If you’re more of an urban person, chances you've ever used a rototiller are pretty low. Some would say it’s that motor-driven machine with rotating blades used by farmers for breaking up or tilling the soil. Wrong. It’s a vehicle people in Emerson, Arkansas, use to race each other at the annual world championship held during the PurpleHull Pea festival. There’s even a $500 prize for the fastest “racer”.
It started off as a prank, a joke that would cheer up the local community, back in 1990 by farmer/citizen-reporter Glen Eades. “We were so boring we didn’t even have a cop”, Glen explains on the annual event’s website. Then, he approached the mayor about beginning a festival that would pay homage to the one major delicacy grown in every local backyard garden, the purple hull pea (thus the name of the event).
Along with the new festival the funny farmer also thought to organize a unique racing event. Even though people would initially think he was losing it, Glen’s ideas prevailed, and today Emerson is host to one of the most unusual festivals in the south.
How does it work
According to the ones that invented it, there are several racing categories and also some rules which “have become necessity”. There is even a World Tiller Racing Federation created exactly for that, back in 1993. For instance, an officially sanctioned tiller track is 200 feet (61 meters) long. Racers – or tiller pilots, as the locals name themselves – must wear shoes.
There’s a Tiller Goddess
Then, as any motor sport, this unique type of racing also has its female attraction, The Tiller Girls. Rules are that, during the race, a team of Tiller Girls roams the crowd. They’re there for two reasons: “visual stimulation” and to take up donations (of course). The Tiller Girl who collects the largest total amount of donations earns points toward winning the title of Tiller Goddess. The money will then go to a special found locals are using to purchase a property upon which they will build a park.
We found some video footage taken at this year’s event which we listed below just in case you want to join the race next year.
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