Whitworth’s Willpower Provides Points Championship
Whitworth’s Willpower Provides Points Championship
Horsepower wins pulls. Consistency wins points championships. That has long been the adage in our sport. Showing up night after night, keeping the tractor on the track, making solid point A to point B passes, garnering a plethora of top five finishes. This is a wash, rinse repeat formula that has earned many drivers the number one spot by the end of the year. Consistency. But, as I am sure any puller would tell you, this is a wild over-simplification of what it takes to amass enough finishing points to be the lone-driver seated in the pole position at season’s end. It takes wrenching, driving, track reading, adjustments, driver skill, crew sacrifice, and no small amount of luck to come away victorious. But upon watching the family team of Scott and Colton Whitworth over the past several years, I have determined there is another factor at play: willpower.
If I were to analyze the Whitworth’s approach to pulling over the past decade, I would present to you a team who has paid their dues, endured setbacks, and essentially worked their way through the fields of competitors until they felt they were ready to do battle among the oldest and grandest of national circuits. If we turn the clock back a decade or so, we would be met with a familiar sight: a pair of John Deere 4020 light super stocks, painted white, boldly proclaiming a sponsored partnership on the side shields piloted by Scott and Colton Whitworth.
Hailing from North Central Missouri, I’m not afraid to compare this father-son duo to a couple of good ol’ fashioned bronco busters. The analogy probably holds more true for their tractors. When I first began keeping an eye on these vehicles, I had no doubt in my mind, each of them possessed a spirit of their own. These Deeres were not so much like a couple of eight point bucks, as there were a pair of free-spirited wild mustangs. The power was obvious. Their will was independent and undetermined. The Whitworths would mount these beasts of the prairie year after year, and each time, many a spectator held their breath as the boundaries between tractor pull and rodeo were blurred. You were in for a show. These tractors were just as liable to snort, pop, buck, kick, or bound down the track, as they were to fly past 350 feet.
Be it man and machine, or cow-poke and stud, the power of wills was on. Could these guys get their tractors to settle in? Could they make the adjustments? Could they find the happy balance between driver and destination. The years went by. The sponsorships updated. The snorted runs became fewer and further between. The bucks and twists began to give way. The victories followed. The drives got further from home, and the stages got bigger. Like any good horse, a trip to Louisville was in its visions (though for these it was Freedom Hall, instead of Churchill Downs).
In 2023 a switch was made, and a team poised with confidence and its ever unrelenting willpower made the jump to the NTPA Grand National circuit. A third place finish for Bin Buster, and a sixth place finish at seasons end for Yield Express, proved these buckin’ broncs had been tamed, and a new cowboy was competing with the veteran wranglers. 2024 left only a few positions left to climb. The patience, confidence, and strength of will were there for the Whitworths as Yield Express road its way to the championship position by year’s end. This not only earned Colton his first Grand National championship, but also generated NTPA history, by becoming the first John Deere branded machine to take home a title in the Light Super Stock Class.
Has the pony entirely been tamed? There is nothing tame about a light super stock pulling machine, and Whitwroth’s ride at Tomah, Wisconsin proved that. In the end it’s not about taming the beast or machine, it’s about having the fortitude to constantly get back in the harness, and letting the strongest will prevail.
