Email: purplehull@juno.com
Web site: www.purplehull.com
Dynasties are forming in the sport of garden tiller racing.
At the Weyerhaeuser 200 World Championship Rotary Tiller Race in Emerson, Arkansas, Saturday, the defending champions from both the men’s and women’s divisions retained their title.
Shane Waller of Junction City, Arkansas, and his tiller “Radio Flyer,” won the men’s race of souped-up garden tillers for the fifth straight year. The 32-year-old Waller tilled the 200-foot track of plowed ground in 6.45 seconds. Waller holds the world record of 5.72 seconds, set in 2004.
“The track is too deep,” said Waller, explaining this year’s slower times. “I’d rather it be tilled 3 to 4 inches deep. It’s got to be 8 to 10 inches in there this year.”
Waller said in practice runs at home prior to this year’s race, he tilled 200 feet in 5.5 seconds.
Billy Robertson of El Dorado, racing “Twister,” placed second, and Justin Wood of Junction City, Louisiana, with the tiller “General Lee,” came in third.
In the women’s division, Erica Butler of Homer, Louisiana, won for the fourth straight year. Butler, a senior at Louisiana Tech, had a best time of 7.71 seconds, well off her world record of 6.19 seconds set in 2005. Butler was racing “Radio Flyer,” the same tiller used by Waller.
Butler agreed with Waller regarding the reasons for the slower times.
“It’s too deep,” said Butler. “The dirt was like up to my ankles at least.”
Race officials admitted one of the reasons for the deeper track was to slow the tillers for safety.
Nataley Bradshaw of North Little Rock, Arkansas, placed second in the women’s division.
The World Championship Rotary Tiller Race is the feature event of the
annual Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival.
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