Gillett WI Pull
OK I had to make the wife happy today before I could head
out to this Saturday evening pulls at Gillett WI that is 62 miles from my door,
so I can make it there in about 48 minutes when I put the hammer down to 75 mph.
OK to make the wife happy I had to put in 300 Square bails
in the barn so her critters have food for the winter. As the old saying goes you
have to make hay when the sun shines. Well it was a clear 78 dreg. Low humidity
but in the barn it didn’t matter there was little to no air moving, so it was
a sweatshop. The farmer called me at 1:15 told me he’d have my first wagon of
150 ready to go in an hour.
So I headed
over that way at 2:00 for the 10-mile drive to get the first kicker wagon of
hay. Well he told me he’d set me up with his two best wagons for road travel.
So as I got to the field there was a wagon full waiting for me so I hooked to it
and headed home at 2:15 with the first load. 28 mph was as fast as I could get
before the trailer would start whipping franticly so we pretty much held it at
25 to keep in behind me. Made it home @ 2:45 and the wife and I started to
unload the hay. OK Now the pull had registration from 3:30 till 6:30 pull starts
at 7:00 so there a timing issue here so I had a few extra hands coming to help,
but they didn’t show up till we had the first wagon half unloaded, But
that’s ok thou they did made it there to help. So 150 in and back on the road
for the second wagon load 3:30 the ride back the wagon followed much better
letting me get to 35 mph before it would get out of hand. As I pulled into the
field @ 3:52 there was the second load all done just waiting for me.
At least this
farmer had it going on as far as the timing of the wagons. So I hooked up to the
wagon and got back on the road @ 3:55. Well this wagon wasn’t as good as the
first one it got out of hand anything close to 25 mph so I tried to hold it at
22 mph, Pulled into the barn yard at 4:25 And when the last bail was placed in
the barn it was 4:55. Now my wife is happy and all I have to do now is get the
wagon back to the farmers field get back home hook up the my big trailer and hit
the shower before the drive to Gillett.
So I hit the road for Gillett at 5:30 call one of my
buddies who’s was there already to go registers me and I’d pay them when I
got there. So with that done all I had to do was drive there and not worry about
nothing. So I pulled in to Gillett and got parked at 6:29 and headed to the
registration booth to get paid up. And asked how the line up was going to be
tonight seeing how I had to change at least 2 tires to get ready for the first
class. She said they might mix it up tonight so don’t do anything till they do
the drawing of the classes. OK so I headed over to the food booth to get a Big
John burger to fill my belly.
Now this Big John burger is the best burger at any truck
pull I ever had. It’s 2 ¼# of beef smothered with Fried Onions 2 pieces of
cheese on a bun, oh ya and a slab of butter just to make it gooey drippy as you
eat it. Hummmm hummm the best.
Tonight we had Jim Luedtke’s Yellow sled ran by Pat Hawks
this is one of the most consistent sled I ever ran with.
So the pull
started almost on time I think the national anthem played at 7:20 Now the Truck
count was a little low at this pull, So classes where moving right a long pretty
good
Super Stock finally made it up @ 9:00 p.m. and I was the
second puller in the class with seven truck total. When Pat was setting up the
sled for Super Stock Pat asked me what Truck would be the top truck in the
class. I told him ShaZam would probley be one of the top trucks, And Pat’s
pretty good at setting his sled and he told me I’ll try to keep off the black
top. Which at the Gillett Track there’s a black top road at the very end of
the 250’ track and I told Pat it works for me.
Before the class started I heard the scale was weighing
heavy by 150 # so I asked Ed who was going to be the first truck in the class,
did he want to remove the weight or just go heavy in the class. Ed said to put
ShaZam on the scale and see how ShaZam scale and well determined what we do from
there. Well I drive on the scale and it reads 6280 so I’m 80# heavy, Ed Said
close enough, then Ed got on the scale and I don’t know what it read but Ed
ended up pulling off 100# weight and he came and told me the scale guy wants to
be dead on. So as I got back on the scale the guy there tells me to remove 20#
and where good.
So Ed McClain and his Going Crazy Truck got all hooked up
to the sled and pulled it 236.76. Ed told me later he forgot to turn his
steering on till mid track and he should have turned his pull down but he
didn’t and off the track he went to his trailer to change tires. The guy on
the leveler Tractors was doing his best to hide all the woop woops in the track
But I told Pat when he came back after Ed I wanted him to head 2’ South to
give me a stagger of the ruts that had developed in the track. As I got ShaZam
all hooked up I got the chain tight then held the r’s up @ 3000 for a few
second trying to build some heat in the motor before I spanked on it. Hit the
tach record and flipped the other switches all on then dropped it into 3rd
gear and road it out of the hole the best I could with out busting the tires
loose At the first set of cones I was @ 3500 and just easing into the throttle
some more and playing tractor tonight by mid track I was @ 5000 and I finally
felt the tires hook to the clay and I gave ShaZam the rest of the throttle and
the Tach went to 7000 7800 8200 and back to 7900 and I knew I’m hauling a$$
big time When the last stage hit the ground I was sitting at 242.38 and I knew
it was a good hook for ShaZam. So back to the trailer to change tires, During
the class I went to talk with Pat some telling him the set-up was spot on and to
leave it that way for Mod and we’ll be close to the black top for that class.
Now there where two Super Stock truck coming up that could possible better what
ShaZam had done today, So while I was changed Tires I had one ear listening to
there pulls. Derek Peetz was up next and put down a good pull of 239.77 Close
one there, Then Tommy Scheffen came up next and he had Ignition problems and
pulled 166.42, Then came Steve Swanson the last Super Stock truck I knew could
put me one down came up, but they broke the shifter linkage as they where
pulling onto the track so they pushed him off the track and gave him till the
end of the class to get it fixed. Next up was Ben Holtger Yes Ben’s just a
Open Stock truck but he’s beat me before So I had to dodge a bullet when he
hooked up, As it turned out he had hopping issues tonight and pulled 227.36. Ben
ended up getting back in the ruts, and it launched his rear end out of the hole.
Now the last Open Stock truck that jumped up in class came
up and pulled the sled to 224.48. And then as the sled pulled back into staging
Steve had his truck fixed and ready to rock and roll. Hooked up but he felt it
was running a little lame but gave it his best and pulled the sled to 239.15.
So they read off the class placing and they say Derek Peetz
was 1st Steve was 2nd and Ed was 3rd and I said
hey hey there’s a problem here So up the announcer stand I go and ask how a
pull of 242.38 gets beat by a 239.77 pull for 1st place. She said she
was sorry they missed that and they’d make the correction. Well I don’t
think they ever announced the correction but I got the 1st place
envelope so cool beans.
OK a few filler Local stock classes and the Semi’s came
up and put a great show on for the crowd.
Then came
Modified 4x4 OK we had 5 trucks in the class, One real 650 Cid Alcohol injected
Modified truck Called Cold Ethel and the rest where Super Stock truck jumping up
in class. Steve Swanson Dropped out with a blown head gasket. So the class
looked this way Derek, Craig (Cold Ethel), Ed then I was the last truck of the
class.
Derek hooked up and got into those ruts the did Ben in and
pretty much did the same with him, He bounced and then got out of it and back
into it and broke and axle and tried to make a decent run out of it but stopped
at 213.84. Next up was Craig and Cold Ethel has really been coming around this
season. Now these alcohol motors idle so much different then a Gas motor they
almost sound like there not running really well but you put the hammer down and
they come to life. So Craig get all hooked Finds his direction down the track
and head out of the hole at the first set of cones his rear bounces once then it
took a set and he’s hammed it at just the right moment and he hooked so hard
he dame near pee’d his pants, when he came down to the big end he had so much
speed he felt he could leave off the throttle a bit just to give the rest of us
a chance and ended up 256.21 on a 250’ track. Next up was Ed and he laid down
a very impressive run of 253.33. But while Ed was getting lined up I talked to
Pat and told him I need to be as far north this time as possible. So with the
sled almost off the North side of the track I get ShaZam lined up and hooked to
the sled. I have the ruts staggered
no problem so I shouldn’t bounce what so ever. Playing tractors seem to work
good in Super Stock so I tried to do it again in Mod.
As I left the
line I tried to keep the tires hooked by giving it just enough to get things
rolling and as I hit mid track I was at 5500 and then I laid in to ShaZam and
the tach went to 7200 then 7500 finally hitting 7800 and riding it out till the
last stage hit and ShaZam came to a hole digging 266.32 pull. The flag guy said
you’re in 1st, Well Cool beans again but I didn’t know I put 10
feet on the other guys.
OK Final Thoughts on last night pull. Pat usually can put
everyone in a 2’ Grouping. So to put a 10-foot Pull over the 2nd
place guy is a Big Woody time for me.
So Made the Wife happy twice during the weekend.
OK Next week I’ll be at the Francis Creek Days Pulls.
Friday Modified and Saturday will be Super Stock.
See ya there
Dan and ShaZam