Knapp and the Screamin’ D earn a Dutch treat

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

It took a lot of time, work and planning for the “Screamin’ D” to get there, and the quad-V8 Hemi-powered Unlimited Modified tractor still isn’t home from the Netherlands.

But it made quite an impression while it was there.

Chuck Knapp, and his wife Dee, made an impression as well.

The organization of the European Superpull at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena in Rotterdam,  the Netherlands, invited Knapp, of Charles City, to be the U.S. guest puller for the 40th edition of the organization’s annual Indoor Pull, which was held earlier this month.

“In the Netherlands, pulling is really big. It’s so big there that their government subsidizes it,” said Chuck Knapp. “Every year one American team gets invited over. They just go down a line. We just happened to be at the top of the line and we gladly accepted.”

Despite a long flight, getting themselves to Rotterdam was the easy part for the Knapps. Getting the Screamin’ D tractor over there — well, that was something else altogether.

“They brought a container to our farm. It took a couple days to load it up,” said Knapp. “It went to Minneapolis. There it sat on train there for a day, then took a trip to New York that took a couple of days. It sat at the port in New York, got on a ship, and we were told it would take about 20 days on the water to get to the port at Rotterdam. It ended up taking longer because it sat in port for so long.”

The Knapps paid for their own travel, but the shipping of the tractor was paid for by the European Superpull organization.

“They told us either they would pay to have our outfit shipped over and back, or would give us a lump sum amount to spend the way we want,” Knapp said. The Knapps took the lump sum and made their own arrangements to get the tractor on its way. The tractor left on Feb. 5, and arrived in Rotterdam on March 8.

Getting the tractor home is still an unfinished story. It won’t be back on the Knapp farm, where they grow corn and soybeans and raise hogs, for at least three more weeks.

“It’s still sitting there on a dock waiting on a ship to bring it back,” said Knapp. “We don’t know how long it’s gonna take to get it home.”

Knapp started pulling about 20 years ago, at local events like the Floyd County Fair. In 2003, he joined the NTPA — the National Truck and Tractor Pulling Association.

The Knapp Team put together the now internationally famous Screamin’ D tractor in 2013. In 2017, Knapp won his third NTPA Grand National title in the Unlimited Modified division.

“In 2013-14 we pulled it as a Modified,” he said. “We did all right, so we decided to step it up to the highest class, which is the Unlimited Modified. So we’ve run there the last three years and won points at it, and that’s how they noticed us. We’ve won a lot of titles here, so they wanted something interesting.”

One unfortunate thing about the Knapps’ trip to the Netherlands was that it was far more work than it was play. In their eight days there, they didn’t have a lot of time for leisure activities.

“We only had one day to actually tour, otherwise we were busy with the tractor over there,” said Knapp. “We had to unload it, get it back together, get it ready for pulling. Then after the pull, we had to take it apart and load it back up. So we didn’t get to enjoy a lot of their culture. I would definitely go back, though.”

They did have a chance to go to the Anne Frank House, something Dee and Chuck really wanted to do. They also got to enjoy some sight-seeing, some fine Dutch cuisine and some friendly Dutch people.

“The food was excellent. If I had to go again, though, I’d go during Tulip season,” Dee said. “You just couldn’t ask for nicer people. They all were very helpful with getting you where you needed to go. It’s a country that I think everybody should visit once. It’s very nice.”

“I highly recommend it,” Chuck added. “The people there are just great.”

Chuck said the crowd at the pull was also very welcoming. When Knapp got ready to take his turn on the track, he was greeted with music — a rousing rendition of “Born in the USA,” as well as a light show and fireworks.

“Americans there are very welcome by the spectators. They treated us like kings,” he said.

The pull itself went very well, although Knapp was hoping he would do better. There were two pulling sessions in the same day — a noon and evening session — against competition from eight different countries. Against the best of the best, Knapp finished with a first and a third place.

“I wanted two firsts,” Knapp smiled. “Here we pull on a 300-foot track, there we pull on a 190-foot track. So that throws you off. Netherland dirt is a lot different than Iowa dirt, so I guess I should be happy with the way we finished. But considering all that, I wanted two firsts.”

Knapp thinks it’s likely he might get another shot someday.

“I believe we’ll get invited again, but it will be a couple years down the road,” he said. “We made a good impression there, and we made a lot of friends in the right places.”