OK, lets see if I can get this down without being thrown off the boards.
Friday night, indoor ATPA Winter Nationals, 3 day truck and tractor pull. At Fort Wayne, Indiana. 3rd year running.
The ATPA asked Scheids and Mitchells to bring their trucks for a exhibition pull, as they would like to run a smoker truck class in the future. Scheids also contacted Van Haisly, and they had Ed West bring his truck.
All three of the trucks had to build extended single smoke stacks so they could hook up to the smoke sucker. All three trucks had very different stacks, and each built them different.
They were told they were going run at the end of the night.
OK fine, so far.
Keep in mind, an "exhibition" pull is to show people. Well, the place was only half full Friday night, and after the smoker tractors left, there was maybe 100-150 people left. ( I assume all Scheid/Mitchell fans)
Why did I assume that?
Because they did not announce these trucks were going to pull until about 11:00pm!!! The announcer, said "We was jes told now about this. "
Nice.
So, they unhooked the smoke sucker pipe, from the sled, ran some gassers, and at like 1:00 am decide to pull the trucks. AFTER one more smoker tractor got a test pull in.
Oh shucks, the smoke pipe is unhooked, and those boys went home already.
It won''t hurt to run a smoker tractor and three trucks with out the pipe.
:--)
But, they left the 90elbow on, so the smoke BLEW RIGHT INTO THE STANDS.
Then the fire alarm went off.
Way to go, fellas.
Guess what?
No more smoke tonight. No trucks. GRRRRRR.
You guys can run both sessions tomorrow.
Nope, changed our mind, you can run last Saturday night.
So, after watching the slowest, disorganized 7 hours of pulling in my life, (the organization of the two wheel drives were atrocious, that is an entire page in itself)
They bring out Kent. This is about 2:00 am. Maybe 300 people left.
Kent winds her up, it makes scary noises, and he shuts her down, in just a few feet. .
Damn.
The crowd laughs, thinks this is funny.
Dave comes out, backs up, and the smoke shoot is not quite right, and they won't let him pull, because of the Fire Marshall's warning from last night. Dave does not even get to start his truck.
The crowd yells,"LET HIM PULL!"
(you would not believe the grumbling in the stands about this pull)
ATPA doesn't care. They pull Dave off. But not before, the officials and the sled operator let Dave and his pit crew know very clearly that THEY don't HAVE TIME for this kind of crap.
Arrogant JERKS.
Like a few hundred people had time watch their mess of a show for the past days at $25 a SESSION, waiting to see these trucks pull.
Now Ed West is coming up. Ed can't get his charger lit, and gets towed back in. The crowd REALLY thinks this is funny, three hot shots, and none of them did anything.
This is not unusual though, after watching a few hundred pulls, I would guess dang near 50% of every class, broke, exploded, or crashed. And that is their pros, guys that do this all the time, the big money boys.
If they could have hooked Friday, we could have fixed Daves pipe for Saturday, and Ed could have tried something else, to get his charger lit.
A lot of people spent money on hotels and fuel and tickets to try and put on a show with their trucks, (they were not being paid to pull) and they were treated with disrespect, to say the least.
I think the ATPA owes an apology for their rude behavior towards Mitchells, and to the fans for a mis-organized, overpriced pull.
And another thing, I think you better work on the ventilation system, that was the worst indoor pull I had been to as far as fumes went.
Thumbs up to the track tenders, they were on the ball. Fast and efficient. The whole shows saving grace, perhaps.
I don't know if Dave stayed to pull today or not. I hope he didn't.
Questions or comments?
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Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Last year I only made it to Muncie and Schied's. I was hoping to get to a couple more this year, but I am going to be working in Cincinatti, and I haven't had time to check up on everything that is going on. 
