Fred Sanders of Ravenna, Ohio captured his first win of 2008 by taking the top spot at the Big Butler Fair Big Rigs Day Truck pulls on Saturday, June 28th.  Sander’s “Silver Bullet II” had finished second just the week before at Brookville but made a resounding effort at Butler.  The Big Butler Fair is the opening Fair in the Pennsylvania State Fair season annually.  This year a very threatening weather situation forced a delay of the pulls until 9:30pm.  However an excellent crowd remained to witness three classes of pulling – Street Semis; Tri-Axle Dumps and Big Rigs.  The pull was sanctioned by USA-EAST and was produced by Full Pull Productions, Inc.  Hunter’s Truck Sales and Service of Butler and Eau Claire, Pennsylvania was the primary sponsor of the pulls at the Big Butler Fair.

The Big Rigs class, featuring seven of the top modified semis in the Eastern United States was contested using a ‘floating finish line’ due to the weather situation.  The normal track was awash and the track had to be set up on the harness track surface in order to accommodate the event.  Milt Lebe was the operator on the Decision Maker Green Transfer machine for the event and did another super job despite the conditions.

A gigantic effort of 334.03 put the Sander’s truck in the lead at Butler.  “Silver Bullet II” is a 1986 Mack SuperLiner that utilizes a Cummins QXK-19 under the hood and is usually operated by Fred Sanders, the owner of the Sanders Pulling Team and the owner of Portage County’s Sander’s Excavating.  Second place at 317.69 went to “Silver Bullet I” and Richard Scott from Diamond, Ohio also from the Sander’s Team.  That truck is powered by a V-8 Mack engine and is currently the point leader in the 2008 Big Rigs Series.

“Mr. Nasty” and Don Snyder from New Springfield, Ohio was 3rd with a pull of 282.44 as the Peterbilt did not seem to want to get a good hold of the make-shift surface on this rainy night.  “Mr. Nasty” was the winner at Mercer Raceway in May.  A different truck has won in each of the three events thus far in the 2008 Big Rigs season.

Fourth went to Joe Giulitto and “Smokin’ Gun” from the powerful Sander’s Team from Ohio with a distance of 270.56.  The “Lady Butterfly” and John A. Mann from East Canton, Ohio was fifth at 261.93 after recently returning from Dungannon, Ontario with a victory versus the Great Lakes’ trucks under its belt.  Mann’s truck was the only one with V-12 Detroit Diesel power on this night.  Dan Adams from Leetonia, Ohio brought his refurbished “Some Assembly Required” Mack to Butler and went home with a nice sixth place with the hot-running 998 cubic inch machine.

Kendra Rogers had her first drive in a Big Rigs points pull interrupted by a very unwilling clutch on the “Unleashed” Mack from South Zanesville, Ohio and after numerous attempts could not get the all-new truck down the track.  She will no doubt get another chance in the upcoming weeks.

The Big Rigs Semis will be in action next Friday (July 11) at the Trumbull County Fair near Cortland, Ohio for the first-ever Big Rigs points event in the history of that storied Fair.  The Friday pulling session will feature the Modified Four-Wheel Drive Trucks from the “Run What Ya Brung” Series as well as the “Hot Farm” Tractors.  USA-EAST sanctioned action is set to get under way at 6:30pm.