Larry Sewell, left, owns and operates the White Mule sled at antique tractor pulls around the area. He and his wife, Dianna, have been sled operators since 1986. (Photo by Kristen Waggener / kwaggener@miconews.com)
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Tractors and trucks pull in huge crowds
Louisburg American Legion’s annual event at Lewis-Young Park attracts entries, fans from region
By Kristen Waggener, kwaggener@miconews.com
Sun setting behind a row of trees and puffs of white and black smoke wafting in the background, Noah Murray and brother Ian prepare for their burgeoning careers as truck and tractor pullers.
Shuffling up and down the rows of bleachers at the track in Lewis-Young Park, Noah, 6, takes his light blue truck with trailer behind it and runs it down the bleacher seat, making a “vroom!” sound as authentic as he can.
“It even has a hole in it so I can pretend it’s my sled,” Noah says.
Ian, 3, stands a few feet behind his brother, running his monster truck back and forth, making an even louder “zoom!” each time the truck’s wheels hit a bump.
The Murrays were among hundreds of families that attended Friday and Saturday night’s truck and tractor pulls, sponsored by the Louisburg American Legion John P. Hand Post No. 250.
Larry Sewell sits back with a smile on his face and a microphone in his ear as Eugene Rogers of Paola adjusts the gears on his tractor during Friday night’s pull.
The tractor’s nose pulls up, and the motor sputters while increasing amounts of weight bear down on Sewell’s White Mule sled.
“The pullers, they like the feel of that tractor, and I can feel it, too,” said Sewell, who has provided the antique tractor classes in Louisburg with his homemade sled for the past several years. “They’re trying to go, and I’m trying to ‘whoa.’”
Sewell’s job is simple. He rides on a seat positioned above the pan of the sled, monitoring the speed and distance each puller goes.
Larry’s wife, Dianna, sits above the track, talking to him via radio, recording the same information her husband monitors from the sled.
On Friday, the antique tractors were only allowed to go 4 mph, and equalizer, Larry says, so one puller does not have an advantage over another.
Sewell, who lives in Hale, Mo., has been participating in tractor pulls since 1982, and he’s owned his sled since 1986.
“We’re guessing we’ve pulled about a half-million tractors,” he says before the competition begins.
With a starting weight of 2,500 pounds and a box that puts about 55 pounds of weight per inch that it travels, the White Mule stops many in its path.
“That’s my job, to stop them before the end,” he says.
In sharp contrast to the slow and steady pace of the antique tractors, the gas and diesel truck pullers can and do go as quick as possible down the dirt track.
Ryan Bauer of Louisburg is one of the handful of diesel truck pullers who took their chance Friday with the X-Factor sled.
Bauer started pulling about seven years ago, he said, starting with stock gas trucks.
“It was just for fun,” he said.
And as he progressed, he moved into pulling diesel trucks with friends Sean Niebaum and Cody Pueser under the Big Boy Toys LLC name.
Bauer says they pull every weekend between June and October as part of the Flint Hills Pullers Association, and Friday night’s pull in Louisburg was just for fun.
The pullers take their stock trucks and add bigger turbo-chargers, fuel pumps and fuel injectors for better performance, a feat simpler than it may sound.
“You add fuel, you add air, you make power,” Niebaum said.
And though Bauer had no specific distance goal in mind for Friday’s pull, he mostly hoped to entertain the hundreds of fans in attendance.
“Our trucks smoke a lot,” he said. “Our goal is to put on a show for the crowd.”
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Shuffling up and down the rows of bleachers at the track in Lewis-Young Park, Noah, 6, takes his light blue truck with trailer behind it and runs it down the bleacher seat, making a “vroom!” sound as authentic as he can.
“It even has a hole in it so I can pretend it’s my sled,” Noah says.
Ian, 3, stands a few feet behind his brother, running his monster truck back and forth, making an even louder “zoom!” each time the truck’s wheels hit a bump.
The Murrays were among hundreds of families that attended Friday and Saturday night’s truck and tractor pulls, sponsored by the Louisburg American Legion John P. Hand Post No. 250.
Larry Sewell sits back with a smile on his face and a microphone in his ear as Eugene Rogers of Paola adjusts the gears on his tractor during Friday night’s pull.
The tractor’s nose pulls up, and the motor sputters while increasing amounts of weight bear down on Sewell’s White Mule sled.
“The pullers, they like the feel of that tractor, and I can feel it, too,” said Sewell, who has provided the antique tractor classes in Louisburg with his homemade sled for the past several years. “They’re trying to go, and I’m trying to ‘whoa.’”
Sewell’s job is simple. He rides on a seat positioned above the pan of the sled, monitoring the speed and distance each puller goes.
Larry’s wife, Dianna, sits above the track, talking to him via radio, recording the same information her husband monitors from the sled.
On Friday, the antique tractors were only allowed to go 4 mph, and equalizer, Larry says, so one puller does not have an advantage over another.
Sewell, who lives in Hale, Mo., has been participating in tractor pulls since 1982, and he’s owned his sled since 1986.
“We’re guessing we’ve pulled about a half-million tractors,” he says before the competition begins.
With a starting weight of 2,500 pounds and a box that puts about 55 pounds of weight per inch that it travels, the White Mule stops many in its path.
“That’s my job, to stop them before the end,” he says.
In sharp contrast to the slow and steady pace of the antique tractors, the gas and diesel truck pullers can and do go as quick as possible down the dirt track.
Ryan Bauer of Louisburg is one of the handful of diesel truck pullers who took their chance Friday with the X-Factor sled.
Bauer started pulling about seven years ago, he said, starting with stock gas trucks.
“It was just for fun,” he said.
And as he progressed, he moved into pulling diesel trucks with friends Sean Niebaum and Cody Pueser under the Big Boy Toys LLC name.
Bauer says they pull every weekend between June and October as part of the Flint Hills Pullers Association, and Friday night’s pull in Louisburg was just for fun.
The pullers take their stock trucks and add bigger turbo-chargers, fuel pumps and fuel injectors for better performance, a feat simpler than it may sound.
“You add fuel, you add air, you make power,” Niebaum said.
And though Bauer had no specific distance goal in mind for Friday’s pull, he mostly hoped to entertain the hundreds of fans in attendance.
“Our trucks smoke a lot,” he said. “Our goal is to put on a show for the crowd.”