Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, August 10, 2011

Engines roar, smoke billows and a big tractor races down the track pulling a sled and trying to make it for a full pull.

Ringgold county residents recognize a tractor pull when they hear or see one during the summer season. There are pulls at many of the community celebrations and the Ringgold County Fair.

What those not tuned into the tractor pull scene might not know, however, is that Ringgold county is the home of a Championship Tractor Pull winning team. The DAVISON clan -- father Richard in years gone by and sons Robert and Rodney in more recent times -- have the tractor pulling bug and their Red Iron tractor has been pulling up a storm.

The culmination of years of learning the tricks of the trade -- and recognizing that there is a modicum of luck involved as well-- came to a climax for the DAVISONS when they were invited to the Championship Tractor Pull at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, KY last February. It's the oldest indoor tractor pull in America.

Tractor pullers make application to be invited to the pull. As well as sending in information on how the tractor has done at pulls during the year, a picture of the tractor is required.

The DAVISON team had placed second in their season of Outlaw pulling, missing first by a foot the previous year. The DAVISONS added to their resume a string of big pull wins last year. They won their 9,300 pound super farm class at pulls in Nebraska Cornhusker pull in Wisner, NE., a big pull in Spencer, the Kansas City Farm Show and at the Iowa State Fair last year.

The DAVISONS had a taste of the big pull in Louisville, KY when they made the cut in 2010. They placed sixth in their heat, two places from making the finals that time.

"We learned some things from that competition, such as that we needed more weight on the front end to race that track," Robert DAVISON, who told the story for the family, noted.

With some experience under their belt, they went back in February. Out of a field of 30 tractors, 15 have their preliminary pulls on the first night, 15 go the second night and then the finals are pulled the third night of the event with eight finalists.

Rodney DAVISON got the call from the family to do the actual driving of the tractor this time around, but Robert takes his turn as they drive during the season.

In the preliminaries on Thursday night, the DAVISONS had the longest pull at 247.13 feet, burying the end of the tractor in the sandpile at the end of the track, which is a crowd pleaser.

The rules say that any tractor pulling over 240 feet, however, qualifies for a pull-off for the heat.

Two other tractors made the cut. There wasn't much time for the tractor to cool down between the first pull, as the Red Iron had been near the end of the class the first time around.

"We don't like to run again that quickly and we did everything we could to cool the tractor down, but the clutch slipped a bit on there pull and we placed second that night," DAVISON said.

The tractor was still going to the finals on Saturday night and in the intervening time the DAVISON crew adjusted the clutch to grab a little more quickly.

It's an advantage to be at the end of the class because pullers can learn from the experience of others on ways to find the best waycdown the track.

The DAVISONS were the last tractor in their class in the finals.

In earlier classes the tractors that won seemed to do the best down the right side of the track, so that's where the Red Iron set up for its final pull. The tractor pulled to the left a bit as it went down the track, but the choice of line proved to be a good one as the DAVISON had the longest pull of the night to bring home the title in one of the most prestigious of the tractor pulls across the nation.

"Winning on that big of a stage was pretty special," Robert DAVISON said. "Everyone wants to win at Louisville and it was fun to see Rod be able to pull it off."

"It was quite a thrill," Rod DAVISON said. "It's by far the biggest feather in my cap. It's like the Daytona 500 of tractor pulling and its a big thrill to compete with some of the best tractors from all over the country."

Tractor pulling is nothing new for the DAVISON family.

The boys' dad Richard was into tractor pulling in his younger days, quitting in the early 1970s. He has passed down stories of some of the dramatic incidents that happened in the days before the many safety precautions that are taken today and when the sleds were anything but the mechanical marvels they are today.

In the early days before mechanical sleds, wooden sleds were used and tractors that were used in the field had fuel pumps turned up to provide more power, then were turned back down again to go back to the field.

With the wooden sleds, people would stand along the course every 10 feet or so. They would step on the sled as it went by to add more weight.

"It wasn't fair when someone would leave during the pull because the weight wasn't the same," Carole DAVISON, Richard's wife and Rodney and Robert's mother remembers.

Richard started with a 560 International tractor in the early days. He was in a heavier class, so a tractor was placed on the wooden sled to add more weight and then people stepped on the sled as it went by.

Rodney and Robert DAVISON got back into tractor pulling in 1984 and they've been taking part in the sport ever since.

They still have the 1456 International that they started pulling with in 1985. The story of that tractor is an interesting one.

Dad Richard had traded away the tractor when he moved up to a newer one back in the days of Roe Implement in Mount Ayr. When Rod was a senior, he was working with his dad in FFA work program and was making trips to Saint Joseph, MO, with loads of grain. As he drove along US 169 through Stanberry, he noticed what looked like the old tractor that his dad had traded away sitting on the dealers lot.

It was distinctive because it had bigger tires on it than normal and an aluminum oil pan.

On his last trip of the fall his curiosity got the best of him and he stopped at the dealer to check on it.

Once he saw some special etching that would mean that this was indeed his dad's old tractor, he knew he had been right. He asked about purchasing it and was told that it was going to be sold at a disbursement auction in a week or so.

The family went down to the sale and put a bid in on it, but its old to someone else. A few minutes later, however, the guy who had bought it came up to Richard and wondered if he wanted to buy it.

"I got the thing because I thought it was a good price but the more I thought about it, I wasn't sure what my wife would think about me bringing home another tractor," the buyer said. So the old tractor came back to the DAVISON and became the tractor that the boys began their tractor pulling career with.

The tractor had a cab that was removed for pulling and then put back on for field work.

In the years between when dad Richard stopped pulling and when the family got pulling again, the family attended tractor pulls, just not taking part themselves.

Rodney had ridden with his dad in the early days and enjoyed it.

They got going again when the tractor pulls came to the Ringgold County Fair. This rekindled the fever -- that's what Rodney DAVISON says tractor pulling is to him -- and Richard pulled with the boys up until about 10 years ago.

While the old tractor is still around for sentimental value, the brothers moved up to a 1066 International in 1989 and that's the tractor they still pull with. It was atractor set up specially for pulling. Or at least its the start of the tractor they pull with now.

Really all that remains from that 1066 are the hoods, nose and steering column -- things that are on the outside. The rest has been altered, changed or replaced over the years.

And where did they get the Red Iron name for their pulling tractor?

That was the nickname of former Roe Implement tractor salesman Bob ROE. They named the tractor after him, with his permission.

Pulling is more than having good equipment, however, the DAVISON brothers note.

"You learn some tricks of the trade over the years and the right combinations to get the tractor to pull like you want it," Robert DAVISON said. "For the past three or four years in super farm pulling we have had the right combinations many times and its been a lot of fun."

Tractor pulling is not as big a draw as NASCAR across the country, but DAVISON says there are some similarities.

When you get into the bigger classes you have component style tractors being built from pieces like NASCAR race cars are, he notes. And just like every NASCAR track is a little different, pullers have to be able to adjust to track differences from place to place and even from pull to pull as the track changes during a competition.

"The amount of water that is put on a track, the soil type, where the soft spots are, where the track has been broken up the most -- these all need to be taken into account when determining the line the puller will use to try to get the best pull," Robert DAVISON said.

There is a two-day pull in Rock Valley and the track can be completely different the second night from the first, Robert DAVISON said.

"It's weird how that works."

The draw of where a puller runs in terms of his class can also make a difference. The first tractor down the track doesn't have the luxury of watching others and trying to learn from their successes and mistakes.

The safety issues for tractor pullers are also some of the same as for NASCAR drivers. Pullers wear helmets and fire retardant suits.

"It's pretty easy to get a fire started under the hood and that comes right back toward the driver," Robert noted.

There are roll cages in case the tractor tips over to protect the pullers as well.

Equipment like clutches have specifications so they will be able to stand the strain of the pull.

"We've come a long way in making the pulls safe for the drivers," Robert DAVISON noted.

Part of the fun of the pulling is visiting with people as they come through the pit area at pulls, answering questions about the tractor and talking about pulling.

"You get some really good questions when you have a knowledgeable crowd like you do at some of the pulls," Robert said.

At the Louisville, KY event, the tractors are shown in an arena area and DAVISON said there were probably as many visitors or more for the tractor pulling tractors as the new machinery at the Farm Machinery Show.

After all their success in the super farm class leading up to their national championship win, the DAVISONS decided to move up a class this year to the limited pro class. To find pulls in the superfarm class they were involved with pulling groups that held meets in northern Iowa and Nebraska -- a long haul from Mount Ayr and Saint Joseph, MO, where Rod lives.

With the limited pro class, the pulls are closer in southern Iowa, northern Missouri and Nebraska.

"With all the trouble of closings of Interstate 29 from flooding it is probably good that we made the change this year or there would have been an awful lot of extra driving," Robert DAVISON said.

The change in class meant a change to a bigger engine with 600 more horsepower. That's been all that the DAVISONS have had to change to make the class change.

Rod SHIELDS helps the DAVISON work on the tractor locally and they have an engine builder in Minneapolis, MN, who helps with that part of the project.

It takes a while to get up to speed with the changes in the power, Robert DAVISON noted.

"It's kind of like learning to ride a bicycle all over again," Robert said. "You have to learn how to select the right gear, get the weight balanced and more. It's sort of a guessing game until you get things right."

"It's a learning curve," he said. “Right now it's more pulling against ourselves than our competition. We don't always make the right decisions. We didn't get the new motor in until July 3 so we missed part of the pulling season."

The DAVISONS have been to a couple of local pulls and had about eight outings so far this year, which is much less than normal for them.

"We've picked up a second, a third, a fifth and a 10th in some of the pulls so far so we are making some progress," Robert DAVISON said.

"We took a lot of static about changing classes after we had done so well last year," Rodney DAVISON said. "The challenges of a new class are fun and by moving up we won't be involved in quite so many pulls each year."

The brothers agreed that with family duties in the summer they needed to cut back a bit on the pulling.

"It's a little hard to cut back," Rod DAVison said. "We still get to the bigger pulls and haven't missed anything we really wanted to compete in."

And what happened to that old engine that had done so well for them in the super farm class?

Some pullers from Nebraska were interested in purchasing the engine for one of their pulling tractors. After inquiring about it for a couple of years, the DAVISONS finally sold it.

Guess what?

The guys with the new engine have two or three pull wins under their belt with the DAVISON'S old engine.

While Rod and Robert are the ones who do the pulling, their families come along to some of the pulls as well.

Father Richard goes when he can and the brothers' families are part of the trips when it doesn't interfere with all the other summer activities they are involved in.

After more than 25 years of pulling, and a national championship under their belts, tractor pulling is still fun. Red Iron will continue to represent Ringgold county in pulls in years to come.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2011