Super Stock competitor Lyle Hull has passed away

From NTPA:

WPI/NTPA is saddened to learn of the passing of Lyle Hull, 75, of Waupun, Wisconsin. Mr. Hull was the owner and driver of several Minneapolis-Moline Super Stocks from the mid-1970s onward and was the father of competitor Aaron Hull.

The elder Mr. Hull's earliest appearance in the national records came in the 1976 season in 5,000 Super Stock with a M-M 5-Star. Dubbed "Northern Star," the tractor was the class' winner in Tomah in 1978 and finished third that year in the Grand National standings. Through 1985, Mr. Hull and his prairie gold machine were regulars in the lightweight Supers' top 10.

In 1986, Mr. Hull built his first methanol-fueled, 800-cubic inch G1000 Vista for pulling at the heavier end of the Super Stock spectrum. That tractor, which remained unnamed, qualified for a Tomah pull-off and finished fourth in its very first outing. It then won four times on the 1987 GN circuit (including twice, appropriately enough, at the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis) and earned a runner-up finish to Danny Dean in the 11,200 and the national Super Stock Puller of the Year Award. Mr. Hull and his teammate Craig Peterson also finished fifth in the 9,500 and second in the 7,500 to Bill Berg. All of that came in a season within which Mr. Hull fell seriously ill and was hospitalized after emergency surgery in Tomah.

From 1988 to 1993, Mr. Hull won GN events in Canfield and Fort Recovery, Ohio; Hamburg, New York; and Scribner, Nebraska en route to high finishes at the 7,500, 9,500, and combined weight breaks. He took a break from pulling between 1994 and 1999 while son Aaron carried on into the modern component-chassis era.

The Hulls returned to NTPA competition together in 2000 to place sixth in the 8,000-lb. Super Stock Open class and have since pulled occasionally with NTPA in Tomah and in Bowling Green, Ohio in addition to the American Tractor Pullers Association and Pro Pulling League. Occasionally, in the intervening decades, the yellow shields of the Hulls' big Minnie would tout the Prison City Pull-Off, an early summer event in the hometown they share with Wisconsin's maximum security penitentiary.

With Aaron, Mr. Hull owned and operated Lyle Hull & Son Equipment of Waupun, a construction and farm implement dealership.

Our deepest sympathies are with Aaron, John, Justin, and the entire Hull family on the occasion of their loss. 

From PPL:

Charlestown, IN (May 3rd, 2021) – Sunday, May 2nd, 2021 the world of tractor pulling lost an icon the Super Stock class, Lyle Hull of Waupun, Wisconsin. Hull’s career in Super Stock competition spanned across six decades pulling on the state and national level, a trailblazer carrying the banner for alcohol-fueled Minneapolis-Molines for the entirety of his career.

Lyle began his career in the late Seventies wheeling a lightweight Super Stock Minneapolis-Moline 5-Star named “Northern Star.” In the mid-Eighties he switched to a G1000 Minneapolis-Moline for Heavy Super Stock competition, running that tractor until the late Nineties. 

After a decade-plus hiatus Hull returned to the seat of his family’s component G1000 for competition on the Champions Tour in Unlimited Super Stock. From 2014 to 2019 Lyle finished in the top ten in the points standings in Unlimited Super with a third place in points in 2016. 2016 would also find Hull recording his first Champions Tour win at Saluda, South Carolina; his other win in the class came in 2017 at Hamburg, New York.

The Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League family offers their sincerest condolences to the Hull family in their time of loss; at press time funeral arrangements have not been made.