Longest farm tractor wheelie-world record set by Mike Hagan

 WHITEHALL, MT, USA -- Mike Hagan, a long-haul trucker by trade, went 5.3 miles on his two rear tires at Elk Park, north of Butte, setting the new world record for the longest farm tractor wheelie.

   “It actually went better than I hoped,” Hagan told Land Line on Thursday, July 24.

  Hagan said he drove on two wheels for about 30 minutes, going approximately 6 to 12 mph the entire time.
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  Hagan, a 25-year trucking veteran and OOIDA member from Whitehall, MT, has been working toward breaking the World Record for the longest farm tractor wheelie for more than four years now.

  Hagan said he decided to go for the record as a way to pay tribute to Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel, a famous motorcycle daredevil who set many Guinness World Records before his death in 2007.

  Hagan shopped around for the perfect tractor for almost two years before finding the right one to break the record – a 1994 Ford 4630, 55-hp farm utility tractor. He spent another two years working on the tractor, using trial and error to figure out how to go the longest distance possible on two wheels.

   “I was looking for something real specific,” Hagan said. “Some of the equipment I thought I would need, like a foot throttle, I didn’t need or use at all. Instead, I steer with my brakes and check my direction with my brakes. I had to learn how to do it with my hand throttle.”

  He said his gauge wheel in the back didn’t touch the ground at all. Hagan’s 9-year-old son, Layne, was crew chief for his dad’s record-breaking feat.

   “I think it was pretty cool,” Layne Hagan told Land Line. “I didn’t really know what to think at first, but it was cool.”

   He said his next challenge is to learn how to ride on his tractor’s two side wheels, but Hagan admits his wife isn’t too keen on the idea. “She told me I had to wait 25 years in between doing these kinds of things,” he said.

  The previous world record for the Longest farm tractor wheelie was 3 miles and was set in Germany in 1995.

Written by Staff Writer Clarissa Kell-Holland and re-published courtesy of Land Line Magazine.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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