A UNIQUE rural sporting event will swell the population of Quambatook by thousands on Saturday.
Tractors that barely resemble the Mallee farm workhorse will compete on a track on the town’s outskirts during the afternoon and evening.
A willing band of enthusiasts have been staging the event for the past four decades.
A part of the nostalgia of this milestone event will be the return of a restored Quamby Quaker, a competition tractor built over a three-week period in 1976 by tractor pull founder, John Parker.
The late Mr Parker, a prominent business owner and shire councillor, discovered tractor pulling during a visit to America and on his return enticed the local people to organise an event that has evolved into the Australian Tractor Pull Championship on the Saturday of Easter every year.
Since then, the tractor pulling complex has been developed and tractors ranging from large “beasts”, some with more than one eight-cylinder engine, to mini modifieds. There is also a section for trucks.Tractor pulling requires modified tractors to pull a heavy sled along a track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the sled the farthest.
“The event has developed over the past years into a highly competitive and technical sport, where the difference between first and last place may be as small as one or two metres,” tractor pull historian, Trevor Bennett said.
“At the first pull we had about 2000 spectators and today we have more than 5000 on the hills each year, travelling from almost every State and territory in the country.
“They return because of the sights, sounds, action and the smell of diesel fuel.”
The 40th anniversary event will commence at 1.30pm with vintage tractors. The two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive farm tractors will also compete for the championship.
