Long Lost Blog!!!

Well we've been so busy pulling and when home catching up on life's duties that the blog has suffered. I will give the down and dirty quick run down.

Bowling Green was just three days of craziness. We didn't know if we were coming or going most of the time. With the Mod,2WD and the Mini it didn't leave much time for visiting of just looking around. We did well with the Mod for what we were up against, 11th and 7th out of 17. Not too shabby for a state level tractor.

Tarry drove the 2WD for one hook and Rick drove it for the other with Tarry getting 38th and Rick coming in 16th. With 56 and 58 in the class it becomes a numbers game sometimes. We were happy with Rick getting into the pulloff. Tarry keeps saying that she did beat 20 trucks!

Doug had a good pass going with the Mini when the intake broke. Rick and Doug improvised and bolted it back together with the use of a retro plate. Doug had a good pass on Sunday to get into 10th place.

Overall a good weekend but very tiring.

We were home for a day and a half then off to The Great Darke County Fair. They had an excellent event and we had a great pass with SFX to win the class.

The next event was Hicksville, OH with a little bit of a twist. They were filming a segment for Good Morning America with Chris Cumo (sp) driving a SF tractor. They also interviewed Tarry and I so we may make our 15 minutes of fame on or around the 17th of September.

As for the pull, I won, but there has to be an astrix along with the win as the sled broke with three tractors left to run. Tarry made a very nice pass to get 3rd and it was taped by the GMA crew so it could make to cut for the show, pretty cool stuff. We just hope they don't make fun of the " Tractor Pull at Hicksville".

Norwalk to Zanesville

We had a good night in Norwalk,OH with OSTPA, this was an "A" event so the rules were the same as G.N. in the Mod class. Ken Veney showed up I think mostly to do a bit of a shakedown pass before B.G. as he had been working on the Funny Farmall.



We had a good track, a great crowd and 10 mods. We were about the middle of the class and ran right after Ken so we knew if he made a good pass we were shooting for 2nd. Ken did make a good pass although I thought it looked slow. He went 321' and backed out of it, he had 5' to 10' left when he stopped I would guess. We went next, had all of the wts on the front, made a very good pass. Didn't have to use the brakes at all and carried the front just about right. We were happy with 309' for 2nd place. Ron ran The Judge after us and seemed to get a little out of shape which I think cost him a lot of ground. It was threatening with a storm all night so we wanted to get out of the infield as soon as we could.



I'm going to try to post a photo of the Money tree and pot of dirt we will be putting up for auction at the Make-A-Wish auction at B.G.

Still pullin' in N.W. OH.

We were in Painsville,OH tonight to run with the NTPA RN2. We had six tractors in the class with all of us getting out past 315', it was nice to see everyone in the class make a good pass. We pretty much loaded up the front and got after the Hemi's pretty fast as the track was taking the power very quickly. I didn't have to wait for it to hook up at all but I did have to use the left brake pretty hard twice but I don't think it hurt the run very much. We ran a floating finish tonight and I stopped in the 347' area to win the class. Sparky drove his tractor out to 330' for 2ND.

We had a delay getting out of the grounds but wanted to get to the west side of Cleveland tonight so as not to fight the traffic in the morning. We got that done and are looking forward to running in Norwalk tomorrow. This is a class "A" event for OSTPA and we were told that Ken Veney was coming so it could be a humbling experience.

S'no Farmer

A day off then Millersburg,OH.

We got a much needed day at the homestead which gave us a chance to reacquaint ourselves with the dogs and get some laundry done. We needed to get some things in order for the next week on the road and then the big pull in Bowling Green,OH. Thank goodness for the boys keeping things going at home.

We went to N.E. Ohio to run at the fair in Millersburg, this is a tough place to get to if you don't know the area. The track was very different looking dirt, it was almost blue in color and seemed very fine. It seemed to hook OK out at about 100' and the sled didn't seen to be able to get a hold of the dirt but the tractors did. They ran a floating finish for the Mods and I was first hook. We set the sled about center and made a good pass out to 384', that's right 384'. Tarry said she thought I had started to let out of it a little to soon and she may be right. I was watching the flagman as I thought sure he was going to flag me so I may have slowed just a little in anticipation of that. Regardless we got beat by The Judge at 388'. Sparky's Grandson Rob ended up in 3rd at 330' with what was his second ever hook.

We did have some problems with the tractor when we went to warm the engines, the number 5 cylinder was dead and making no heat at all. We shut down the engines and went to work pulling the valve cover to try and find the problem. The intake push rod had broken the cup into about three parts for some reason, it didn't even look like it had gotten hot. We were able to get things back together in time to line up with time to spare and things seemed to run OK.

S'no Famer

Three really great tractor pulls!!!

We have been to three great tractor pulling events in the last three days.

We pick up the action at Mansfeild,OH at an event that we should be an underdog at as it is an "A" event on the OSTPA circuit. This is a very well run event with a good track, food for the drivers and crews.

We ran against the Funny Farmall and The Judge, both set up for a class "A" event and fared very well. Ken had problems with a blower belt and wasn't able to get out the end. The Judge, Don Deane and SFX got into the pulloff. Don went first and had a good pass out to about 290', I was next and had a very good pass out to about 315'. The Judge had some problems with one engine and ran out of bounds. We like to win but it feels better when everyone makes a good pass and things run right. There is no way we should get past Ken Veney but things happen to the best at times.

The next stop was Sandusky,OH. up by the lake. They had a ton of great iron at this event as some of the classes were G.N. classes. Our class was a R.N.2 class. They had a very good crowd as well as a very good track. We made a good pass out to about 327' for the win with Ken Miller at about 303' for second and Don in third at around 290'.

I'm getting tired so this will be short.

Tonight we were in Napoleon,OH. with OSTPA, WOW what a crowd, they love their pulling in this town. What a party, when we left at 11:00 they were still going strong. I wish we had taken some photos of the "condos" as they call them. As for the pulling we had a lot of work to do to the truck and tractor as they both had some issues. we didn't know how bad the problems were with the tractor until we started it to warm it up. The o-ring under the blower was pushed out so the blower had to be taken off to put in a new one. Thank goodness for a good crew and just for the fact that they were there.

We both had a great night. Tarry got out to 300' and was able to hold on to second as The Lucky Strike got past her at 304'. The SFX kept the streak going with another big win with Don in 2nd and The Judge in 3rd.

S'no Farmer

Croton to Coldwater

Croton Mid Season Championships - What a great facility! Great parking, good track, awesome crowd, food provided by fellow competitors what a great scenario. The TWD truck class Tarry made a respectable pass out to 310+. Putting her into the number 5 spot but only 3 feet out of the number 3 spot. Jeff Writzel made another great pass out to 320+ to win the class. We discovered a problem with Hoosier Avalanche that most likely affected the outcome. As we were warming up for our next hook in Coldwater Michigan, we discovered a broken linkage on the butterflies and after watching the video of Croton, we discovered that it broke at about 100' mark which has to have limited her distance.

SFX made a nice pass with the exception of the driver letting the tractor get on the right side where we knew the track was soft, so we will chalk a 2nd place up to "driver error". Derek Barga on the Judge made a very nice pass out past 320 for the win. Despite the fact that I ran on the wrong side of the track, we got out to 306 for 2nd place.

Coldwater... as stated earlier, we discovered a problem with the linkage on the Avalanche hat and had to improvise with zip ties and duct tape. The track was not very good for the TWD trucks which made it difficult to drive particularly without the progressive linkage working. Tarry ended up 7th out of 8. We over powered the track, the front was heavy and we learned a lesson.

The Mod class had 8 tractors and not a very good hole shot but the track was better beyond 100' but was pulling everyone to the right. On my first pass I was on the left brake for a 100' but still managed a good pass out past 310'. Don Deane and Wayne Krider both got past 310' for the pull off, Wayne decided not to come back so it was Don Deane and SFX. In the pull off, SFX pulled hard to the right as I braked it got a bit of a whiplash going with the sled and hurt my distance and got out to 295'. Don made a very nice pass out to 303 for the win. Next up is Mansfield Ohio with the Mod tomorrow.

S'no Farmer

Back out pullin' 8-5-08

Eaton Oh. usually has a good track and this night it was good but not great. We ran both the truck and SFX. SFX was up first and made a good pass to get into the pulloff with Don Deane. Don went first and made a good effort out to about 323' as I went down the track I thought this one was going to Don as I didn't get much ground speed but the last 30' it just kept moving very very slowly for the win at 331'.

Rick drove the truck on this night with a great group of trucks as the Sullivan trucks showed up as well as the home town Petro's. We had to much gear in the truck for such a good track and the engine just didn't get enough RPMs to get down the track like we would have liked. The truck is one wheeling pretty badly at times which doesn't help the effort. Rick ended up in 9th out of 13 trucks. On the brigh side 6 of these trucks are winners at the GN level.

Gallipolis,OH. We hadn't been to this event before and had heard that the track was so so and as it turned out it was. We moved some weight to the back of SFX and ended up with a pretty good pass. It seemed that most of the tractors had some sort of issues as did the sled. We got out the end as well as Ron Barga II on the Judge. Ron didn't come back for the pulloff as he had brake problems.



We took off a day from pulling (missed Wapakoneta,OH) as we needed to do some maintenance on the engines. It was time to change the rods in all three engines on SFX and we didn't have a chance to do it without missing an event. We worked Sat. and Sun. making the changes as well as getting Larry Darbro to cut the tires. We found a few little problems, mostly valve adjusting issues but had enough old parts to get them solved. We finished up SFX about 10 P.M. then started the truck to make sure the clutch was going to work ok as Doug had made some adjustments to it. A big thanks to Rick and Doug as well as Zack Doug's son for all of the help. I couldn't do this without their help.

The internals

A crowded shop

I applied for this job but the executive crew chief said no!

We next went to Urbana,OH to run the RN2 event with both the truck and tractor. The truck was up first. Tarry made a nice pass but the engine didn't get the RPM it needed, Tarry wanted to turn down the pass but I thought we made as good a pass as we could without changing the gear. Tarry ended up 5th behind some great trucks so we are happy with the placing.

SFX had a bit of a bounce at about 100' but settled down and made a good pass with the front about a foot off of the track. I was first hook and kept the hook as I didn't know if I could improve on the pass. As it turned out several tractors bounced, some pretty badly. We ended up in the first spot as we went 319' and Don was at 305'.

Next we are off to Croton to run at the Mid Season Championships with OSTPA. Hopefully I can improve upon last years event as we broke some parts last year.

S'no Farmer

Things have been BUSY!!!

We have been very busy getting up and down the roads of the Midwest. I feel like a glorified truck driver instead of a puller.

After Springfield we headed to the Butler co. fair which is as close to home as we get these days. We had a very good night. I had a great hook with the SFX but close to the end the front engine striped all of the teeth off of the blower belt, a brand new one at that. As it turned out we had broken an intake rocker and that must have let the engine detonate at the end of the run.

We were the only one flagged at the end of the run on what was to be a floating finish. We worked on the tractor to be ready for a pulloff but luckily we didn't have to come back as we would likely have hurt more parts.

We worked on the tractor till midnight getting it fixed so we could head for Tallmadge the next day.

Tarry made a very nice pass with the truck and all seemed to be OK with it so we didn't even have to wrench on it. A loose track but I think Tarry ended up in 4th.

At Tallmadge they had put together a track that I thought would be great for SFX and it was, we made a very nice pass to win the class. The SFX is just working super this year, we made a few changes to the tractor over the winter and it seems to be making a big difference.

Next up was Tiffin,OH a pull that we had heard a lot of good things about and they were all true. This was a very nice event with two tracks. We were both on the grandstand track which was great for the tractor and ok for the truck (a little to soft for the trucks).

Tarry was up first with the truck and made a great pass to join Jeff Writsel (SP) in the pulloff. Jeff was up first and lost a belt at about 200' so all Tarry had to do was make a good effort to get the win. She made another great pas out to 315' for the win.

This was a GREAT track for the SFX. At about 200' it just launched down the track unlike any track I've been on this year. We got out the end with ease and got ready for the pulloff with the Judge as he also got out with ease. Ron II went first and had a very nice pas out to 311'. I put the sled in the same spot as the first pass but it pulled me to the right pretty hard most of the way down the track this time. I still got out to 329' for the win so it was a great double win for our team on this night.

Our next stop was Piketon,OH with the 2DW, we've heard that the track was usually not a great one but on this night it seemed to be pretty good for the trucks. It would have been just ok for the tractors. Tarry made a good hook out to about 309' just behind Tricky Dick with Jeff Writsel making an awesome pass for the only fullpull of the night.

I have been trying to keep up with the maintenance on the engines as best I can but it is hard at times. Rick and Doug have been great about helping me keep things running when something bad happens.

We have missed some events that we've been to in years past as we are running all of OSTPA events this year. I miss some of these events but it's a choice we made and need to follow through with.

Next up is Eaton,OH with both the truck and SFX. Rick will be driving the truck tonight, it should be a good class of trucks tonight and is the home track of the unstoppable Petro trucks so it should be a fun event.

Later,
Todd

The quick down and dirty for tonight

We had a great night for pulling, great wheather, great track and it turned out ok as we didn't break anything that we know about yet.

We had two very good hooks as we got into a pulloff with Ron Barga II driving the Judge. We both had good hooks in the pulloff and Ron got passed me by about 4'. Not bad concidering they brought their "A" game tonight as this was an A event with OSTPA. Tony came in 3rd with the Bionic Buzzard at about 308 in the first round.

S'no Farmer

A new week...

Well we ended last week giving SFX a bit of a check up. We pulled the planetaries to have a look at how they were holding up under the heavy schedule of events. They looked great, I was pleased that they show no wear at this point in the season. I also looked at the ring gear as I put a large plug in the rear so we can get a look without pulling it all of the way apart. It also looked great.

Doug came over and took the clutches apart for an inspection and adjustments. Most of the parts looked good and the adjustments were made. By the time we got done putting everything back together it was to late to start the engines to test the clutches (we didn't want to wake the neighbors) so Travis and I did that in the morning as we were getting loaded up to head for Oak Harbor,OH.

The last two days have had their ups and downs. First we headed for Oak Harbor and as is usual for most traveling these days we had a few detours along the way but we made the trip with time to spare (not much).

The track looked like it was going to be awesome and one that would make the balance choices easy, just put it all on the front and try to keep it between the white lines as you hit the wheelie bars :-).

Well that wasn't to be as the weather was threatening and sure enough it let loose just before starting time. The rain only lasted about 15 minutes but it ruined a great looking track. The track crew did a good job of getting the track back to a useable condition but nowhere close to where it was pre rain.

The first two classes were struggling to get a hold of the track but it did seem to be getting better as the SM4WD trucks were finishing up. Enough so that we were moving some of the weight back to the front that we had taken off.

The first hook (and last) would be the "Bionic Buzzard", Tony had a pretty good hook and as the "Judge" was getting hooked to the sled the skies let loose once more ending any chance of finishing our class. It got so slick so fast that the Barga's couldn't pull the tractor of off the track without the help of the sled pushing. So it ended up being a tractor push instead of a tractor pull!!!

After an hour and a half of wallowing in the mud again we were on our way to the next event in Mt. Vernon, OH with the NTPA RN 2.

We did have a much better day weather wise and got down the track pretty well. I wasn't able to get after the engines right out of the hole but it hooked pretty good at about 100' and started pulling me to the left but I was ready for it to do that as it looked like it was doing that most of the night. I may have over braked to the right a little as I thought that the best track on the big end was to the left but I ended up doing ok. We got out to about 340' with Don Deane at about 337' and Ken Miller was around 317'.

We didn't like the way the top engine was acting at the end of the pass so we may need to check it out some when we get home tomorrow.

We were really looking forward to hooking with the "Funny Farmall" and the "Judge" with their "A" game on board to see where we are, oh well maybe at Springfield,OH on Tuesday.

S'no Farmer

Getting Started...

Just getting started with this web site thing. Our son Tad has put this neat site together and he is teaching us how to keep things up to date.

We just came home after a few weeks on the pulling circuit. Sno Farmer Xtreme had a great start with 7 firsts, 2 seconds and a 2 fifth placings (only ran two motors) had some issues with the back motor twice. The two wheel drive Hoosier Avalanche has been a fun experience for Rick and I taking turns at the wheel. The TWD is very different than the Econo Mod, but pulling is the same. The power is really wild, the noise is deafening, the ride is sweet! I'm sure it will take me awhile to get comfortable with it. My biggest struggle is getting backed up to the sled. The throttle is tricky and the engine makes lots of noise and takes a lot to get the truck moving and if the sled hook person isn't paying attention it takes a few tries to get backed up straight. Once the chain is tight, its a nice straight ride. I'm learning that I need to get into the throttle a little sooner than I have been if I'm going to do any good. Time will tell!

Here is a throw-back to the Econo Mods With Wound For Sound in the RCA Dome

And here is Todd driving S'no Farmer the original which is at a bit slower pace than the current S'no Farmer Xtreme!




Until next time, see ya on the track,
Tarry

Welcome to Feiss Motorsports Blog!

Hello all,

Soon this blog will be filled with comments from Tarry and Todd about their current schedule, how events went, how they placed in events, where they plan on pulling next, and hopefully photos of events and places they travel to. I'm going to post a few test pics and hopefully they will follow suit and keep us all informed of their progress around the Midwest.

Here is a photo of Todd on S'no Farmer Xtreme at the Louisville Farm Machinery Show Feb. 14 2007

Here is Tarry pulling Hoosier Avalanche, in Burlington KY May 31 2008 (graphics added electronically)

Hopefully this is just a teaser of what will be appearing in the future. Thanks for checking out Feiss Motorsports and the Feiss Motorsports Blog!

Tad