When Jarrod Wortmann clinched a berth for the Championship Tractor Pull at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., he was looking forward to making the 341-mile trip out east to compete against the best tractor pullers in the country.

“It’s like the Super Bowl of tractor pulling,” the Montgomery City resident said.

Wortmann didn’t leave Kentucky with a championship, but he earned a fourth-place trophy in the 9,500-pound Limited Pro Stock Tractors division. That definitely pleased his wife Karla.

“I’m proud of him,” she said. “He worked his butt off to do this.”

Held on Valentine’s Day week, the Championship Tractor Pull is one of the biggest events in Louisville besides the Kentucky Derby and University of Louisville basketball. It is part of the National Farm Machinery Show, which is the largest indoor farm show in the country. This year, the event attracted over 70,000 fans.

“I think they said that’s either the biggest or the second biggest event that Louisville holds every year,” Wortmann said. “That’s the biggest money maker for them all year.”

Wortmann competed in an event that ran from Feb. 12-15 at the Kentucky Exposition Center. It was the first time he competed at nationals.

“For the first time, I finally decided to run points,” Wortmann said. “There’s a point system in different organizations and I run the Grand National Circuit this year. I went to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri. I’ve been all over the place running points and I ended up winning the Silver Series points this year for the Pro Pulling League. If you win points, you’ll get invited into the National Farm Machinery Show.”

Wortmann placed fourth out of six competitors at nationals. He finished with a distance of 240.366. Jason Barker (Rhapsody), Dean Holicky (Killin Time) and John Kutz (Diggin Deere) were the top three finishers.

“I had to hit the brake,” Wortmann said. “Hadn’t I hit the brake, I probably would have won it. But that’s part of pulling. Every once in a while, you just have a little luck and sometimes you don’t have luck.”

Wortmann qualified for finals by placing first out of 12 competitors in the preliminary round with a distance of 240.755.

“To compete against the best in the nation, that’s as good as it gets in what you’re running against down there,” Wortmann said. “That’s the best in the United States. When you can run down there and win, it’s a hell of a feat. There have been people who have been going down there for 15 years and never won. That was my first year down there and we won the prelims. I was ecstatic. It was pretty exciting to pull that off.”

Wortmann said he was thrilled to represent Missouri at the Championship Tractor Pull.

“That was the nice part because Missouri doesn’t get mentioned much in the pulling world,” Wortmann said. “It was kind of nice putting Missouri on the map down there.”

Wortmann has been living in Montgomery City since 1990. He lived in a village called Josephville in St. Charles County before moving to Montgomery County. He graduated from Montgomery County High School in 1993.

Wortmann, who owns a business in extreme building services in Montgomery City, has been pulling tractors for over 25 years. His brother, Tony, who owns Advanced Diesel and Auto Repair in Montgomery City, also pulled tractors.

“My brother and I started pulling together in 1999,” Wortmann said. “Then, we started a truck, then we went tractors in 2003-2004. We pulled together until 2014. Then, I built the one I got now myself. I started running it myself and he had one of his own.”

Wortmann’s tractor is named Goliath. He sold it last fall.

“I bought the rolling chassis in 2010 and I didn’t do anything with it,” Wortmann said. “Finally in 2014, I put it together and started running it. I took off 2-3 years in between where I didn’t run at all because I started a business. I had other obligations, so I’ve kind of been going when we have time. This last year, I finally just made a point to run a full series. This is the first time we did it and we ended up winning, so it worked out pretty good.”