Red is Not Dead! IH Pro Stocks Show Prowess at Farm Show.
Red is Not Dead! IH Pro Stocks Show Prowess at Farm Show.
I am not going to state anything revolutionary, shocking, or reinventive in the opening statements of this article. John Deere holds a death-grip ownership of the 10,000 pound Pro Stock class in the world of truck and tractor pulling. At any given pull you will see a multitude of plain-clothes style graphic-less green and yellow current generation John Deeres. Powered by the astounding big block John Deere. Some tracking lineages to Boyds, and other legendary drivers. More than one likely having made a pit-stop or layover in a small town in eastern Iowa at one point. They are massive. They are powerful. They are dominant. Branching away from the Loud and Heavys or the Injected Funds style Deeres and perhaps moving to some with older sheet metal, or longer times in trailers, we still find vehicles such as the MAC Daddy and Nasty, or the nearly unbeatable tractors from Grandview, Indiana with the River Rat and Tinker Toy. Don’t leave the Lemke family out either. My point is simple, and has been made. John Deere dominates, neigh, owns the Pro Stock class. Green is mean, and there is no room for any color in between.
Or is there?
Red was dead. That was the belief in this class. The big block Deere was frankly so naturally compatible with the cubic inch range. John Deeres have always shown an affection for a single turbo-charger setup, as opposed to a multi-stage one. It was starting to look like the only International guys we were going to see pulling big pro stock were the die-hards who simply bled red for the sake of loyalty. A novelty. An enjoyable dash of color in a class that otherwise looked borderline homogeneous. Amazing. Probably the best tractor class. But very monochromatic.
Or was it?
The Saturday night finals session at the 2025 edition of the National Farm Machinery Show took place amidst the chaos of a deluge of rain, and an aggressive thunderstorm. It was the Chaos on the track (of the Fabrication variety, or otherwise), however, that was able to bottle the lightning around us. And the International camp came rolling in like thunder to plant their flag back on the summit of truck and tractor pulling.
Reese Shelton picked up his second win of the weekend in his beautiful 1066 the team calls Cuttin Down. Two wins, one of which came by way of a perfect-pass pulloff securely showed the world that team Shelton plans on being a very big force to be reckoned with in the 2025 season. Chalk one up for the red guys. Their first win in Freedom Hall since 2009, ending a sixteen year drought. However, as one combs through results, and reminisces on experiences from this year’s episode of the championship pull in Louisville, folks will note, the International guys didn’t only pick up a Saturday night win, but rather showed up in a legendary fashion all week long. The Saturday night finals alone saw two IH machines in the winners circle. John Deere’s highest finish for the evening coming by way of a third place. As a matter of fact, the only win in the Pro Stock division by a green machine came all the way back on session one, Wednesday night when perennial farm show winner, Darryl Folz grabbed a gold finish aboard his trusty Tinker Toy. The next three sessions were swept by the binder boys, with Reese Shelton, Rhett Parrish, and Rob Russell all donning the red sheet metal atop their tractors en route to winning.
A fun side note to point out in all this while we are having a ball playing the oldest rivalry in pulling, is to break down the finals’ appearance by brand. John Deere and International split, right down the middle, each parking five contestants apiece in the finals. However, even in Missouri, five and five still only make ten. So who grabbed the final two spots? Massey Ferguson. Two good old fashioned Masseys, each interestingly enough, moved by a V8 power plant. Variety and color are good.
What can we take away from all this? International is certainly no longer on the fringes of the Pro Stock class. Reese Shelton, Tim Cain, and Rhett Parrish will all have the entirety of the Pro Stock world on their toes, as well as all of their IH brethren. Is John Deere on the outs? Are the Grandview Gangsters shaking in their boots? No. Not by any means. At the heart of it, this tells us we have a great crop of outstanding drivers and the most beautiful and high performing equipment in the world of motorsports. Red and green will always go back and forth and give each other a harder time than cats and dogs. The stars aligned for the Internationals in Louisville this weekend to remind us that red is NOT dead.
Green Flags and Tight Chains.
Pullin’ is fun.
Mike Eitel
Engagement Specialist
Beer Money Pulling Team
michael.eitel.bevier@gmail.com
660.342.0206
