Tractors, grunt and strength
DENNIS Nolly with his trophy from the pre-85 class weight transfer tractor pull at Fieldays.
Dennis Nolly knows how to pull his weight. He was crowned champion in the pre-85 class weight transfer tractor pull in the national finals held at Fieldays in Hamilton.
Dennis was runner-up the past two years, coming close to first last year, but says he was ``stoked'' at being named number one.
``I hoped I was going to do it. I have won in Taranaki (competing at the A&P Show in Hawera), but this is my first (Fieldays) win.''
He pulled 95 to 96 metres on average, but with the last pull, achieved 101.5 metres. All tractors are competing for the elusive full-pull of 100m.
``As you go, it (the load pulled) gathers more weight and it's harder to pull. It (this event) is not about speed, but about distance.''
The finishing touches to his baby, a Case 24/70 1976 model with 175 horse power PTO, were completed just in time to transport the tractor to Hamilton, having been fitted with four ``monster'' tyres and custom rims.
He bought the tractor 18 months ago, bringing it from Canterbury where it was mainly used on wheat fields. He also used it at Fieldays last year.
He says it is about having the tractor with the most grunt, but adds that a lot of skill is also involved.
He says he did not have much opportunity to train, the Hawera show having been his pulling event.
He lives on a 0.4-hectare lifestyle section outside Eltham, where he houses 101/212 tractors - 1000 horsepower altogether - in two sheds. He joined the Taranaki Vintage Machinery Club three years ago where he was enticed into participating in tractor pulling in Hawera.
``Once I did it, I was hooked.''
He was born and raised on a dairy farm, but says he did not like milking, but loved driving tractors. He works at Fonterra in Eltham, saying tractors are a hobby only. He regularly takes his ``toys'', as he refers to them, out for parades and for road trips with his club mates.
His first acquisition was a Fordson Power Major. The oldest evidence in his shed of his passion for the machine is an R Hornsby & Son, which this year is 100 years old. He says ``this is it'', he is not adding more sheds.-->