Super Banana pulling tractor keeps family legacy alive and pulling

WEST PLAINS, Mo. — Whenever Larry McVey fires up the Super Banana pulling tractor, he has plenty of company on his way down the track.

The modified 1955 Massey Harris tractor, painted in a bright, memorable banana yellow, that gave the tractor its name, holds a million memories for McVey.

As part of the National Tractor Pulling Legends series, McVey and others are keeping alive the early days of tractor pulling.

McVey is a long-haul semi driver, a career that was inspired by his dad, Lloyd McVey Sr., who founded and owned McVey Trucking, based in Oakwood, Illinois.

The father passed along his love of speed to his son.

“It’s still the same. It hasn’t changed since 1974. Everything that’s in it today was done back in 1974,” Larry said.

Lloyd decided to modify a Massey Harris tractor after he decided to leave another high-speed sport — drag racing. He started drag racing in 1968.

Just a few years later, the sport had started to attract major money and those who could not afford to spend big were getting left behind — literally.

“Drag racing got to be where you couldn’t compete anymore. We were just blue-collar workers. We couldn’t afford to buy all the high-tech stuff until after the fact, when it was old, so we were always behind the eight ball,” Larry said.

The Massey Harris attracted their attention because it was a tractor that seldom had problems while pulling.

“A good friend of ours had a ‘55 Massey Harris and he never broke that tractor. Other guys were using other tractors and they were breaking them all the time, when they put high performance engines in them,” Larry said.

He and his father and a whole crowd of others helped turn the 1955 Massey Harris that Lloyd bought into a pulling tractor.

The first order of business was to take the Hemi engine from their 1968 Dodge Dart drag racing car and put it on the tractor.

“There were a lot of people involved with helping us get to where we are today. They all pitched in at the shop after hours and helped my dad build this tractor,” Larry said.

When the McVeys and their friends were building their tractor, so were others who would become competitors.

“It was a better game for everybody because you could build what you needed to compete and do good with it, if you had some brains about you. You didn’t have to have a lot of money back then, you had to have the knowledge and the skills to put this stuff together,” said Larry, adding that before the days of two-day delivery, many parts were made in the shops where the tractors themselves were built.

“Back then, you couldn’t go online and say ship me this or ship me that,” he said.

The name and distinctive color came after the McVeys purchased a new truck, painted yellow, for their trucking business. Larry’s mother, Norma, was inspired by the truck’s color.

“The color was called top banana yellow. Dad didn’t know what to call the tractor and Mom said top banana didn’t sound right, ‘so why don’t we call it super banana?’ We ended up painting the tractor the same yellow as the pickup,” he said.

Even painting the tractor and naming it was a new move back in the early days of tractor pulling.

“Dad was always a showman and he had everything painted. Dad knew you had to look good along with putting on a good show for the crowd, so the people would enjoy it, and he was always a first-class act,” Larry said.

As Super Banana racked up the wins on the tractor-pulling circuit, the McVeys added on to the tractor to stay competitive, including twin turbochargers.

As competition heated up and tractors became more complex and more powerful, the McVeys took another step.

In 1978, Lloyd decided to build a bigger tractor. That left the Super Banana in a corner of his shed and his son with a big decision.

“I spent a lot of time with it. I was the one behind the scenes who was carrying the fuel and the 100-pound suitcase weights, helping build the motor, repairing it, polishing all the aluminum. I fell in love with the tractor,” Larry said.

Lloyd was a man who didn’t keep things around if they weren’t useful. So, when the Super Banana came to the end of its usefulness, Larry said he knew what was probably going to happen to his beloved tractor.

“I said, ‘What are you going to do with the Banana?’ He said, ‘I’ll probably cut it up and throw it away. I don’t want it. It’s useless.’ He didn’t see the reason to hang on to stuff for it to become more valuable,” he said.

For Larry, the tractor was more than its parts or paint or power.

“It was something my dad and I had done together,” he said.

Lloyd gave his consent and the Super Banana was Larry’s.

“I have kept it with me. It moved from Illinois, down to Florida, where I lived for several years, then when I moved to Missouri, it came with me. It’s always been with me. Since I was 14 years old, it’s been a part of my life,” Larry said.

In 1984, Lloyd sold his tractors and his trucking business and he and Norma retired to Florida, where they purchased another trucking company. He died in 2010. Norma died in 2016.

In 2016, Mike Ott, a tractor-pulling enthusiast, and others who were involved in the early days of tractor pulls, started the National Tractor Pulling Legends. The series features trucks and tractors that pulled alongside Super Banana back in the 1970s.

With familiar family names like Vandenbusch, Sweeney and Rathge and tractor names like The Spirit of ‘76, Jerry’s Toys, Heartbreaker and Terraceland Special, along with the Super Banana, the drivers, owners and their tractors and trucks are keeping alive the early days of the sport of tractor pulling.

“We put on exhibition runs to show people how it used to be,” Larry said.

For its part, the Super Banana is as ready to go today as it was in 1971, when Lloyd took it to its first pull, in DuQuoin, Illinois. He won first in two separate classes that day.

“Back in the day, more than 40 years ago, we learned from the big horsepower that we ran. We learned what broke often and we learned to fix it and reinforce it. Today, we’re still running big horsepower, but it doesn’t break often because we made it almost bulletproof back in the competition days,” Larry said.

In August 2023, the NTPL, which mainly pulls at shows and fairs throughout Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, came to Illinois.

NTPL tractors, including Super Banana, pulled at the Half Century of Progress Show at Rantoul, Illinois.

For Larry, taking the Super Banana around on the NTPL circuit is a chance not only to meet up with old friends, but to keep alive the memory of his father and the time they spent together building the tractor and pulling with it.

“Since 2016, I have been pulling on the circuit. The winnings don’t always pay expenses, but it keeps my dad’s name out there,” Larry said.

“My dad and mom made me who I am today. My name isn’t on the semi or trailer or the tractor. It’s not about me. It’s about my mom and dad. That’s how much I loved them.”