Pulling for a good cause

How fast do you think you and nine friends could pull a 10-ton fire truck 12 feet?

That’s what four teams tried to do in the first Fire Truck Pull staged last Saturday at the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office Administrative Building on Brownswitch Road in Slidell. The contest wasn’t just to see who was the strongest and fastest. The teams were raising money to help the Special Olympics in St. Tammany Parish. Each team of 10 people put up $500 for a chance to pull a fire truck 12 feet in the fastest time.

The rules were pretty simple. Each team had three tries at pulling the truck, (which weighs 21,000 pounds without water in its tank). The times of each attempt would be added up and then averaged, with the fastest time winning. There were three trophies awarded, Fastest Pull, Slowest Pull and Best Dressed Team.

With muscles bulging, faces grimacing and lots of huffing and puffing, the teams of Fire District One, the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office, Troop L of the Louisiana State Police and the ESPN Wayne’s World of Racing Team each tried their hands at moving the behemoth fire truck.

There was a lot of trash talk going on between the teams before the contest, with the troopers from Troop L claiming they were the “defending champions” despite the fact that this was the first ever such contest in the parish.

Actually, with 10 people, it wasn’t really hard to move the truck; it was getting up the speed to win the contest that was difficult. What made it really challenging was trying to get up enough speed in just 12 feet.

“It was a heavy pull, but then I’m older than most of these guys and our team is a bit out of shape,” laughed Cathy Penton with Wayne’s World Racing, who was definitely out of breath by the team’s third attempt.

In the end, the deputies with the STPSO turned out to be the fastest fire truck pullers. They beat everybody during each attempt, and ended up with the fastest time of 29.09 seconds for all three attempts, which averaged out to 9.69 seconds. In second place was FDI with a combined total of 30.08 seconds for an average of 10.02 seconds per pull. The bronze went to the troopers of Troop L whose three tries totaled 33.89 seconds or an average of 11.29 seconds. Despite being a team of racecar drivers and mechanics, ESPN Wayne’s World of Racing Team brought up the rear with a total of 35.88 seconds that averaged out to 11.96 seconds per pull.

Besides winning a trophy for Slowest Pull, Wayne’s World of Racing Team also won the trophy for Best Dressed Team, despite the fact that the Troop L team was all dressed in New Orleans Saints football jerseys.