From spectator to competitor
18th Dec 2023
Jim and Suzanne Whitecross caught the tractor pulling bug while spectating at the Eurocup event held at Great Eccleston in 2016. And the opportunity to walk the pits and get close to many teams simply blew them away.
“It was so cool to go and take a close look at the tractors and chat with many UK and European teams,” explains Jim Whitecross. “And my mind was in full over-drive thinking about how I could get more involved with the sport.”
Having only spectated at two Scottish events, Jim says he knew nothing about the sport. Yet on their journey home from Great Eccleston, he and Suzanne decided that they wanted to compete.
“We started to look through adverts to find something,” recalls Jim. “Then a friend sent me a link to a light modified tractor that was for sale in Denmark, with the Ghost team. It used two Rolls Royce Meteor 27-litre V12 engines with a very basic fuel and ignition system, but it was a turn-key tractor and that’s what I wanted. It was the quickest way to get on track and enjoy competing at events."
A trip to Denmark was organised and a deal was done. Because the tractor ran on alcohol, Suzanne named the new tractor Gator after her favourite Burt Reynolds film, who’s main character Gator McCluskie, ran moonshine. Over the next four years, Jim continued to develop Gator. He changed the fuel and ignition systems to make more power, which resulted in Jim making it to the pull-off, on a more regular basis. And at the end of the 2021 season, Jim and Suzanne won the British championship title with Gator.
“It proved to me that power is good, but reliability was perhaps more important,” he says.
Prior to the big win, Jim had spent the previous year thinking about how to develop more reliable power in the light modified class.
“Everyone wants to win,” he says. “Nobody really remembers the runners-up.”
With a fascination for turbine engines, Jim started his research on developing a turbine-powered tractor for the light modified class. Some say this is the toughest class to build a tractor that has bags of power, but still sits below the 2,500kg class limit.
“The Rolls Royce Gnome turbine engine was listed in the ETPC rule book, but they’re few and far between,” he says. “So I looked at more modern engines and eventually found the Rolls Royce Gem, which was used in the Lynx helicopter.”
“I started the process of having the Gem engine passed for competition use, and by Zwolle 2020, this was approved,” he says. “This approval laid the foundations for the development of my new tractor, Gator 2 Lynx Edition.”
Having put the BTPA 2.5t title in his back pocket during 2021, Jim stripped Gator back to its bare chassis and started work on his next project using four Lynx engines. A stronger axle and planetary hubs were installed, along with a used reverser from Dutch turbine team Whispering Giant. Jim then designed two cross-boxes to suit the four-engine layout.
With the help of Ross Agri Services’ St Cyrus machine shop, a CAD drawing was produced and construction started on the cross-boxes. With these installed, attention turned to mounting the engines.
“When you do the work yourself, alongside your full-time job, building a tractor becomes a time-consuming task, and it’s almost an obsession to get things right,” explains Jim. “Anyone who has built a pulling tractor will know, it quickly develops into a massive list of jobs, including fuel tanks, electronics, dashboard – everything is bespoke and made specifically for the job. It’s not a five-minute process.”
The Whitecross family business - Power Washer Services based at Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire - was started by Jack Whitecross in 1983 and is now run by his son Jim and daughter, Liz. PWS provides premium cleaning, heating and workshop equipment across Scotland with a team of 25 staff including mobile and workshop-based technicians.
“The business has to come before pleasure – it’s also what helps to make the downtime much more fun,” says Jim.
While his goal was to have Gator 2 out for a shake-down at the BA Stores event towards the end of the 2023 season, the list of jobs never seemed to get any shorter, and time over-took the completion of his tractor-build.
“This is a project that can’t be rushed,” he says. “The tractor needs to be properly commissioned and inspected before it hits the track. After an absence of two years, we’re really looking forward to getting back on track for the 2024 season.”
Jim would like to thank the following for their help and assistance in making this project happen: Martin Ross of Ross Agri Services; Kevan Whittingham for Mitas Tyres; Bas Liefting of the Whispering Giant team and Izaak Luteijn of the Russian Roulette XL team for advice; Harry Thomson for sourcing engines and building electronics package; Neil Bremner of Grampian Continental Haulage; Simon Ruck of Mac International; Phil Christie of Autotech Kirriemuir; and electrical specialist Rob Inglis for the Racepac set-up.
