Back in 2015, a Guinness World Record for the fastest speed achieved by a tractor was set by four-time World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen on an airfield in Finland.
He was behind the wheel of a ‘specially-tuned’ Valtra T234.
He is not – it seems – the only tractor ‘pilot’ with a “need for speed”. Imagine our amusement when we stumbled across this video (below); it depicts a full-blown tractor race.
The tractors have a decidedly Russian and Eastern Bloc vibe; who’d have thought that Belarus / MTZ (Minsk Tractor Works) luggers (and their ilk) could evoke such excitement…and be part of such organised chaos.
As an aside, Minsk Tractor Works says that one in every 10 tractors in the world is from ‘Belarus’ – a lofty claim.
Perhaps western manufacturers might be tempted to embrace the thrill of the race; though health and safety legislation might well (understandably) throw a proverbial spanner in the works.
Combine harvester ‘derby’
Such adventurously-minded (and quite possibly demented) people don’t just race tractors; combine harvesters also get the ‘derby’ treatment. This video (below) was shot in Luxembourg; it is effectively a combine harvester race – organised by ‘Landjugend Zenter’ (in Kuborn).
So, there you have it; if you can’t get a reasonable price for your old ‘Senator 70’ or ‘Clayson 1545’, you might well be tempted to ‘re-invent’ it as an agricultural McLaren F1 – of sorts.
Not to be outdone, of course, the next video (below) depicts a so-called ‘combine derby’ in the US. Apparently, it’s an annual event – in Lind, Washington.
The organisers describe it as a “mechanical bust-up of monumental proportions”; it’s said to be the biggest such event in North America.
Contact (between machines) is allowed. In fact, in some of these events ‘wanton destruction’ is positively encouraged. At full pelt, it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted.
