What started out as a hobby for Simon Harpley when he was younger has now become a major passion for his two sons, Matt and Chris, as they lead the way for the next generation of tractor pullers. Lucy Baxter finds out more.
Tractor pulling is a loud and intoxicating mix of horsepower and pulling power, and its roots stretch back farther than you might think.
It is thought the first motorised tractor pulling event took place in America in 1929 and its popularity spread right throughout Europe.
And continuing this tradition is the Harpley family from Bilsborrow, Lancashire. For them, tractor pulling is a way of life.
Following in their father Simons footsteps are Matt, 24, and Chris, 28, and it is something they cannot imagine living without.
Simon, although not from an agricultural background, originally got the tractor pulling bug through his job as a tractor mechanic.
In 1979, Simon watched his first tractor pulling event at Great Eccleston Show in Lancashire and, following this, bought a Fordson Major that he modified and named Black Queen. He also had involvement in the North West Tractor Pulling Club from the start.
Matt says: In the beginning there was Mum, Dad and Grandad who were all there at the first official meeting at Garstang; that is how my dad met my mum.
They have been heavily involved in the club since the start. My grandad was head track marshal and flagman and Mum is the secretary of the North West club.
Now Great Eccleston is the home of British tractor pulling and we are proud to be a part of that legacy.
Matt drew inspiration from American YouTube videos to learn more about the sport and started to draw inspiration from what he saw.
He says: I saw what they were doing in America and thought we need a bit of that over here."
As young children, Matt and Chris helped their dad build their first tractor from a ride-on-mower, called Garden Eagle, a homage to one of the best Dutch superstock tractors called Heart of the Eagle. It was built more as a toy, but, nevertheless, they took it to Great Eccleston to compete down on the track.
At that point, England did not really have a garden tractor class. They then got involved with the Power Pulling Association, which is an organisation for little garden tractors and the family team started going to events and competitions up and down the country.
Unfortunately, they broke Garden Eagle the first time it went out. It was not strong enough and it led to both brothers having their own garden tractors being built by their dad in 2009.
Chris named his Heavy Weather, and Matts was Dads Distraction.
With Garden Eagle, we quickly realised that we needed more strength and to build to a better spec, says Chris.
Garden Eagle was retired after one event. Because we were both such a young age, we would help dad by passing him spanners and holding the torch and generally trying to help in any way we could."
A lot of weekends and evenings we were under the gazebo, says Matt.
Dad would be driving the tractor up and down our private lane, just testing the power of the machine by towing his van to the tractor and see if it would handle it, as we do not have a sledge, he says.
More often than not, you would think the tractor was great, but then you would hook it up to the sledge and then find something was not quite right.
It is all trial and error and as soon as you hook it up to the sledge, you get into a different mindset.
In 2013, they got more serious and built American Maid that debuted at Shakespeare County Raceway, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, where it went down the track like a rocket. It was a garden tractor based on an international cub cadet.
In 2016 they stepped up again, into the compact diesel class, with their 1.9litre heavily modified engine called Diesel Weasel that won back-to-back British Champion in 2018 and 2019.
Chris says: We were in another league altogether at this point and alongside companies that had big sponsors. But it was just us as a family team.
Matt has not only followed in his dads footsteps with a passion for tractor pulling and becoming a tractor mechanic, but also met his girlfriend K.D. Stewart through the tractor pulling community.
She discovered the sport by accident via her mechanic apprenticeship and joined the tractor pulling set five years ago with ateam that Matt competes against.
Matt became the driver within the team, so they would therefore consistently know if it was the tractor or the driver that was the reason something was going right or wrong.
He says: When I am about to pull, my legs start bouncing, it is nerve-racking. I have so many things going through my head, such as, is the tractor going to go?
I put the helmet on and then get in a zone, so I am not really focusing on the crowd.
The tractor pulling season is roughly from May to September and Chris reflects on the number of hours they have put into various tractors over the years.
Some people just think that you drag the tractors out of the shed, pull the sledge and then put them away, Chris says.
A lot of people do not realise how long it takes. I would dread to think how many hours we put into building them over the years. It was every night and every weekend.
It is clear to see that their hard work and dedication comes from their dad and mum, who support them in every way.
It has been 30 years since Simon drove at Great Eccleston but in August 2022, he drove Matts newest tractor, Midnight Mistress, down the track.
My proudest moment was when Dad took the new tractor down the track, says Matt. My dad has done it for so long and has helped us from the start doing the little tractors. It is not just me enjoying it. I know that Dad gets a lot of enjoyment out of seeing it go down the track, but driving it too and to experience it as well on the seat is special.
Matt bought this tractor, which is based on a Ford 4000 gearbox with a Ford 7840 400 cubic inch engine and 7840 panel work, at the start of 2022.
He then spent time modifying it ready to compete in the Limited Prostock class. It has a memorial for their grandad on its side.
He says: Due to time and development it was more efficient to purchase the tractor, but it had never been hooked to a sledge when I bought it.
It pulled for the first time in Brechin, Scotland, in June 2022, and came third.
After it pulled successfully for the first time, I had tears as I was so relieved that it worked," says Matt. There was a lot of emotion.
Although from non-farming backgrounds, it sparked something in the brothers, particularly Matt who know works in agriculture.
Chris says: The agricultural community benefits from this. They have gained an engineer as Matt grew up with tractor pulling because of Dad and that has given him the passion.
He then grows up to give back to the community and keeps supporting the agricultural industry.
But during Matts school years, he felt like not everyone understood his hobby. He said that a lot of people did not grasp the concept of tractor pulling.
They literally thought I just pulled a tractor with a rope. Once they got their heads around what it is, they thought it was pretty cool. But it is strange how many people think it involves a big tractor and a rope, like tug-of-war, he says.
I think that social media is a great tool for a younger generation to share what tractor pulling is and what it is about. We need to get it out there. It is something that makes everyone say wow when they see it.
