DAMAGES TRACK AND TOPS EIGHTEEN RIVALS AT PAINESVILLE, OHIO

Nathan Graham and his Ford 9000 named “Blue Reaper” was the show-stopper on Tuesday night at the Lake County Fair in Painesville, Ohio.  Graham not only won the class with an awesome pass in a three way pull-off, but also had the fans on their feet as he dragged the Singer “Palestine Dyno IV” sled crossways on the track and through the concrete barriers on the super pulling track at Lake County.

What a field of tractors for the first-ever USA-EAST sanctioned tractor pull at the Lake County Fair!!  Eighteen total competitors in the highly-charged field.  Pullers from Ohio and Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia.  Champions from the Interstate Pullers and from the Ohio State Tractor Pullers and from USA-EAST Sled Pulling were all in the field.

The “Blue Reaper” drew the #1 pulling position but Nathan put the Ford 9000 out of sorts early in his initial run and ended up taking the sled across the track.  When the rear of the weight transfer came around it contacted the Jersey Barriers on the right side of the track and managed to turn over one of the heavy concrete slabs.  It took fifteen minutes to clear up the carnage but both the weight sled and the “Blue Reaper” came away unscathed save a couple of scratchs here and there.  And then the “Blue Reaper” dropped to last in order to regroup.

Three tractors made it to the pull-off.  “Moody Blue”, the former USA-EAST Champion from Fulks Run, Virginia, made its best run of 2011 with the venerable Jay Smith doing the driving.  “I’m a builder, not a driver”, said Jay in the pits before the pull.  “But the boys were busy and we have made a number of changes to the tractor – and I wanted to see what it would do”.  Up until the stirring pass by “Moody Blue”, the lead was at 299.99 and held by last years USA-EAST Champion, Ross Martin from Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, and the IH 7140 called “Runnin’ Red Warrior”.

Tommy Williams all the way in from Leesburg, Virginia also made a great pass with his IH 966 named “FireStorm” to enter the pull-off.  The Williiam’s Brothers Virginia Beef Pulling Team brought their stable of three strong running machines to Lake County.  Jimmy Williams drove his “Cattleack Red”, but had turbo issues and also took “Green Max” into the number eight position in the stellar field.

In the pull-off, Jay Smith showed his newness to driving as the big blue New Holland was a bit light on the front end and headed for the sky right off the starting line causing the wheelie bars to dig and placing the tractor in a difficult position before Smith ‘shut her down’ and settled for third place.  Tommy Williams pounded the sled out to a tremendous distance of nearly 309 feet with “FireStorm” to set the stage for “Blue Reaper” and Nathan Graham.  The Ford 9000 did not disappoint as the 2009 USA-EAST champion roared past the leader for a incredible win on this record-breaking night in Painesville, Ohio.

The Limited Pros and Super Farms get a day off before returning to USA-EAST Pulling at the Lawrence County Fair in New Castle, Pennsylvania on Thursday evening at 7:00pm.  This marks the return of Full Pull Productions to the Lawrence County Fair after a one year hiatus.