The first Euro Cup event of the 2007 season sure was one to not be forgotten too soon.
Still excellent weather in northern Europe and a hell of a track in Herning. A combination we rarely had up there before.
It all started with the 4 t B-Division, but a too tough sled and track sorta spoiled the show a little. For the B-Division Pullers it was one of those days, when you have to use gears in your transmission that you forgot you still had! A pretty impressive show was put on by the "Red Rooster", powered by a naturally aspirated, V12 russian tank diesel engine. Tourque and smoke was not the problem there and a third place the final result, behind Bison and Hingsten, both powered by smaller, but turbocharged semi engines.
The 4 ton Farm Stock class (510 cui, 3200 rpms) was won by a Ursus tractor, the Hercules, in front of the Ford Powerstar and another Ursus, the Orange Fighter 2. My friends of the Vestager family with their 966 IH were not too happy about their 4th position, being beat by "east block and assambly line shit", as Niels Ole refers to those two winning brands...
The 4.5t mod competition for the danish point series was won by the Starfighter, but they had to pay their win with some planetary problems. The tough track took it's toll!
The danish mini rod competition had a clear winner, the blown Rover Meteor powered Interceptor, ahead of the N/A Meteor Ghost and the blown KB powered Wild Toy. The Lambada 6 was also in the competition, running on Cepecs again and doing very well, but the team skipped the Pull Off. Important pulls for the dutch points are closely ahead!
After a little break the first Euro Cup points competition was started and the Super Stocks entered the track. Unfortunatly the track crew got a little too much water onto the track and it turned out to become a little slippery. This a) screwed up some runs (D'n Aerdvruter the worst) and b) with the track getting better again during the class, the sled setting for the Pull Off was a little bit too light. For luck the new german sled Red Shadow SE allows for quick and smooth runs so the final distances of over 110 m (360 ft) weren't as bad as they could have been with a more material killing sled.
Anyhow, David Jones could celebrate his first Euro Cup win ahead of Willem Veldhuizen and Peter Clarke. Geoff Ashcroft fried the engine of the Red Alert, but as Peter Clarke told me before the class: "If this engine dies today, it doesn't owe us a single Penny - it's been rebuild a couple of times and the last time we've fixed the main bore with a hone brush...." So I guess the brits were happy.
Good performance of Sjors Zeinsta on the "Zeinstra well done Deere", formerly known as the "Flip flop Bits'n Pieces", coming in 5th ahead of Judgement Deere and the Berner Bits'n Pieces of Edwin Derkesen, who had to skip the Pull Off because of a broken turbocharger. I should not forget to mention the new hood on the danish Hobo Alky SS:
Red but a rare site on the pulling tracks around the planet. Unfortunatly something under the hood let go and stopped the all homemade machine rather early.
Final class of the day were the 4.5t modifieds and with 11 competitors with all over 6000 hp it sure was a tough competition.
The track by now had recovered completely and after Bert Wuytak made a way light pass, the sled was reset a little tougher. Still 7 went out the gate but it sure wasn't easy to make the Full Pull!
After a hard week of work, fixing three Allison engines after Füchtorf, the Claas team was very happy after laying down the first distance in the Pull Off with a perfect run and nobody being able to pass it. Peter de Regt also had a picture perfect run with the Green Spirit and just came less than half a meter short to become runner up. Willem Dingerink senior had some troubles keeping the Lambada on a straight run and had to back off to not run out of bounds, which probably cost him the victory. Even more bad luck for the Simply Irresistible: Butterfly trouble and not able to get the 5 V8 machine into
gear, after a MONSTER run in the qualification. I can tell you - the fight for the European 4.5t crown will be a tough one this year!
What else: Baby Duck had it's crossbox broken.
Fox ran well and the danish boys sure need to be considered as a top team again after their performances at Füchtorf and Herning
The next day started with pulling for the danish championships again, 3.5t Farm Stock. A new class in Denmark with only 3 competitors so far. According to the sled people those guys better not travel too far south yet, if they don't want to get their butts whipped in the rpm limited classes. Well.. everybody needs to start somewhere and we should give them time!
The next class on the schedule again promised top notch competition: For the very first time the 2.5t modified class (that's 5500 lbs for our US readers) is part of the Euro Cup series and WOW what an interest there is from teams and
spectators alike. But it makes sense: The class is affordable (so far), horsepower is not neccesarly the key to winning and there is A LOT of variety in the class. There was two radial powered tractors in the competition and there is even more of those tourque monsters to come.
After the qualifiaction runs, it was the "old gang" making the finals though. The top german and danish teams along with the two Griffon powered tractors Little Giant and another single engine creation of the Green Spirit team, the number 8 by now. And what a finish in the end!
Daniel Frische on the Green Monster set the distance to beat at 94.61m with the single Allison. Not quite satisfied with the tire pressure (still experimenting with HP tires in this light class) and a spun rod bearing this was all the german could manage that day. The next one out also had some tire pressure problems, keeping him away from going full throttle at the start and making the Griffon hit the rev limiter a couple of
times once the big butterfly was open down the track: Frank Bartholomé and his Le Coiffeur. Still him and his crew were all smiles as the tractor had not perfomed any good since the middle of the last season, when his MSD 8 ignition turned into smoke and replacing it with Magnetos took quite a while, as they exchanged a good supercharger clutch with a worn out one (that looked nice from the outside) in the process of getting the bugs out of the engine (just putting more in).
Bad luck for the Little Giant Team: What looked like a good run was stopped by something going broke in the driveline. The fact Poul Ager Jensen on Black
Power made it out the end again was no surprise for anybody. That machine has power, balance and a guy on top who really knows how to drive this thing.
But the distance to the runner up is getting closer and Jeffery Constanie (sp?) sure laid down a brilliant pass with the Green Spirit 8 to runner up distance.
The last pull of the danish Fighting Star radial was also quite impressive and the 5th place finish well deserved for this "different" tractor. Bad luck for Peder and Sören Jacobsen: Their single Griffon "Voldsom Volvo" destroyed it's drop box
on the line when Sören was aiming for a good result in the Pull Off.
I think we'll get to see some VERY good competition in this class in the next few years. Let's just hope money doesn't spoil it too soon, now that it's an Euro Cup class.
One class that, in my opinion, has seen a little bit too much money involved in too short time is the 3.5t Pro Stock class, that followed after the light mods. These guys have been investing like there is no tomorrow. The result of this competition wasn't too surprising: There is the three Valtras of the Herlevi Family that are always tough to
beat and leader of the pack and then three others that can compete with them: Rocky, John Deere and Bukke Bruse. Bukke Bruse couldn't come back in the Pull Off so the other five had to determin a winner, which this time was Matti Herelvi, going just a little further than his sister Johanna, who was runner up. The danish John Deere with Michael Galsgard behind the wheel came pretty close and put more than 7m on Barend Huybrechts on the Rocky, who, from my point of view had the power but hit the wrong trail in the track to make the podium. Pekka Herlavi also was no match for his kids and came
in fifth.
Since my friends, the Faber Family, still had an 9 hour drive ahead of them and I came with them, we decided to leave Herning before the last 3.5t mod competition. I don't want to report about things I didn't see - so I herewith end this little summary.
Sascha
Attention Hot Farm pullers!
The international competition will be held in the 3,5t, 4,5t and 5,5t classes, and tractors that want to compete have to follow the rules of either NTTO (Super Sport), DTP (Farm Stock) or DTTO (Sportklasse). In short - 2750 rpms (except for DTP machines with lower cui), wheely bars, Turbo shielding, exhaust cross, kill switch, 3,5t at 7000ccm, 4,5t 9000ccm and 5,5t at open ccm - max. 1 Turbo.
