Around Iredell Sports

2008 Jan-04

Anna McAllister plows over competition

By Larry Sullivan

Presented with the choice of gunning down her prey or plowing them under, Mooresville’s Anna McAllister wasted little time opting for the latter.

It’s a decision that her opposition has since lived to regret, and one that the now 14-year-old McAllister has relished ever since.

When his daughter – half of a twin set – was 10, dad Barry McAllister approached her with a deer hunting rifle in one hand and set of tractor keys in the other. Almost without thinking, young Anna picked the keys.

“I just couldn’t see my self going out and shooting a sweet little deer,’’ she fondly recalled from her grandmother’s warm living room just off Johnson Dairy Farm Road. “So, I grabbed the keys to his tractor.”

The rest is still history in the making.

Practically from the outset, the second-generation competitive tractor driver sitting high in the seat onboard her farming family’s fourth-generation stock machine has proven to be a force to be reckoned with and one hard-pressed to beat with any kind of regularity on the Old Timey Tractor Pulling Association, Inc. competition trail.

“I just like driving it,’’ summed up the current sophomore at South Iredell High School and member of the school’s marching band who is still nearly two years away from receiving her legal driving license. “I guess I was kind of born to do it.”

She guesses right.

Her dad, Barry, was quite a successful tractor pulling pilot in his own right. During his prime, which for pullers can fall anywhere between the ages of 10 and – in some cases – 75 for the entries, papa McAllister also pulled clear of more than his fair share of challengers. He still has the treasured trophies to prove it.

“It’s a great, family-oriented sport,’’ praised Barry McAllister. “I wanted my girls to see what it’s like and find out if they liked it as good as I do. Anna is a natural at it. My other daughter Wendy has tried it, and she has won, too. It just wasn’t for her. I let them make their own decision.”

For Anna McAllister, it’s one that she continues to treasure. Her opposition, though, isn’t as optimistic.

McAllister, one of several female drivers on the circuit, recently drew yet another 16 weekends worth of regular season competition on the OTTPA Tour to a close, and she basically left all but a few of those challengers – many of them much more seasoned in the sport—in her dusty trail along the way.

A season after collecting a couple of second-place finishing trophies within her various divisions of participation, McAllister hit another more powerful gear this past year.

Appearing in the maximum number of allowed three divisions steering the same family heirloom 1952 model tractor she has nicknamed “Old Beck,” the one her dad calls “LuLu” came within just a point or two of pulling off a clean sweep.

McAllister was the recipient of two more than knee-high trophies recognizing her as a division champion, and she was also presented with another nearly as high award acknowledging her runner-up finish in a third during the annual OTTPA, Inc. season-ending banquet.

“They just kept calling my name to get my trophies,’’ she beamed. “ I just wish I had won all three.”

That’s the kind of competitive spirit that has pushed the youngster to the top of the class in just a limited amount of time spent behind the wheel.

She didn’t begin competitive tractor pulling until the age of 10, the youngest at which drivers can begin doing so. She quickly caught on to the knack of the sport, knowing just how far to push and pull her tractor that still bears the memory of her great-grandfather courtesy of a photo of him driving it that is placed on the model’s side panel.

“I remember asking my granddaddy if I could drive it,’’ noted Barry McAllister. “Back then, it was the sweetest and biggest farm tractor we had. He wouldn’t let me until I got older. We’ve kept it in the family ever since.”

Anna McAllister keeps the family spirit alive as well. She competes in three divisions, all based on the weight of the tractor and speed at which it can travel. She placed first in points in two of them, the 5,200-pound and 5,700-pound Stock classes, and she chalked up a second-place finish in the division’s 3.5 MPH Class.

There are four different main divisions – Stock, Super Stock, MPH and Antique Modified—within the OTTPA realm, and each of them has numerous branches based on a tractor’s weight and speed.

“There’s a lot of know-how involved as far as how many and where to put the weights,’’ revealed Barry McAllister, who served primarily as his daughter’s equivalent of pit crew chief.

But as far as the pulling itself goes, driver ability is the key.

Tractors start and head down the path, the weight being pulled transferred into a pan and increased the longer the ride takes place. A pull ends when a tractor stops or stalls. Drivers are then awarded points based on how far they complete each pull. Distances separating the drivers are sometimes decided by mere inches.
The points are accumulative and compiled throughout the year during the respective points chases within each of the host of divisions.

“It’s all in knowing how to drive,’’ beamed Anna McAllister, failing to miss a beat while combining the roar of a tractor motor with her much tamer hobby as a band musician. “I can just tell, somehow. It comes with experience, too. I know what I can do behind the wheel and at the controls.”

It shows.

Some of McAllister’s stiffest competition this past season came from within close range.

While McAllister has tractor pulling running through her veins, the same can’t be said of fellow Mooresville competitor Branson Howard. A sophomore at Mooresville High, the 15-year-old became interested in the sport as he and his dad, Jimmy Howard, began restoring a tractor together.

“If we were going to get it back in running condition,’’ sized up Jimmy Howard, “we figured we might as well do something with it.”

Branson Howard did just that, also competing in three divisions during this past OTTPA Tour season. He proved to have the intuition for driving as well, placing second in each of his three competitive divisions.

“It’s exciting,’’ noted Howard of his limited yet promising experience in tractor pulling. “I enjoy it, too.”

One of those runner-up efforts came in the same Stock 5,200-pound division that was won by a single point over the course of the complete season by Anna McAllister.

“I didn’t mind getting beat by a girl, as long as it was Anna doing it,’’ shrugged Howard, who also placed second in the Stock 4,500-pound and Stock 4,700-pound classifications.

In fact, the feat may been harder for the winner to accept.

“When it was over,’’ smiled McAllister, “I just had to go over and hug Branson’s neck. I kinda felt sorry that it was him I beat.”

Sympathy for the opposition, though, ends there. Between both McAllister and Howard as well as a third local entry that between them competed in nine divisions total, they racked up six first-place finishes, four seconds and added another pair of thirds to show for their single year’s success.

It remains to be seen just how much longer the kind of progress can continue. McAllister, already at the ate where attraction for the opposite gender is becoming a factor. hopes to keep driving as long as she can. She will enter a higher level of competition upon reaching the age of 16,.

“When boys ask me out on a date,’’ she smiled, “I hope they like tractor pulls. That’s where I’ll be on Saturday nights.”

Her dad/tractor owner – who also drives in some pulls and has on occasion served as a substitute pilot for his daughter – is also considering adding a tractor to run in three more divisions in the near future. Should that be the case, it would add to the young driver’s busy schedule.

There is little if in fact any money winnings to speak of in tractor pulling. For the most part, the pulls take place during fundraising events or as part of the entertainment for social gatherings and local fairs. Winners get more pats on the back from fellow competitors than they do cash in their pocket.
Still, the enjoyment it produces can’t carry a price tag for the McAllister clan.

“Every penny I’ve spent,’’ summed up Barry McAllister, “and there have been many, has been worth every cent. I had no idea Anna would take to it the way she has. As long as she wants to keep doing it, I’ll do everything I can to keep her in it. There’s no better family entertainment as far as we’re concerned.”

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Anna McAllister plows over competition

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