Truck and tractor pull to benefit youth fair scheduled for June 19

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

Saturday the Vernon County Centennial Fairgrounds arena will resound with the thunder of engines stressed to their limits as the Spring River Pulling Association, Springfield, will help host a truck and tractor pull starting at 7 p.m. The annual event, which helps fund the Vernon County Youth Fair, has been around for five or six years, depending on who you talk to. John Shorten and Kevin Baldwin are co-chairmen of the event. Shorten says it has been six years while Baldwin thinks it has been five.

However long it has been, it has provided a lot of fun to spectators and participants alike and has provided funds to the youth fair year after year. Baldwin said the noisier and flashier the entrant the better the crowds like it.

"People really like the pulling pickups, the big thing now is the diesel pickups," Baldwin said. "There's getting to be quite a bunch of the diesel pickups that follow this thing and they put on a pretty good show. That's usually what gets most of the crowd, everyone likes to hear the loud trucks and see the black smoke. That's what seems to draw the crowd in."

Those crowds have provided a dose of extra money to help make the youth fair a success. Last year the event raised $5,000.

"Last year we made right at $5,000," Baldwin said. "That's pretty good for a one-night event. That's after paying the sled and all of that and the payout money, we pay out on first and second. We only pay out on the first two. It makes for a pretty good income for them."

Once all the pulling is over there's still some work to do, getting the arena back in shape for the youth fair.

"We cut the track and all that and once it's over with and everybody's gone we go back in and put the rodeo arena back and all of that so the youth fair board members don't have to do anything," Baldwin said. "We've got it down to where for the most part all they have to do is collect money at the gate and run the concession stand."

In addition to the trucks and big tractors the Krankin' Chain Yankers, a local Nevada group, will put on a garden tractor pull.

For information about the truck and tractor pull, call John Shorten, (417) 944-2135, evenings or (417) 448-7105; or Kevin Baldwin at (417) 825-0875. For information on the garden tractor pull, contact Marty Tourtillott, (417) 667-1549.耀