State
Biodiesel Company Challenges Tractor Pullers
BEAVER DAM, Wis. – August 12, 2006 – Biodiesel
grabbed center stage at a nationally-sanctioned tractor
pull this weekend when Super Farm Tractor competitor Ryan
Jacjthuber surprised the audience with an exhibition pull
powered by 100 percent, domestically produced biodiesel.
Jacjthuber
successfully pulled through a special, pre-competition
run aboard his Case IH Super Farm Tractor “In 2
Deep” at the start of Saturday evening’s National
Tractor Pullers Association (NTPA) regional competition
in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. A member of the Wisconsin Tractor
Pullers Association (WTPA), Jacjthuber, of Princeton,
Wis., is one of many Super Farm Pullers participating
in this summer’s WTPA/North Prairie Biodiesel Challenge,
sponsored by North Prairie Productions, LLC.
North
Prairie Productions, LLC intends to build a large-scale,
commercial biodiesel plant in south-central Wisconsin.
Biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable fuel made
from animal fats and vegetable oils such as soybeans that
is safe for compression-ignition (diesel) engines without
modification. Made primarily from soybeans, it is a cleaner-burning
diesel fuel that is also simple to use, biodegradable,
nontoxic and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
“Tractor
pulls are simply a great summer pastime here in Wisconsin,
and the board of directors of North Prairie Productions
believes sponsoring the WTPA Biodiesel Challenge is a
great way to highlight the many benefits of clean-burning,
renewable biodiesel as a high-performance fuel,”
says Jeff Pieterick, vice president of North Prairie Productions,
LLC. “These competitors understand diesel engine
performance, and hey appreciate the advantage of using
biodiesel in their competition tractors as well as in
their trucks and tractors back home. It’s great
to see the way they’ve embraced our program.”
The
Biodiesel Challenge presents a year-end monetary purse
to pullers in the WTPA Super Farm Tractor class based
on season-long point accumulations. Super Farm Tractors
are stock tractors with a few variations. Engine size
is limited to 640 cubic inches, they must use the OEM
manifold and heads for that brand engine, can only use
one 3-inch turbo and must run on diesel fuel. The WTPA
Super Farm class is extremely competitive and any competitor
has a shot at winning this class and the Biodiesel Challenge
purse.
Going
into tonight’s competition, Mike Linnehan, Sparta,
Wis., and his tractor “Green Power” led the
Biodiesel Challenge with 139 points; second place was
held by Clint Dornfeld with 135 points aboard “Hayride
2” while the team of Mike Eagen and Bob Gray pulling
with Poltergist sat in third place with 134 points. Point
totals are regularly updated online at http://www.wtpapull.com/PullPoints.htm
.
As
a pure fuel, biodiesel contains no petroleum but it is
typically blended with petroleum diesel to create biodiesel
blends from five percent (B-5) to 20 percent (B-20). Biodiesel
significantly improves the lubricity of petroleum diesel
fuel at levels as low as 2 percent (B2) and therefore
is a preferred addition to petroleum-based, ultra-low
sulfur fuels.
Because
biodiesel has higher cetane levels than its petroleum
counterpart, this season’s competitors are being
urged to use blends containing no more than 5 percent
biodiesel in order to comply with NTPA/WTPA fuel standards
and testing protocols. North Prairie Productions also
is helping coordinate an off-season effort to revisit
NTPA fuel testing standards so that competitors in 2007
will be able to “legally” use maximum levels
of biodiesel fuel. Diesel-engine specialists and chemists
from Madison Area Technical College and the University
of Wisconsin are working with pullers to study performance
blending of the two fuels. They plan to work with the
NTPA to help re-write fuel-testing standards that should
increase availability of biodiesel as a performance fuel
to be used by competitors.
North
Prairie Productions, LLC, is based in Waterloo, Wisconsin,
with intentions of building a large-scale, commercial
biodiesel plant in the south-central part of the state.
Additional company information and background on biodiesel
is available on the company website at www.npnrg.com
or by calling toll-free at 877-299-2435.
The
NTPA is the sport’s oldest and most respected truck
and tractor pulling sanctioning organization. For more
information about the NTPA, visit their official website
at www.ntpapull.com
or contact the NTPA offices at 614-436-1761 or by e-mail
at helen@ntpapull.com.
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