The Tiller Thriller - 
'The Weyerhaeuser 200'
World Championship Rotary Tiller Race !

If there is one thing the PurpleHull Pea Festival is known for - besides peas - it's the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race.

In 2009, the race is once again sponsored by the wonderful folks at Weyerhaeuser.  The track is 200 feet in length, so we referred to it as the Weyerhaeuser 200 World Championship Rotary Tiller Race.

Begun as a lark at the very first PurpleHull Pea Festival in 1990, it has evolved into a monster.

There simply is no other event like it.  Unique among motor sports, we like to say it is the highlight of the tiller racing season.

'Course, to the best of our knowledge, our one-day event is the tiller racing season.

Souped-up garden tillers from near and far come to compete in the world's premiere tiller racing event.

There are several racing categories, including a "stock tiller" division for those who'd like to till their garden that morning, then compete later that afternoon.

  There are also some rules which have become a necessity.  In fact, after the Great Tiller Racing Controversy of '93, the festival created the World Tiller Racing Federation specifically to address the issue of rules and proper running of the race.

For instance, an officially sanctioned tiller track is 200 feet in length.  Racers - or tiller pilots, as they are sometimes called - must wear shoes.  (Yes, some weren't.)

A complete list of the 2009 rules can be viewed by clicking on Tiller Race Rules.

Download a 2009 application form by clicking here.

  Check the rules for specifics on each category.

For the results of the 2008 competition, go to the news release.

Interested in racing? Simply download the Tiller Race Application, which will be available soon.

If you want to see a motor race you'll never forget, be sure to be in Emerson, Arkansas, June 27, 2009.

You won't regret it.

See you there!

Other Tiller Info:

We have other attractions at the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race.  Check out the Tiller Girls.

Click on tiller audio to hear an audio wav file of KZHE's Dave Sehon calling a previous World Championship Rotary Tiller Race (362K).

We became a true "world" championship race in 1995.  Read about our first international tiller racer, Dominique Niessen, of Holland.

2009 Tiller Race Rules  
 

 


Shane Waller of Junction City, Arkansas, set a new world record at the 2004 World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, tilling the 200-foot track in 5.72 seconds - an average speed of almost 24 mph.

 

 

 




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PurpleHull Pea Festival &
World Championship Rotary Tiller Race
P.O. Box 1
Emerson, Arkansas  71740  USA
Phone: (870) 547-3500 or (501) 315-7373
Pea-Mail: purplehull@juno.com