Badger State Tractor Pullers 2016 Season Recap and Points champions crowned Saturday Dec 5th!
We celebrated the 2016 Badger State Tractor Pullers Season December 3rd at the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. The rules meeting began at 12 with a general meeting, followed by class break outs. We then gather as a group again, each class reports to the board with the changes they decided as a class they want for 2017. The board then votes upon these changes. The biggest news from the rules meeting was the Light Limited Super Stock class allowing alcohol tractors to compete with the diesels in 2017. As everyone knows the Badger State LLSS class is one of the last classes in the country to allow both, and everyone is excited. This gives the Badger State Pullers an alcohol tractor for the first time. Promoters and spectators will be given a new treat with the addition of the alcohol tractors to the LLSS class.
Since we outgrew last year’s banquet hall, we packed the larger room of over 400 people in attendance. First, we heard from Jimmy Luedtke’s daughters who gave us an upbeat update on his health. Luedtke sleds will run as normal in 2017 with Pat Hack running the white sled until Jim is back in the saddle and he plans to be at the first BSTP pull.
Our 2016 Hall of Fame Inductees were Ed and Rita Larsen, Larry and Lorri Wolff and Gordy Kasper.
We presented the American Family Children hospital with a check for over $32,000. Every year the pull in Prairie Du Sac, WI all the pullers pull for no purse and the money is donated. As well as raffle money, Calcutta and other fund raisers at the event each year.
The points champions and the pullers split a 2016 points fund of $80,000. 11 points champions were crowned they included:
640 Pro Farm Tractors Nick Cunningham &Jerry Sacia Industrial Strength
Limited Pro Stock Diesel Trucks Jamie Larse Blue Smoothie Express
466 Hot Farm Tractors Lee Ruf Fair Warning
Pro Mod Semi Ryan DeBroux Playin’ With Fire
Super Farm Jim & Brian Barman Hooked Up
Two Wheel Drive Modified Trucks Tim Deppe Fast Freight
540 Light Pro Stock Tractors Doug & Collin Birkholz IH 1456 Pulling Team
Light Limited Super Stock Tractors Larry & Mark Hawthorn
Pro Stock Diesel Trucks Jared Ripp Farmer’s Nightmare
4.1 Limited Pro Stock Tractors Jason Schultz & Brent Gaffney
Pro Stock Tractors Don, Tim & Jared Brinkmeier Fuelish Pleasure
Other awards handed as voted on by the pullers included:
Dan Hannes Super Farm Sportsman Award—Brian Barman
Sled of the Year—John Petersen Iron Horse
Promoter of the Year—Greg Elsing
Driver of the Year—Brent Gaffney
Rookie of the Year—Collin Birkholz
Pull of Year—Green County Fall Nationals, Monroe, WI
Wally Wiese Sportsman Award—Adam Adrian
Hard Luck Award—Gerlach Family
Everyone had a great time rounding out the evening to live music and plenty of pulling stories, as well as talking about 2017.
We are proud of our online presence as BSTP continues to push for more exposure for the sport of truck and tractor pulling, here are some of the stats from 2016:
June 1st to Sept 30th our website had 202,431 hits
Our Facebook page had 14 million total impression with 2.1 million video views.
Good Luck to all the pullers during the off season as they prepare for any winter indoor pulling and for 2017 we are looking to add 4 to 5 new pulls to our current schedule.