Decatur team restores '66 JD to capture runner-up national title

By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

Traveling with their project for the ChevronTexaco Tractor Restoration Competition in Louisville, Ky., were Decatur team members (from left) Billy O'Connor, Yates McCurdy, Garrett Miller, Scotty Moore, Laramie Redwine, Mitch Bradford, Neal Llewellyn, Shane Raney, Kris Handlon. In front is Patti Clark from ChevronTexaco. -- Courtesy photo

Nov. 11, 2004 - A Decatur FFA team has earned the First Runner-up title following a national tractor restoration competition held recently in Louisville, Ky.

The Decatur team was one of four FFA chapters from Texas who were selected as finalists for the ninth annual ChevronTexaco Tractor Restoration Competition.

The Texas FFA team from Cotton Center captured the top Grand Prize win. The Second Runner-up team was from Abernathy.

Rivercrest FFA was also invited to the competition as a finalist.

Decatur captured their title with a 1966 John Deere tractor. Decatur FFA advisor Rick Elmore noted the tractor was found in Florida, and had been transported to Iowa. Elmore and a couple of boys traveled to Iowa and brought the tractor to Texas.

Because the tractor had "spent its whole life in Florida," much of its sheet metal was in poor condition, Elmore related. The Decatur FFA team spent eight months, working days, nights, weekends, and holidays to finish the tractor.

Elmore noted the hardest part of the restoration was finding and replacing the missing components. "There were only 103 of these tractors ever built, so that made finding parts very tough," he said.

Decatur team members were Cody Hubbard, Billy O'Conner, Laramie Redwine, Neal Llewellyn, Shane Raney, Tanner Slagle, Mitch Bradford, Ben Saunders, Kris Handlon, Logan Park, Scotty Moore, and Yates McCurdy.

This was not the first year Decatur has entered the tractor restoration competition. "Last year we did the same contest with ChevronTexaco and won. We thought we could win again, but we got reserve," said Elmore.

Already, the group is already preparing for next year's restoration project - a rare and highly collected John Deere Lindeman Crawler, Elmore added.

All entrants in the ChevronTexaco Tractor Restoration Competition were required to submit a workbook that explained their tractor restoration process, in detail, from the mechanics of the tractor, to the physical appearance.

From entrants all across the country, six FFA chapter finalists were selected for the national competition in Louisville, Ky., where they presented their projects. Judges considered the restoration process, documentation, safety precautions, and oral presentation of the project.

Besides the team honors, the competition also recognized individuals. Two of the eight individual finalists were from Texas: Tyler Raska of Wallis and Randolph Haass of Devine. Haass was awarded first runner up for his restoration work on a 1941 Case.

The first tractor restoration competition of this kind was held in 1995. This year's competition was part of the 77th National FFA Convention during the last week of October.