TodayTruckers face off in tug of war at fairgrounds
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Sam Pomonio smokes his tires tires in the Tug-O-War at the All-Truck Nationals at Carlisle Fairgrounds on Saturday. (Curt Werner/Special to The Sentinel)
As fans funneled into the grandstands and Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” blared from the stage, concrete abutments with Plexiglas shields were positioned to protected the crowd from the display they were about to witness Saturday: two trucks, clamped together in a match of brute force and horsepower.
Hundreds of additional would-be viewers lined a blue barrel barrier set perpendicular to the grandstand, refusing to budge even when told they were in the direct line of any truck that might go out of control.
Leering and leaning, they waited for the show as security lined the barrier and the trucks rumbled onto the field, motors drowning out the hard rock music.
Last-minute safety checks were performed on the competing trucks, and then it was time to get it on at the Carlisle All Truck Nationals’ first-ever Tug-0-War.
Two mud-encrusted mechanical behemoths squared off, linked together by a metal 4x4 made by Carlisle’s Liberator Performance.
The countdown
The master of ceremonies counted down from three, the signal was given and with a short but violent burst Robert Swank’s ‘77 Ford “Chevy Eater” jerked a ‘79 Ford Bronco off the ground and into the air with one swift pull.
Theron Simmons and Zack Richwine, two young boys from Carlisle, said the show was “cool” as maintenance personnel scraped the melted and still-smoking rubber remains of tires off the concrete battleground.
Trucks competed in gasoline and diesel categories. As the diesel trucks took the field, clouds of thick black and white smoke filled the air, wafting up toward the stage behind them.
Sam Pampino of Jackson, N.J. drove a ‘57 B75 Mack truck onto the Tug-O-War field. The crowd erupted in applause when the Mack pulled a Ford F250 past the line of no return as tires burnt and the trucks slid back and forth on the asphalt.
Again and again, the surface had to be scraped clean of the remains of destroyed tires, some flaming. A flame retardant traction control powder was poured and brushed onto the surface and water was sprayed into barrels filling with smouldering rubber.
Justin Ubel of Pen Argyl had a front and center view from the stage above the truck battles. He said the event was “good times.”
Rick Leitz, a spectator behind the barrel barrier, agreed with the sentiment.
“I love it,” Leitz said of the truck Tug-O-War, while attempting to get closer to the action.
In the gasoline truck finale, Swank left his ‘77 Ford in two-wheel drive for roughly 30 seconds against a Chevrolet Suburban 1500 as the two machines hissed and roared, inching forward and backward, before Swank kicked it into four-wheel drive and ended the stalemate with one swift compression of the gas peddle.
As the winner in the gasoline class trucks, Swank won a green filter air intake system. The winner of the diesel class truck competition received a $500 gift certificate from Liberator Performance.
Meanwhile behind the stage, a red monster truck outfitted to carry passengers and packed to capacity rolled over what was left of crushed cars on the track.
