, New York finished as the runner-up with Dominic Gambino on the controls of the Dodge while Jonathon Woskob was third with his Dodge named “Rollin’ Coal” from Warrior’s Mark, Pennsylvania.  Upstart John Savage from Sebring, Ohio, a top runner the 2.6 division ‘bumped up’ with his Chevy on this night and finished 4th.  Billy Debenedictus the other local puller from Mentor, Ohio could only get fifth place with his “The Real Deal” Dodge that actually started its pulling career at this pull some five years ago.

Mark Bell from Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania just keeps on winning with the “FireFox” John Deere taking his third win in four starts with the USA-EAST Sanctioning body in 2011.  Bell had previously won at Westmoreland and at Bunker Hill, but slipped a week ago at Brookville before regaining the top spot at the NORTHEAST OHIO CHAMPIONSHIPS.  Ross Martin, last season’s champion, returned to the track for the first time on Saturday night in Burton to gain second place as he served notice that the “Runnin’ Red Warrior” IH 7140 was back and would be a factor again this season.  Martin chose not to run the pull-off due the newness of his engine and the inability to have time to fully check out a heat problem that he encountered on the first run.  Gary Rice from Farmdale, Ohio continues to impress in 2011 with a third place finish aboard “Milk Money” and Ted Giovelli fell out of first place in the USA-EAST point race with a fourth while driving the IH 1066 called “Shazzam”.  Eleven tractors participated with ten of the entries being Super Farm tractor – a very unusual mix for a USA-EAST pull.

Jack Griggs from Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania won the semi division with eight members of the famed Pennsylvania Posse on hand for the event at Geauga County.  Griggs’ Mack V-8 called “Homewrecker” just eacked out the victory with a mark of 303 in the four-way pull-off.  Cory Fox went 301 with his “Bad Influence” Pete in from Cabot, Pennsylvania and Nate August grabbed third with “Work In Progress” a well preparted Kenworth from Freedom, Pennsylvania.  Jerry Hairhoger also make the pull off but withdrew when issues were discovered on the “Jerry-Atricks” Kenworth.

The final class of the evening was the qualifier for the 2.6 Street Diesel class leading up to positions at the Great Geauga County Fair in early September.  The top ten trucks all gained entry into the prestigious pull held at the Fair on the Sunday of Labor Day Week-End.  Matt Kahley from Kirkland, Ohio took the win while driving “Direct Deposit” a white Dodge owned by Adam Brown from Eastlake, Ohio.  Second went to the ever-improving Chris Kister from Kingsville, Ohio with a ’94 Dodge.