Gray smoke blasts from the exhaust pipes and then disappears as the clutch of the tractor is engaged and the vehicle surges forward. Roaring down the dirt course, “Double Vision,” a modified Allis-Chalmers struggles to pull the enormous yellow and black sled behind, oversized back wheels digging into the soil and front ones bumping on and off lightly. Thousands of spectators cheer wildly as the bright orange tractor finally slows to an abrupt stop at the end of the track.
“Three hundred feet – a full pull for Gary Witty!” the PA announcer yells over the roar of the diesel engine. “Give Gary a big hand!”
It’s just another exciting night at a summer tractor pull for Gary and, most likely, another winning run. But he’s not alone in his endeavors. A row crop farmer and longtime member of Rutherford Farmers Cooperative, Gary and his wife, Darlene, have made tractor pulling a family affair. Their two daughters, Megan and Heather, grew up helping their dad with tractor pulls across Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama.
“Our girls loved it,” says Gary, who started seriously competing in the motorsport in 2000. “Now, our sons-in-law are involved, as well.”
Nathan Brown, Heather’s husband, shares driving duties at the competitions, and Brent Hollis, Megan’s husband, helps with the mechanics of getting the tractors ready for competition.
As a third-generation farmer in Morrison, Gary grew up attending tractor pulls, and says the sport was extremely popular in the 1970s.
“The goal of tractor pulling is to determine the strongest machine and the best driver,” says Gary. “I have always enjoyed the challenge of mechanical work, and tractor pulling allows me to combine my mechanical knowledge and love of the sport.”
A typical tractor pulling involves modified farm tractors dragging a metal sled along a dirt course. The sled contains a box filled with weight that is mechanically pushed forward as the sled progresses along. As the tractor pulls the heavy load, eventually the vehicle will lose forward momentum and torque, but if the tractors make the end of the course, it’s known as a “full pull.” The tractor that pulls the sled the farthest distance is declared the winner.
The tractor-pulling season encompasses almost every weekend in June, July, and August. The Wittys compete across the Southeast at a variety of pulls, including county fairs and fundraisers for organizations such as local fire departments. The family plans to compete in the Middle Tennessee District Fair Truck and Tractor Pull Oct. 1 in Lawrenceburg, and the Woodbury FFA Championship Truck and Tractor Pull on Sept. 17.
Gary serves as a volunteer with the Woodbury pull, helping to get the tractors onto the track for the competition. Attending the pull in Woodbury was one of Gary’s favorite summer memories as a child, and he attributes his love of the sport to the Woodbury event.
“One of the most enjoyable things about tractor pulling is the people that we have met over the years,” says Gary, who row crops 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans in Cannon, Warren, and Coffee counties and frequently shops at the Woodbury location. “We have so many friends in the sport, and even though we are competing against each other, I know that if I needed them for any reason, they would be there.”
Gary says he’s excited to share his love of tractors with his four grandchildren and hopes that they will catch the “tractor-pulling bug.” He bought an Allis-Chalmers tractor to pull grain and load the trucks for his row crop operation, and now his six-year-old grandson, Witton, claims the tractor as his own.
“I guess I’ll have to do the same thing for my other grandchildren,” Gary says with a laugh. “It was in rough shape, and I started working on restoring it through the winter. Witton would hang around in the shop as I was tinkering on it. I finally surprised him one day and told him it was his.
“Maybe the Witty tractor-pulling legacy will continue!” he adds with a smile.