Mud Tires and Rims



The crowd was getting excited, as mud tires and rims were checked for the 5th annual tractor pull in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Dragster Dave was the favorite with his 1958 four engine modified Allis Chalmers tractor. In bright yellow with black detailing, and plenty of chrome adorning the four engines, this tractor had the power and the traction to win the event. Dave was a local boy, born and raised in hills of Oklahoma when the oil boom was spreading like wild fire. He drove 4 wheel drives all his life, and tractor pull machines were just another 4x4 to him. To everyone else, they were Goliaths, behemothh monsters that drank gasoline like Kool-aid, and roared through the watersloggedd dirt turned to mud with the will of a water buffalo trying to escape from the teeth of 20 footcrocodilee, pulling and jerking whatever was attached behind it.



On the other side of the track were monster pickups, with their huge oversize engines, tires and wheels, able to roll over a passenger car and crumple it like a a box of crackers underneath a freight train. The guys driving these would practically bounce their way over competitors vehicles, if it were not for the laws of physics holding their massive frames to Earth. Their turbo charged engines propelled them not only forward but up and down, like giant grass hoppers looking for a place to feed. The gasoline they drank was measured in huge buckets, not gallons, and their tanks were oversized to match the displacement of their bored and stroked engines. The only thing separating these colossal fuel burning dune buggies from Army tanks was the unarmored stripped down frame that held them together long enough to fly over a hill, hopeful not rolling over like a giant beetle on it's back.

The mud was more than waste deep in some places, and the aggressive tires, deeply submerged to hell where rubber paws begged to bite solid ground, spun payloads of mud behind them. Lord help the spectators who sat behind that pit of mud. Chrome wheels didn't help make the scene any prettier as men and women wiped mud from their eyes and face, having been the unfortunate holders of tickets to seats that should never have been sold. Passing a bottle around, beer wetting their tongues and smiles came back to their faces as the competition of thunderous mountains of engines continued their feud and see who would win first prize.