Ryan Wilson was one of the event’s many competitors representing the province of Quebec. He won the Diesel Street Truck 8,500 lbs Class in his 2007 Ram with a distance of 260.11 feet.

---

Eganville – It was a famous first for the North Algona Wilberforce (NAW) Recreation Committee last Saturday as the township hosted its inaugural truck pull event to a crowd of over 500 people.

Event organizer Kevin Clarke, a veteran member of the committee, told the Leader he’s already looking forward to the next one. While he said he expected a bigger turnout for the highway tractor (semi-truck) show-and-shine, he was quite pleased with the selection of vintage cars that turned out.

“For the first year we did pretty well,” he noted. “We had a really good show for the big trucks and tractors, even for the lawn tractors. The amount of them that were there to pull was phenomenal. We had a pretty good turnout of people coming out to watch too.”

He said the event was well-attended by families and saw plenty of younger visitors, especially since kids under the age of 12 could get in for free.

“The number of kids that we had, the use that bouncy castle got, it was just a steady go from start to finish,” Mr. Clarke added. “If all is well and everything is going the way it should, I’d like to see the show happen again next year, make it an annual (thing),” he said.

Mr. Clarke explained most of the event’s attendees had never been to a truck pull before, but that it went on to become an immediate hit. He plans to form an overarching organization like the Bonnechere Cup to better govern future events.

“Right now we run it under the recreation committee. Now whether the whole committee wants to stay part of it or maybe it was a little too much for them, I don’t know. I know I put a lot of work into it. My wife Christine helped me a lot. She looked after all the paperwork and kept track of donations.

“And everything went back to the township,” Mr. Clarke remarked.