Vol. 10 No. 29
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2014
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Adrenaline, exhaust and a full pull in Blackstock WOWND UP: The 36th annual Blackstock Tuck and Tractor Pull took place over the weekend of July 5 and 6, attracting over 100 pullers from far -and-wide to Blackstock. BENJAMIN PRIEBE The Standard
BENJAMIN PRIEBE The Standard
NORTH DURHAM: The Blackstock Truck and Tractor Pull, now in its 36th year, has been an exciting kick off to the summer and a staple for local farmers, gear heads, and residents of all ages since its inception. This past weekend (July 5 and 6) the pull attracted over 100 pullers from Ontario and as far as Quebec and New York State. Earle Trewin, who owns and operates Trewin Farm Equipment alongside his brother Lloyd and mechanic Dale McClurg, has been hooked on the sport since 1978. It began an a fateful day at the Millbrook fairgrounds, Earle’s customer and friend Neil Brown entered Earle in the pull without his prior knowledge. “I had no idea what I was doing, but I said yes and climbed up onto the tractor,” says Earle, smiling fondly. “Next thing I knew, I was down the track and forty-feet past everyone else - someone had to chase me down to give me a trophy, I didn’t even know I had won.”
Earle has pulled down numerous tracks in Ontario over 1,150 times since then, leaving a familiar black smoke behind him the whole way. “First, we get the engine hot and screaming, to get the turbo charger ready to go,” explains Earle, “Once you push the throttle and slip that clutch, it’s pure adrenaline - the grey smoke turns black, and the next fifteen seconds feel like a lifetime.” Earle’s pride, joy and main workhorse is a 1966 AllisChalmers D21 named ‘Killer Allis’ - which many fans of the sport still recognize from their childhood, and bring their children to watch. Earle has built three pro-stock tractors over the years. The A-C D21 tractor he calls Killer Allis was originally sold by his father in 1966 to Joel Aldred on Scugog Island. Joel traded the tractor back into them in 1987 and Earle decided to build it into a heavy pro-stock tractor. Using specialized parts and the collective expertise of his family and friends, Earle turned the fuel sipping farm
machine into a high performance five-ton beast. Starting with a meager 125 horsepower, Earle has assembled a high pressure water injection system and managed to eek over 1,000 horsepower from the motor. “She used to sip 68 cubic centimetres of fuel per 1,000 piston strokes,” says Earle. “Once we got done with it, she would gulp down almost a litre of fuel per 1,000 strokes something like a gallon per 250-foot-pull.” Earle has always had a strong talent for working with his hands, and all things mechanical - he began welding at age thirteen, and it remains one of his favourite activities in the shop at Trewin Farm Equipment. “There’s a lot of work that all pullers put into their tractors,” explains Earle. “Beefed-up and heat treated engine parts, custom built transmissions, in-line fuel pumps and ballistic blankets around the clutch.” These are just some of the many specialized parts which can multiply an engine’s horsepower output, and keep it from exploding in the process.
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