Punkin Chunkin - Illinois Style

  Bob & Gregg prepare the Onager for another majestic toss, as the crowd looks on. Those signs back there are 600 feet away - we almost got one!  

Team Carbo and the Onager traveled over 800 miles to Morton, Illinois and their famous Pumpkin Festival in September 1998.  Team Captain Bob Carbo and faithful companion (and grunt) Gregg Bradstock would like to thank all the friendly folks of Morton for a wonderful time at the Festival and the Punkin Chunkin Contest. The food at the festival was great - I just loved those Pumpkin Pancakes! A special thanks goes out to Laura Bouchard of Morton Community Bank and Scott Witzig of RMH Foods for being great hosts at the Punkin Chunkin contest as well as making us Easterners feel very welcome.

Team Captain Bob Carbo (left) and faithful companion and team grunt Gregg Bradstock (right) pose with the Onager. The Onager  wowed the crowds at the Morton Pumpkin Festival as it "flung pumpkin after pumpkin high and far into the air like a Mark McGwire moonshot" on it's way to a  first place finish in the Human Powered division of the Punkin Chunkin contest. Notice the bike which is connected to the winch at the back of the Onager. This is a new addition to the 1998 Onager, so the arm can be cocked back using pedal power. Later, the bike was scraped in favor of a recumbent style pedaling system, which proved to be far more effective.

There was some great competition out there, but this was expected - after all this is the Pumpkin capitol of the world.

This machine, sponsored by Morton Metalcraft took first place in the unlimited catapult division. It's power comes from a whole bunch of large garage door springs, and it's mounted on a flat-bed tractor trailer. They threw over 1,000 feet!

Gregg communes with some of the other chunkers at the Illinois competition ( he is trying very hard not to look too impressed!)

Just like the competition in Deleware there was a Human Powered Division (that's what the Onager competes in) and the Unlimited Division. There were both air canons and catapults in the Unlimited Division, but no centrifigal machines. There were several machines from Deleware that made the long trek from back east to be there.

The overall winner and world record holder Aludium Q 36 Pumpkin Modulator - 4,491 feet! An incredible throw by a very impressive machine!

  Return to Onager Online Home Page.

Construction     Competitions     Firing Sequences    Links    World Tour    Home