This truck the 'Class Act' among pulling semis
Class Act, owned by CRW Inc. of Shreve, is popular among fans because it looks like a regular semi even though it's been rebuilt as a pulling truck and dressed up with lights and smoke stacks.
When Chris Wood roars down the track with his pulling semi, Class Act, the truck always seems to live up to its name.
The 1977 Peterbilt was this year’s champion points winner in the semi class of the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League Tours, and for the fifth time in 15 years, it was the two-day winner in the Bowling Green National Tractor Pullers Association Championships.
The Bowling Green event is “considered the Super Bowl of pulling,” said Wood, president of his family’s freight management company, CRW of Shreve.
Winners get a ring just like the Super Bowl champions.
Wood said Class Act claims the most rings of any pulling semi. This year Wood and Class Act also scored a victory in front of a hometown crowd in the Ohio State Tractor Pullers Association semi pull at the Wayne County Fair.
As a Lucas Oil champion, Wood and his pulling team have been invited to attend a black-tie awards ceremony (tuxedo required) in November in Louisville, Kentucky, where Wood is eligible for the Puller of the Year award.
Wood’s dad Charles incorporated CRW in 1988, and the company now owns 50 semi trucks and 230 trailers. His brother Ken manages the company’s dispatch center.
Wood said it was his dad who named the pulling semi, a retired truck from CRW’s fleet. “We were sitting around trying to figure out a name when Class Act just rolled off his tongue,” he said. “Evidently he knew what it was going to be. He had more faith in us than we did.”
Wood bought his first semi for the family business in 1991 when he was a Triway High School senior. He competed in truck pulls with a four-wheel-drive truck until the OSTPA added a semi class in 2004. When he decided to rebuild the retired semi into a pulling vehicle, he never dreamed he’d have the kind of success he’s experienced.
For the first two years, Class Act won a majority of the 12 events on the OSTPA tour and was the overall points winner. OSTPA has since increased the number of those events to 26.
Wood said they don’t pull in all those because of time constraints with the business. Instead the CRW team concentrates its efforts on seven events sponsored by Lucas Oil in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
“It’s not about winning every [event],” Wood said. “It’s about consistency.”
Usually it’s the little things — like loose bolts and exhaust leaks — that trip up a puller. “Fortunately this year,” Wood said, “we had very little breakage. It was the complete package.”
While fans may think they just show up and pull, Wood said, “In reality we spend more time getting ready for a pull than going to the event. Basically a wrench gets put on every single bolt after every pull.”
A complex computer system in the truck records about 18 pieces of data such as cylinder temperature, fuel pressure, mph and turbo speed. “We spend a couple of hours looking at that data after every run,” Wood said, “and make adjustments as necessary. It’s amazing how many times we’ve been able to prevent problems because we saw the numbers. If something just isn’t right, we dive into the engine and find whatever the problem is.”
The engine builder for Class Act, Jim Fink of Polk, has been with the pulling team from the start. “He is very, very instrumental in our success,” Wood said.
Ken Wood is in charge of the truck’s computer system.
During a pull, other team members are assigned different responsibilities. One member reports on track conditions. “Those conditions can change numerous times from when the event begins until you pull,” Wood said. “Sometimes the dirt on the track doesn’t compact well. As the evening progresses, an increase in moisture helps with compaction. Or if the track was wet at the start, it can worsen during evening hours."
Another team member stays with the driver, helping him with safety checks. The tractor pulling association conducts a safety inspection of each vehicle at every pull.
Wood said when it’s time to make the pull, lots of things go through his mind. "You have to consider the track position and gear selection and how hard you want to run. For the most part it’s a 12-second pass from start to finish," he said. "Yes, I’ve got all kinds of gauges, but you’re really doing it by sound and feel. You’re listening to the engine and how the truck feels as it speeds down the track."
Sometimes Wood turns the driving over to Joe Hoffa, a cousin, but for the most part this year Wood was the driver.
"It’s enjoyable,” Wood said. “I have a close group that helps me. And we have customers all over the place who meet up with us in other states.”
As for the investment involved, Wood said, “That’s our RV or boat most people have.”