Tribute: Joe Shirley, puller and former Midlands club Chairman (1933-2026)
7th Feb 2026
The BTPA is saddened to hear of the passing of 92-year old Joe Shirley. The Warwickshire farmer, tractor puller and former Midlands Club chairman was a well-known figure in the sport.
Joe got involved in tractor pulling after he saw a demo tractor pull at the Royal Show, Stoneleigh back in 1979. That winter many hours were spent in the local scrap yard and the farm workshop, with son Ian and his good friend John Bagshaw.
Joe’s Roaring Rolls - a modified puller - made its debut in 1980. It consisted of a Rolls Royce straight-eight engine from a Coventry fire engine, combined with a Fordson DDN rear end that was sitting idle in the Shirley family’s paddock.
Some fun was had over the next three years, with Joe’s home-made machine, along with some success too. But the team knew that more power was needed. A new chassis was created to carry three Chrysler 440ci V8 engines.
The front two engines were assembled crank-to-crank and the third was mounted above and behind the front two, with power fed into an automatic gearbox then an Armstrong Vickers transfer box, which was connected to a truck gearbox and in to a JCB rear axle.
With Joe’s friend Dick Aldridge involved along with the team, the new tractor was called Knightmare (Mk I), and was the first step-framed tractor to be built in England.
Over the next 10 years Joe and the team enjoyed great success with the Knightmare, finishing 6th in the 1986 European Championships at the Royal Show, Stoneleigh. January 1987 saw the team invited to the first ever indoor pull in Zwolle, Holland. Severe weather, and a lot of snow threw doubt into whether or not the team would make it, and it’s a story that Joe affectionately recalled many times.
“Heading to Dover, the police stopped us at Farthing Corner, Sittingbourne, Kent. The snow was getting to 10 feet high in places and the road was down to a single track, and the Police agreed to escort us the rest of the journey into Dover,” he said. “We watched the ferry come into port covered in ice, and we boarded and set sail for Zeebrugge at 6am the following morning. Zwolle was an indoor pull and the temperature outside was well below freezing. We pulled in two classes in the afternoon and again in the evening.”
In the afternoon session, the team finished 5th in the 7,000lbs class, and 8th in the 9,000lbs class. The evening session saw the Knightmare finish 5th in the 7,000lbs class and 9th in 9000lbs class.
“Back then our transporter was a Bedford with an open flatbed. On the way back to Zeebrugge we were pulled over again, this time by the Belgian Police,” said Joe. “They just wanted to have a look at the tractor.”
“On arrival at Zeebrugge we boarded the Herald of Free Enterprise, which was the same ferry that sadly turned over in the Zeebrugge harbour a few weeks later.”
Knightmare I was retired in 1993, as the team had already started building Knightmare II. This time, it was a five-engined modified using Knightmare I’s three engines, plus two from the team’s store, creating a 2,500hp tractor.
The home-made steel chassis used a rear axle from a Ford truck and the planetary hub reduction units from DAF truck. Knightmare II enjoyed a win at the BTPA Championship event in 1994, held at Great Eccleston, Lancashire.
The team stepped back from pulling for around 15 years but always took an annual trip to Ahoy stadium to enjoyed the European Superpull. But none of them were ready to give up pulling and the now extended team, comprising Ian and son Adam, sister Helen and husband David, plus sister Angela and son Ben - all under joe’s watchful eye - decided that it was time for an upgrade.
Parts were sourced, including a chassis from Dutch team Seaside Affair. And by the end of 2015 the team had all the parts they needed to get back on track. Hours of devotion including weekends and evenings saw the Shirley’s new tractor, The Knight, arrive at Shrewsbury for its first run down the track in May 2016 with son Ian at the wheel, and daughter Helen in support with Joe eagerly and proudly watching on, after transporting the tractor to the event on his lorry.
During his decades of commitment to tractor pulling, Joe got involved with various committees and also held chair of the Midlands club. He very much valued the friendships made along the way.
