Welcome to the Track at Holzhauers—the place where hand-picked, elite-level truck and tractor pullers battle it out in a 2-night affair.
There is no event quite like The Pullers Championship. For starters, all revenue collected (beyond fixed costs) at the gate, from the livestream, and through its various sponsorships is poured right back into the purse. Then, there is the fact that every machine present at the show is invited to be there, having been voted in by pulling fans. You read that right, everyone competing at The Pullers Championship was hand-picked to be here courtesy of the people who want to see them the most. We think the folks at TPC say it best: “The Pullers Championship was not created to be exceptional; it was created to be the exception.” The weekend of May 16-17, we trekked down to the fourth annual affair to find out for ourselves. We were not disappointed.
Positioned within the confines of the Holzhauer Auto & Motorsports Group’s Nashville, Illinois property, the Track at Holzhauers boasts a two-lane pulling surface, plenty of bleacher seating, and a diligent crew that keeps the action flowing smoothly. This year, 100 pullers answered the call placed by fans, and spectators were treated to back-to-back nights of watching their favorite truck and tractor pullers battle it out for TPC glory, bragging rights, and generous payouts. Pro Stock tractors, Super Semis, Super Farm tractors, and Super Stock Diesel Trucks were among each night’s 12-class program—and our cameras were kept busy until well after midnight. We hope you enjoy our coverage of this one-of-a-kind event.
Thanks to an open pit atmosphere at The Pullers Championship, we made sure to show up early on Friday and peruse the infield area at Holzhauers. Our first stop landed us at Chase Eller’s trailer, where we got a good look at the “Caretaker,” a triple-turbo, O’Bryant Cummins-powered Dodge that was treated to a brand-new paintjob over the winter. After that, we passed by Marshall DeBroux’s “Flam-A-Bull” Chevrolet, one of the newest trucks on the Super Stock Diesel Truck scene. Still in high school, Marshall is part of the new generation of Super Stock drivers, a group of young guns that also includes Brady Ingram, Tripp Haisley, and Caleb Crowder.You’re looking at The Pullers Championship champion for 2025. Midway through the Super Stock Diesel Truck class on Friday, Marshall DeBroux stormed down the track in “Flam-A-Bull.” The most authoritative hook to that point, Marshall set the new mark to beat at 327.18 feet—an effort that would be good enough for Second Place. Marshall would find victory lane just 24 hours later. His 332-foot hook on Saturday night would best Van Haisley’s “Rock Hard Ram” (second) and Kent Crowder’s third-gen “Scheid Diesel” Ram, two legendary trucks in the Super Stock game.After winning the NTPA Grand National Super Stock Diesel 4×4 championship in 2024, Craig Dickey and the Cummins Killer III team did anything but sit idle over the winter. In fact, Craig and the folks at Wagler Competition Products were hard at work perfecting the world’s most powerful Duramax. Now, the Wagler-designed DX460 sports a revised aluminum block and cylinder heads, different injectors, 4-bolt exhaust manifolds (vs. 2-bolt units previously), and new, one-piece valve covers. A Winberg crankshaft, equipped with Cummins main bearings, is also in place at this point. Here, you can see that all three turbos now reside together on the passenger side of the engine, which offers a reduction in complexity, piping, and weight over the old arrangement.So much for The Pullers Championship serving as a test hook for Cummins Killer III… Craig Dickey and team stole the show, emphatically, on Friday night. When it was Craig’s turn to make a pass, the P-pumped mechanical monster of a Duramax roared to life and by mid-track it was clear the truck had built a ton of ground speed. In an awesome display of raw power, Cummins Killer III put 10 feet on Flam-A-Bull’s 327-foot distance—a pass that was highly impressive in its own right.All truck and tractor classes at The Pullers Championship are conducted according to the Pro Pulling League rulebook. And being that this was our first PPL event of the year, it marked the first time we’d seen the materialization of Hot Shot’s Secret becoming the title sponsor of PPL. Together, the two juggernauts will combine forces on some 280 events in 2025 alone—with Hot Shot’s staying on as the pulling organization’s primary sponsor well beyond this calendar year.We love the wow factor of triple-turbos, but there is just something about a Super Stock Diesel Truck sporting a big single… Jon Manns’ spotless ’77 Ford rocks a 4.6-inch Wimer charger—and he keeps it in its happy place by turning his Haisley Machine Super B Cummins as high as 6,200 rpm! Depending on track and driving conditions, Jon tells us the sizeable snail produces between 90 and 115 psi of boost. We don’t know what the final tally was for votes, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Jon’s dentside body Super Stock earned the most.Believe it or not, Jon Manns’ “Crazy Ex” Ford rides on a ’96 OBS frame—the same frame he started pulling on back in 2008—when he competed with a 7.3L Power Stroke/ZF-5 combination. Jon and his old-school Ford turned in a Seventh Place, 312-foot effort on Friday night, then improved with a Sixth Place finish on Saturday (a broken driveshaft having stopped him short of where he was destined to end up). Hailing from New Park, Pennsylvania, Jon logged more than 1,600 miles to compete at The Pullers Championship.Speaking of Super Stocks running big singles, check out the 5.0-inch Hart’s unit on the Scheid Diesel second-gen… Spending a few minutes with Brad Ingram and his son, Brady, in the pits, we learned that the billet-aluminum block and head Cummins it’s feeding has well over 100 hooks on the rotating assembly—and that the bottom end hasn’t been gone through since 2020. For an engine that belts out more than 3,000 hp, that’s some pretty exceptional durability. We’d say the folks at Scheid have this Super Stock thing figured out.Brady Ingram kicked off the Friday night Super Stock action with a wild ride, nearly dragging the sled out the back gate. Afterward, the sled was reset and a pair of 8,500-pound Limited Pro Stock tractor drivers (Dillon Hoene and Jason Zumbahlen) helped Brady cool the truck off in the pits. When Brady hooked at the end of the class, the Scheid Diesel second-gen turned in a 321.67-foot pass, which landed him fourth on the night. Brady’s younger brother, Trenton, took over driving duties on Saturday and wound up digging his way out to a 319.93-foot, Fifth Place finish.Built like an anvil, Jeremy Yeager’s triple-turbo Cummins was born at Chaos Fabrication—and it’s fairly unique in the Super Stock Diesel Truck class. Rather than go with a billet of aluminum or steel, Chaos had the iron block cast (at a local foundry) in solid form. The cast-iron block, which is #004 built, is roughly 150 pounds heavier than a factory, 6.7L Cummins crankcase, but all that extra heft was strategically placed in all the right areas for utmost durability. Also notice the front cover’s offset mounting location for the injection pump (a Wimer unit in this case), which is done for ample pump-to-intake manifold clearance.Cody Lee had the truck to beat last season—but that was last year and in the Limited Pro Stock category (3.0 smooth bore). Looking for a new challenge, Cody took the second-gen Cummins known as “Kong” off the hands of longtime puller, Jeff Mifek, at the end of 2024 and set his sights on something much bigger. At The Pullers Championship, “Kong” showed up in full-on, Super Stock trim with Cody, up from southeast Texas, behind the wheel. It would move the sled a little more than 304 feet Friday night. Look for this truck to get progressively better with each hook.With five PPL points championships under his belt, Scheid Diesel’s Kent Crowder often makes winning look easy. Two years ago, at the second annual running of The Pullers Championship, Kent left Nashville the big winner. But, like all elite-level pulling classes, there are no guaranteed W’s in the Super Stock category. This year, Kent would finish mid-pack on Friday after traveling 319 feet. One sunset later, he and the fiberglass bodied, tube-chassis ’09 Ram clawed their way to a 327.09-foot, Third Place distance.Nick Skaar and “Screamin’ Norwegian” are two names that’ve been in the tractor pulling world for a very long time, and Nick has four PPL championships to show for it. This rendition, a Case IH 340 Magnum based machine, competes in the highly competitive 9,300-pound Super Farm category. At The Pullers Championship, Justin Johnson handled the driving duties. In a display of sheer driver skill, he built some serious ground speed and took the win on night 1. The following evening, Shaun Boyd piloted the Screamin’ Norwegian to a 343.8-foot, Third Place finish. The team left the Track at Holzhauers as 2025 Super Farm champions.This truck needs no introduction. Van Haisley’s “Rock Hard Ram” has been a staple in the Super Stock Diesel Truck field for years, with this particular version initially debuting way back in 2011. Of course, its horsepower has doubled since then and it’s always a force in the class. On Friday night, Van’s grandson, Tripp, picked a line that yielded the truck 321 feet and change, enough for Fifth Place. On night 2, spectators were treated to a 328-foot performance from “Rock Hard Ram,” which was good for a Second Place distance right behind Marshall DeBroux.Esdon Bartling just missed becoming the hometown hero at The Pullers Championship. The Nashville native’s “Ridin’ Dirty” IH 1066 earned the Friday night win in the 8,500-pound Limited Pro Stock class, traveling just over 314 feet. During Saturday’s affair, Esdon wound up fourth (behind Ellie Bartling’s “The Possum”). But his 1-4 finish couldn’t best Dillon Hoene and Jason Zumbahlen’s efforts behind the wheel of the “Unchained Madness” International 1466, which took second Friday and won on Saturday.Erik Stacey and the Cummins-powered “Smoknya HD” Silverado have been bringing the receipts in Super Stock as of late. Not only Erik the 2021 and 2022 Pro Pulling League points champion, but he piled on an NTPA Grand National championship in 2023 and won The Pullers Championship in 2024. And while Erik didn’t finish out front at The Pullers Championship this time, he did put up two strong showings. Friday, he edged out Kent Crowder on his way to a Third Place, 322.97-foot distance. The following night, Erik would end up fourth, with the Bungart Motorsports sled bringing him to a stop just one foot behind Kent.
