Carr maintains a record of winning in Viola event here
|
At 10, Carr has become the reigning champion of his class in the Viola Valley Homecoming children’s mini pedal tractor pull. This year, he thought he’d give it another shot.
Carr brought home another first-place trophy Saturday, making it the sixth of his career. He didn’t win much more than a trophy and a free bag of popcorn, but what he did earn were bragging rights.
“I was afraid I was going to lose,” he said. “My cousin said he was going to beat me but he didn’t. I just like beating people. It’s fun.”
And it doesn’t hurt that tractors and collecting tractors are his hobby. Carr’s mother, Cindiee Carr, said the child everyone knows at “Jo-Jo” has been interested in tractors since he was small, since his father, Terry Carr, would take him for rides on the family farm on Jacksboro Road.
“He was probably only weeks old when his dad would take him out on the tractor. He probably wasn’t even a month old,” she said, adding that her son was also lulled to sleep early on with a ride on the lawnmower.
Work on the farm also influenced Carr’s knowledge of tractors.
“You could put him on any kind of combine, a backhoe – he can operate one in a minute,” she added.
Practice for the Viola event in the beginning began by hauling bricks with his own toy tractor at home a few days prior to the competition, but Carr said he doesn’t do that much anymore.
He’s more confident than he was when he first pulled at age 4.
“We used to do that two or three days before the pull,” she said. “But since he’s got those muscles now, we don’t have to do that anymore.”
Viola Valley Homecoming tractor pull coordinator Debbie Smartt said she recalls Carr winning several times out of the many children who have participated in the homecoming events throughout the years.
“It’s always significant when they’re that interested and compete and be a good sport,” she said. “They are all good sports.”
Children participate in the various classes year after year, with more weight added as they grow in size, and more importantly, weight.
At 71 pounds, the number of bricks Carr has to pull are getting heavier. And when he reaches 100 pounds, his days of tractor pulling in the Viola competition will be over.
“It was cool and I want to keep on doing it as long as I can,” he said. “I think it’s pretty cool that nobody has ever beat me and I hope they never will.”