A 17-year old midwifery student has become the first woman to win the tractor-pull competition at one of New Zealand’s most popular annual agricultural events.
Ella Martin was the only female to compete in this year’s tractor-pull at the Northland Field Days in Dargaville, a long-standing feature of the volunteer-run not-for-profit organisation which attracted over 20,000 visitors earlier this month. Martin competed in the event, which involves competitors driving a tractor over a 100 metre course pulling a weighted sledge.
The event tests competitors’ tractor-driving skills, and their ability to make the appropriate gear changes up the track, obtaining the best pulling speed and fastest time.
Martin’s competitors were all men, including her boyfriend’s father (a previous winner of the competition) and the son of the organiser. Only three drivers reached the Finals, which involved multiple stages.
“I’ve been the only girl [competing] for the last two years and it’s a little bit intimidating – they’re all men from my age up,” Martin told Northern Advocate after her win.
“I was stoked getting into the final but then being told that I won was a feeling that I couldn’t even explain.”
The teenager said she competed for the first time last year after seeing her older brothers compete, and has since been practising on a tractor belonging to a family friend, whom she works part-time for on their farm.
Hailing from a family of contractor tractor and truck drivers, she said she was left “quite speechless…[with the] biggest smile on [my] face” after her race win.
She attributed her win to a strong start, adding: “It all sort of depends on how you start. Because if you have a good start and make all the right gear changes up the track you can be pretty successful. The start is probably key to everything.”
The midwifery student at Auckland University of Technology hopes that more women get behind the wheel of a tractor and enter the tractor-pull competition in the future.
“I feel like tractor driving has been made normal for boys and men to drive, but it’s pretty cool to be a girl and know how to do it – although I’m still learning – it’s a pretty good feeling to be able to do it.”
“I’m sort of ready to get back into a tractor,” she added. “It’s pretty cool being able to drive a tractor and it’s good to have it to fall back on when I go home for breaks and that.”