Tractor-Driving Champs
Grady Piel’s best advice to new 4-H’ers competing in the tractor-driving contest: “Don’t overthink it.” He said, “When I was younger, I always got nervous about it,” but not anymore. He won the senior division of the Hamilton County 4-H Fair’s 4-H Agriculture Tractor Driving Contest.
What’s it take to be the best tractor driver?
Just ask 16-year-old Arcadia resident Grady Piel or 12-year-old Westfield resident Graham Curtis.
Piel won the Hamilton County 4-H Fair’s senior division of the 4-H Agriculture Tractor Driving Contest. Curtis won the Fair’s junior division.
Piel is going into his junior year at Hamilton Heights High School and is the son of Ryan and Missi Peil. Curtis is going into the sixth grade at Westfield Intermediate School and is the son of Ashley and David Estes.
So what makes these 4-H’ers good at tractor driving? “I’ve grown up around farms and tractors and all kinds of different equipment,” Peil said. “It just kind of came natural.”
His dad, a 4-H’er as a youth, also excelled in tractor-driving contests at the Tipton County 4-H Fair.
Piel’s best advice to new 4-H’ers in the tractor-driving contest? “Don’t overthink it.”
He said, “That’s what I did. When I was younger, I always got nervous about it.”
Piel said, “The most important thing with the contest is safety. They’re very particular about how you get on and off the tractors. You have to have three points of contact when getting on the tractor: each hand on something and a foot, obviously. And you have to make sure the power takeoff is off, the parking brake is set, and that it’s in neutral.” As for the actual course, contestants start off in a rectangular space made out of stakes that’s called “the barn.”
It’s his eighth year in 4-H, and he has competed in the tractor-driving contest all eight years.
Westfield Intermediate School sixth-grader Graham Curtis proudly holds up his champion plaque after winning the Hamilton County 4-H Fair’s Agriculture Tractor Driving Contest.
He also shows cattle, two beef steers, at the 4-H Fair, and he has a brother, Brody, 19, a sophomore at Purdue University. He used to show Sheep and Swine.
It’s Piel’s fifth time to win the county Fair competition. During the three years that he didn’t win, he was in the Top 3. In 2021, he won the area competition, which includes surrounding counties, and earned 11th place in Indiana.
Before the competition, he was “pretty confident.” He said, “None of us are super competitive; we’re all friends.” Competitors were from Hamilton Heights, Sheridan and Fishers. Plans after high school? “I plan on eventually owning my own farm,” Piel said. He hopes to go to Wyoming Tech for the diesel program.”
Besides driving a tractor, 4-H’ers in the project take two other tests that include a written test and a photo parts ID test.
Piel said he usually prepares for the Fair by practicing driving a tractor in his pasture.
Curtis has been interested in farming since he was a little kid and joined the tractor club when he was old enough.
It’s Curtis’ third year in 4-H and third year competing in the tractor-driving contest. He gained practice driving the tractor at his grandparents’ house, where he would set up a course and “run it five, six times a day” and sometimes many more times a day, his mom said.
About winning the competition,“It was pretty crazy, I didn’t expect to get it,” Curtis said. “It’s just an awesome experience. Everyone is super nice.”
On competition day, everyone gets to do one practice run, he said. “I did pretty well. It wasn’t my best run but it helped before the actual final run.”
Hamilton Heights High School junior Grady Piel competes Thursday in the Hamilton County 4-H Fair’s 4-H Agriculture Tractor Driving Contest, which he won Grand Champion of the senior division.
So how did this junior division champ do the last two years in the project?
“The first time, it wasn’t my best time,” Curtis said. “But I just really enjoyed it.”
The second year was “probably” his best time; and he made it to the Indiana State Fair, but he said, he “didn’t place well.” The winners move on to the district tractor-driving contest in Hendricks County. He has one brother and four sisters in his blended family.
So what did Curtis do differently this year in his tractor-driving contest? “I really just practiced even harder, and I tried to learn all of the tips and tricks.”
Ever since he started showing animals at the 4-H Fair, he said he always wears a green and white checkered shirt, for good luck.
He said he learned from watching the senior-division competitors. He was to compete in the lawn and garden tractor-driving contest on a course at the 4-H Fair on Sunday.
How will tractor driving help him in the future? “I really want to become a farmer, and these are really good skills to know if I decide to make my own farm.”
In 4-H, he takes 4-H Food Preservation (he froze a mini pizza with bacon, olives and cheese), Arts and Crafts, Gardening, Tractor Maintenance and Sheep.
Favorite fair food? “The milkshakes,” Curtis said.
Piel’s favorite fair food? “Funnel cakes.”
What does Piel enjoy most about 4-H? “The fellowship. Most people are friends. Nothing’s overly competitive. Everybody likes to come to the fair and have a good time.”
Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.