Photos by: Brian Seely

Both Nathan Graham and the Campbell Brothers came to the Trumbull County Fair in Cortland, Ohio on Saturday with ‘something to prove’.  Graham, the 2009 USA-EAST Champion had been shut out of the win column so far in 2010 and the tractor had just not performed up to par in the early part of the season.  And the Campbell Brothers, Rick and Randy, had missed most of 2009 and all of the early part of 2010 as they waited somewhat impatiently for the various parts of their newly designed John Deere to be completed.  But on July 3rd at the Trumbull County Fair, both teams were able to ‘get the monkey off their backs’ by defeating outstanding fields of pullers in this USA-EAST Series event.

Graham from Greensburg, Pennsylvania had to wait until the final hook of the huge class of twenty-two competitors before pounding out his pull-off win.  The “Blue Reaper” Ford 9000 had been delivered to the fairgrounds early by a friend since Nathan and Karen Graham had to attend a wedding in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  Graham arrived just in time for the start of the class and had drawn a late hook in the division.  Five of the Limited Pro and Super Farm tractors had made a full pull by the time last year’s champ had a chance to hook and the 540 cubic inch Ford Genesis did its job as the Forrester-built machine easily went past he full pull line.  And after Ross Martin set the mark to beat in the pull-off with “Runnin Red Warrior”, each of the other four in the pull-off came short of the 314 foot mark set by the 7140 series International Super Farm.  The “Blue Reaper” and Nathan Graham were last to hook and a perfect pass sent them out to 315 feet and the victory.

Campbell’s “Soupline Express” has been a mainstay on the Ohio State circuit for many years and has competed very well at venues like Bowling Green and the Ohio State Fair as well as on the Grand National tour with NTPA.  Rick and Randy have chosen to run with USA-EAST and the “Smoker Series” since 2006 and have done quite well in that division as well with there John Deere Pro Stockers.  But as the use of component chassis and rear ends has become prevalent in the past two years the “Express” had started to fall behind, so the decision was made to completely revamp the tractors.  Now fitted with a component of their own and a more powerful engine the Homeworth, Ohio Team was ready to take on the best of the best in the “Smoker Series”.  And what a debut for the new tractor with USA-EAST at Trumbull County!!!  The “Soupline Express” made the only full pull of the class while hooked to the Nearpass sled piloted by Craig Storm.  Second went to Aaron Bradish and “Recycled Red” at 298.3 as the pull-off was narrowly averted.

With a total of 33 tractors on the grounds at Cortland, Ohio and a tremendous pulling track built by Jim Miller from NTPA, it was a super night of tractor pulling action for the jam packed grandstand of fans.

Both of these tractor divisions are back in action on Thursday, July 8th at 7:00pm at the Big Butler Fair in Prospect, Pennsylvania.  This is the first time that tractors have run at this fair in many years and another strong field of ‘smokers’ are expected for the event.