For example, while the group had built what they thought was the “perfect” track, they had no way of knowing how it would perform. And it seemed like it was going to work.īeing a first time ever event also meant much of the planning and facilities had not been tested.
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What would the weather be like? Would the big machines show up? What would central Florida spectators think? How were they going to pay the bills?īut then, on that cool, clear February morning, when the NTPA drivers began flowing into Eustis with machines that the local spectators had never even imagined, confidence began to grow.
The group worked feverishly to get sponsors, recruit pullers, prepare the track and facilities, sell tickets and any number of other details. There were a lot of anxious days and weeks leading up to the February pull. The group met with Ed Hart, executive director of the National Tractor Pullers Association (NTPA) and came up with a plan to include the Sunshine State Tractor Pull in Eustis, FL for the 1971 NTPA winter tour. “It was so loud it was blowing ceiling tiles loose and they were floating down onto the crowd. “I’ll never forget that first really big diesel headed down the track,” Bainter recalled.
An indoor tractor pull, it also offered a few other unique experiences. It featured stock farm tractors and super modified’s. The Macon Tractor pull was quite a spectacle for the group. Buck served on the Board of Directors of the local Bank. But, Buck brought something else that was very, very important to the effort. Igou, Inc., a farm and home store that also served as the area’s Allis-Chalmers dealership. As importantly, Charlie was the President of the local fair association, giving the group a well known and ready made site for putting on the event. Charlie owned a local trucking company and eventually would open Fort Mason Tractor company, an Oliver (and later White) dealership. More importantly, Stan had experience organizing several events in the community and knew at least some of what it would take, and who it would take, to make it work.įrank, Gene and Stan first went to Charlie Norris. Stan was certainly a tractor enthusiast having restored several antique tractors of his own. Having moved to the area in 1959 from Pennsylvania, Frank and Gene already knew tractor pulling and were enthusiastically recruiting the other three to help bring pulling to Florida…for the first time ever.įrank and Gene first spoke about the idea to Stan Bainter, then the agency manager for Lake County Farm Bureau. For 3 of the 5, it would be the first time they had ever seen a competitive tractor pull.įrank Paulhamus and his brother Gene farmed about a section of land north of Eustis. A History of Sunshine State Tractor PullingĪlmost 40 years ago, five men from Eustis, Florida, each involved in agriculture and each tractor enthusiasts, piled into a late 60’s model Oldsmobile and headed to Macon, Georgia.
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