Adair Pulling Team Puts in Maximum Effort
Writer / Matt Keating
Photography Provided
The Adair Pulling Team won fourth place in the local 4H tractor pull competition this year, and Nichole Adair, who chronicles the team for their Facebook page, says she couldn’t be prouder.
“A lot of Adair family members are involved with tractor pulls – my husband Kurt, uncle Joe, my brother-in-law Cody and other family members,” she says. “We are well-known in the Tipton area.”
Adair notes that the whole family loves the positive feedback they get.
“I asked uncle Joe’s dad Jody, who is 92 years young, how he felt watching Joe, Kurt and Cody out there pulling, and he said he felt proud,” she says. “He said there is nothing better than seeing someone work so hard at something and do so well at it.”
She says Joe told her it feels good to hear people congratulating him and complimenting him on his tractors.
“Uncle Joe said that with any sport you participate in, you do your best and want to win, but with pulling, you really want your competition to do well too,” she says.
Adair says her father-in-law Brian doesn’t drive one of the competition tractors.
“He just likes to watch his boys Kurt and Cody fill their adrenaline rushes with it,” she says. “He feels proud of them when they get out there and do their best, and loves to see his grandkids all enjoying the action too.”
She created the Adair Pulling Team Facebook page, and she records videos for the page when she can.
“There is no captain of the team per se, unless you want to say that Brian Adair is the captain of our tractor, Fordified, a single-engine modified tractor, and Joe is the captain of his two tractors, Clodbuster, a Hot Farm tractor, and a light pro tractor called Twisted Sisters,” she says.
Fordified won second place overall for the tractor-pulling season last year, and Clodbuster was first place overall for the season last year.
Adair says tractor pulling involves hooking a tractor to a sled that has a sliding weight on it.
“The further you go down the track, the heavier the weight on the sled gets, making it harder for you to go fast or far,” she says. “The track length is 300’. If you go 300’, that is considered a full pull, and anything close to that or over it is what you’re aiming for. Tractor pulling is funny. I always say I wonder who decided to sit down and say, ‘Hey, let’s hook this tractor to this weight and see how far I can go before I get stopped.’”
Tractor pulling in the Adair family began almost 50 years ago with Joe Adair and his dad, Jody Adair.
“Joe and his dad went to a state-fair pull one time, and after seeing the mini rods pull, Joe decided he wanted to do that too,” Adair says. “They went home and started building their own mini rod from scratch. They used parts around the farm, and the heart of the tractor was his late brother Johnny’s engine from his drag-racing mustang named Phony Pony.”
Phony Pony was also the name of Joe’s mini rod.
“They traveled to Florida and North Carolina to pull, and won second and third in the nation,” Adair says.
They pulled for about 10 years before parting ways with it. Then around 2016, Joe decided he wanted to start pulling again, so he bought his first single-engine modified tractor.
After a year of pulling, Brian decided to purchase a single-engine mod as well.
“His two sons, Kurt and Cody, along with a friend named Schuylar, drove to Tennessee to meet a guy about this tractor,” Adair says. “They met him at midnight, loaded the tractor up and drove all the way back to Indiana in the same day.”
One special part of tractor pulling is that it’s for the whole family.
“It is about family time and the friends you meet along the way,” Adair says. “We are in a club called Indiana Pulling League and we have the best club around. Everyone gets along, even though we are in competition with each other. We are like one big family.”
Joe has been invited to pull at events with the National Tractor Pullers Association, and competitions in Shipshewana.
“We have met some of the nicest people from around the U.S.,” Adair says. “We have met great people in Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, just to name a few. We even have people outside the U.S. that follow our Facebook page or the Indiana Pulling League page.”
Joe’s Twisted Sisters tractor has the faces of his sisters, Terri and Ruthie, painted on it.
Aaron Beard, a friend who has become like family, hasn’t missed a beat stepping in and helping with the tractors. He drives Joe’s semi with his pulling tractors to all the pulls, and he is always willing to help work on the tractors. He even drives Fordified occasionally.
“On the fenders of Fordified you will see ‘In memory of Don and Shirley, Brian Adair’s mom and dad,’” Adair says. “Clodbuster got its name because that was his dad’s CB handle back in Jody’s trucking days.”
Pulling wouldn’t be the same without the ladies behind the men, Nichole (Kurt’s wife) and Lynlie (Cody’s wife), supporting them every step of the way and corralling the kids during the pulls.
Adair says the best part of it all is having family come together. “We all enjoy time together and the irreplaceable memories that are made all summer long,” she says. “Hopefully one day our children will follow in the footsteps of the Adair Pulling Team.”
