GETTING HOOKED ON SLED PULLING

BY ADAM BLATTENBERG

The past few months I’ve been helping out with a sled-pulling series in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve always been a fan of pulling, but as much as I hate to admit it, I hadn’t done it myself until recently. My first try was a horrible showing, but it was a blast! Getting into new things — and concentrating at getting good at them — has always been fun for me. I went drag racing almost every Thursday night for years, tweaking my setup until I got to a point where I had pushed my truck as far as I could while still being able to daily it. That pastime is most definitely not dead — I’m keeping an eye out for a standard cab (pure drag truck) as you read, but the old 7.3L that started its life as a tow rig, and later drag truck … well, it’s going to get morphed a bit for sled pulling. Now, as horrible as my first hook was, the holes I dug way too early in the pull are what’s going to drive me to get good at this sport. Like getting beaten on the dragstrip and immediately throwing more power adders in the mix, there’s nothing like overcoming failure to motivate me.