‘OFF THE HIGHWAY’ SEMI TRUCKS

The OFF-THE-HIGHWAY SEMI TRUCKS may be called “Street Stock Semi” trucks in some circles. But that does not do justice to this very competitive group of owner/operators with their specially tuned trucks. While the trucks must be licensed for the highway and must still carry insurance and the drivers all must have a certified CDL license, many of these very competitive vehicles do not spend very much time at all on the highways. Owners have built special trucks for one purpose only – SLED PULLING.   And for the 2011 season this class will be once again sanctioned under the Full Pull Production’s banner – USA-EAST.   

Jerry Hairhoger from New Galillee, Pennsylvania took home the 2011 USA-EAST championship with a stirring string of victories in the class.  This was the second championship for the 1973 KW as Hairhoger has also won the 2009.  Hairhoger’s ancient Kenworth named “Gerry-Atricks” is powered by a KTA-600 Cummins and is well know around the eastern United States as one of the strongest street licensed trucks.  Hairhoger’s son, Jerry Ray, is the crew chief for the team.  The runner-up in 2011 was Nate August from Freedom, PA and his CAT-powered Kenworth named “Work ‘N Progress”.

Eight different trucks competed for points in this division in 2011 with five of the trucks making 80% of the hooks.  The class had a great variety of competition as trucks from all of the major manufacturers – Kenworth, Mack, Peterbilt, Sterling, Freightliner, International and Western Star.  And the engines will come from CAT and Cummins and Detroit and Mack in this powerful series of events.  One of the highlights was the development of the “PENNSYLVANIA POSSE”, a special field of six trucks that traveled outside of the state to take on the best semis from Ohio and New York in special pulling events produced by Full Pull Productions, Inc.

Local owners of the 22000lb. OFF-THE-HIGHWAY SEMI trucks are always welcome to enter this class when it comes to town, but they will have to face some very strong-running trucks that will follow the entire circuit of events in order to see just who will be crowned the number one OFF-THE-HIGHWAY SEMI TRUCK in the eastern United States.   And in most cases, a special award will be offered to the “best local truck” that competes with the OFF-THE-HIGHWAY SEMI TRUCK series.

All trucks that are “running for the points” must be members of the USA-EAST sanctioning body in order to collect series’ points. See www.USA-EAST.com for membership and schedule information.