Reaching a wider audience
18th Apr 2024
Super stock puller David Jones has recently been involved in a photoshoot and interview, for an automotive industry magazine called Drive. Produced and published by creative marketing agency Greensquare, Drive reaches the automotive manufacturing industry including cars, trucks, construction and farm machinery, and David saw this as a great opportunity to promote tractor pulling to a whole new audience.
“I have worked with Greensquare before,” says David. “The team provides PR and marketing for Bateman crop sprayers, which is what I use on our family farm. And when Greensquare’s creative director and founder Phil Westwood spoke to me at the LAMMA show in January 2024 asking if we would take part in a magazine feature. I saw it as a way to introduce tractor pulling to a much wider audience.”
Drive is an industry-focussed automotive magazine that reaches CEOs of large automotive manufacturing companies, most of which are Greensquare’s clients. For the interview, Phil Westwood (pictured with David Jones) arrived with a professional photographer to create some behind-the-scene shots of Just Smoky.
The article covers the Jones family history in tractor pulling, from when the sport kicked off in the UK back in the late 1970s, right up to the present day. “We discussed how my dad, John, and my uncle Bill, started out in the sport, and also looked at what got me involved from a very young age,” says David. “And this background of mechanical engineering has also helped by knowledge of engines, while the development experience has also helped me in my farming operation.”
David says the feature looks at how Just Smoky was created, with input from well-respected pullers Peter Clarke and Ron Bultemeier. He says there was also a lot of inspiration drawn from seeing Terry Blackbourn’s super stock tractor Slow Ride make its first runs in Ahoy Stadium in the Netherlands.
“Phil’s article provides great detail about how the sport works, along with the involvement of the sledge team and track crew,” adds David. “We also spoke about the community of tractor pulling and the people we have met across the world in the sport, including many fans and fellow competitors. It’s like having an extended family.”
David also highlights his time spent competing in the USA with Controlled Chaos, a Cummins-powered V8 super stock, and explores his connections with Kevin Campbell of Chaos Fabrications.
“The sport has progressed enormously in a relatively short space of time,” he says. “In just a few decades, it’s gone from being mostly farm-based, home-made engineering into a serious - almost professional – high-performance motorsport that should be seen and understood by a much wider audience. If you like engines and raw power, tractor pulling is an absolute must and you owe it to yourself to attend at least one event. Where else can you get so close to so much horsepower?”
