The Yorkton Truck and Tractor Pulls was a festival of horsepower, teams from across the prairies showing their high horsepower machines to entertain the crowds in the city. The local team, LT Motorsports, competed in each class at the event. The team consists of Brad Bloodoff, Geno Holowatiuk, Gerald Muzyka and Larry Hilworth.
The team started with the revival of the Truck and Tractor Pulls, beginning with Maple Farm Equipment’s sponsorship of that show. The first tractor purchased was partially to ensure there was a John Deere in the program, Hilworth explains, but also to try out the sport.
“I thought, I’m a John Deere dealer, we can’t have an International. I mean, we take those on trade, so I searched on the internet and found this John Deere.”
The team then acquired Jet Blue, the only single-turbine jet tractor in Canada, partially to ensure that the tractor stayed in the country. Bloodoff says that for him, it’s an honour just to drive it.
“That’s history, that’s a Saskatchewan history tractor,” Bloodoff says.
After that, it came down to what people wanted to drive, which expanded to a lineup of eight pullers, with seven at the event. Those include mini-tractors Ratified, Punisher and Undertaker, which range from around 700 to 930 horsepower, a modified 4x4 called Bob-Tail Rat which runs at around 1,068 horsepower and Prairie Rat, two wheel drive truck that has over 2,000 horsepower.
“We weren’t looking for any of these things, except for the John Deere, they just came along,” Hilworth says.
Bloodoff says each machine is a different experience. The two wheel drive truck is a balancing act, with a ton of power but a need to keep it balanced. He describes the jet turbine as a gradual build.
“You realize how much power you are actually controlling.”
Bloodoff says that it’s power at its harshest, and that coming from a drag racing background, the sustained run of a pull is something that makes an engine builder cringe.
It’s been a rapid growth for the team, doubling in size from last year. Hilworth says that everything was bought online, site unseen, not just the pullers but the semis that transport them from location to location as well. He says they have had good luck with this method, and the man who sold them their first puller still helps and gives advice.
The pulling community is tight knit, with everyone helping each other, which has been valuable to a relatively new team like LT. Hilworth describes a scene where everyone wants to win, but they want to win with strong, fair competition.
They’re the rookies of the sport, and Bloodoff says that means there’s nothing wrong with losing to the more experienced teams. But, since they’ve already got a fleet of nice vehicles, they are starting to get attention from the other teams.
As much as it is about pulling down the track, it’s also about putting on a show. Bloodoff and Hilworth agree that it’s most rewarding when they can give kids the rush they got when they were in the audience years ago.
“What makes it fun too is you’ll see some kids. You can see in their eyes that they would like to have that. We were kids too, and we sat in those positions going “wouldn’t it be nice to have that some day?” And now we’re there today, and now we’re trying to help the kids,” Hilworth says.
In some ways it’s going back to his youth, Hilworth says, since he remembers the Boss Blue tractors at the Exhibition when he was a teenager.
“You got this adrenaline rush from seeing this high horsepower.”
The weekend was a good run for the team, with competitive results. Bloodoff says there was some disappointment on Friday, as Jet Blue was sidelined with mechanical problems, but overall they had good runs on both days.
“When things work, it’s good and fun. When things don’t work, it’s not as much fun and kind of expensive,” Hilworth says.
Given that everything is fabricated, getting parts can sometimes be a challenge, even when it just comes to explaining what exactly they need. Bloodoff relates that finding a cutoff switch at a Polaris store in Meadow Lake caused confusion, since a specific part number doesn’t exist when everything is custom.
“The guy goes what’s it on, and I said ‘it doesn’t matter, because it’s not in your building.’”
It’s a hobby for Hilworth and his team, and he says their main goal is to simply enjoy themselves. Bloodoff says that it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s what he likes to do.
“It’s fun, and when it stops being fun they were all for sale when I started buying them,” Hilworth says.
