Quambatook will come to life with a fuel injected boost of adrenaline and a healthy dose of sound, sights and horse power when it hosts the annual Tractor Pull this weekend.
The mammoth event has been taking place at Quambatook each Easter Saturday for 41 years and draws thousands to the tiny Mallee town, boosting their economy and securing their position as the premier Tractor Pull location.
This year’s event will feature pulling machines from interstate ensuring fierce competition across multiple classes including vintage, mini modified, 2WD and 4WD farm tractors.
The event will even cater for children who are set to compete in a ride-on lawn mower class.
Event organiser Kelvin Jobling said the tractor pull had something for everyone, with a jam-packed schedule at the weekend.
“The event draws around 4500 people each year and many of those are families, so we try to cater for those accompanying tractor pull fans who may not be into the tractors themselves,” he said.
“This year we have a host of entertainment including a country market, food vendors and rides for the kids.”
However, the real action is power driven.
Quambatook always hosts the Australian Championships but this year the town will also host the final event for the season.
Some impressive entrants this year include Blown Income which makes its way from South Australia to tackle the open mini class.
“Blown Income is an awesome machine and easily favourite, but with a dirt track anything is possible,” Mr Jobling said.
Another local hopeful is Peter Mann in Bad Attitude.
The Swan Hill resident who farms in Quambatook is a favourite in the 2WD puller truck class.
The aim of the pull is to drag objects at least a foot in distance to register a pull result.
The ultimate goal is to pull the object more than 300 feet with weights in excess of 15 tonnes for the bigger tractors and 3.5 tonnes for the smaller ones.
Points and championship titles go to the tractor not the driver.
To read more about this story, grab a copy of Thursday’s Guardian (April 13).
