A slice of Americana featuring the “world’s heaviest motorsport” will greet visitors to Paquette’s Farmall Tractor Museum.
Tractor pulls Friday and Saturday aren’t about speed. Instead, brute force and distance are keys to determining the strongest of about 40 modified machines and drivers competing for trophies and bragging rights.
The events take place at the 45,000-square-foot museum, which opened in 2010 and is dedicated to the preservation of International Harvester farming and construction equipment. The museum attracts nearly 10,000 visitors annually from around the world.
“We had some people who came to Orlando recently from England and they were not interested in Disney. They came all the way here just to see the tractors,” said Stewart Paquette, 77, who moved to Leesburg from New Hampshire in the 1970s.
Paquette created the museum after he purchased a model 560 International Harvester tractor and experienced his first tractor pull after retiring from his construction and paving business.
“He won his first pull and got tractor fever,” said his niece Jennifer Sidelinger, 53, who works alongside her uncle at the museum.
Shortly thereafter, he bought four more tractors at an auction in Vermont and the collection grew to more than 150, which are all restored to their former glory by himself and fellow staff members, and are now on display at the museum. A major attraction at the museum is the Garrett twin-drive Farmall 400 — the only one ever made.
“It was a big undertaking to begin with and ended up much bigger than we planned but this is about America and it is our past. There are about 1,500 tractors being scrapped each day and soon the parts for these tractors and older parts for cars will be impossible to find. We want to preserve this history.”
Now, Paquette’s goal is to collect at least one of everything the company manufactured from 1902 to 1985. At one time IH employed 200,000 people in 66 countries and even made air conditioners and solar engines, according to Paquette.
Tractor-pull admission is $10 for adults and free for kids 10 and under. Pulls start at 3 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday. The museum will be closed during the event. For more information, call 352-728-3588 or visit stewsihstuff.com.