Mike & Scott Johnson | 2024

For our next Pulling Hall of Fame inductees, the mission was as plain as the prairieland: Go the distance. Whether that meant climbing into the Semi for another 15-hour haul, boarding a plane to commute between job and hobby, or stacking passes to score pull-off—or even double pull-off!—victories across two championship seasons, fans from West to East were enthralled when the Big J Pulling Team and its “Showdown” showpiece showed up.

The north-central Oklahoma town of Perry is home to Mike and Scott Johnson, owners and operators of Big J Incorporated, a heavy equipment and tank trucking firm. In the mid-1970s, they were partners in the venture with their father, who raised the young brothers on a farm with 500 head of livestock and a grain operation. On those rare occasions when the boys would misbehave, Mr. Johnson’s means of discipline were right in line with the Sooner state motto, “Labor [la-BOR] Omnia Vincit [VIN-kit]”: “Work Conquers Everything.”

“When we would do something wrong when we were little, Dad would punish us by making us work together,” Mike recalled in a 1986 interview with The Puller magazine. “We’d rope cattle or we’d each get on a tractor and try to outwork the other.”

Their competitive nature carried over to their eventual pastime. Mike, the elder by three years, entered his stock pickup in one of the region’s first pulling competitions in 1976 in Enid, 40 miles to the west.

“It got in my blood, and I started going farther and farther to pull,” Mike told the magazine. “One time we went down to Amarillo, Texas… I remember thinking, ‘I hope I don’t break anything, because I won’t have any way to get home.'”

In 1982, the Johnsons went all-in on a dedicated pulling truck, a 1968 Chevrolet with an injected, stock-bore 454, a slipper clutch, and a heavy-duty transmission and axles. They named it “Shake, Rattle, and Pull” and began touring the NTPA’s Region V and Oklahoma Tractor Pullers Association circuits pulling the 5,800- and 6,200-lb. weight breaks.

After winning a couple of state titles, the Johnsons made the jump to Grand National in 1985. They earned a convincing W in Hagerstown, Maryland and landed in second behind Glenn Davis’ “Mean Green” in the 58 points. Before that season began, they had repowered their truck with a distinctively Western brand of horsepower: A 574-cubic inch Arias racing engine prepared by “Nemesis” Modified puller Ronnie Reed. The collaboration with the Kansan evolved into a mentorship for the mechanically inclined Scott.

“A lot of pullers have known Ronnie longer, but I don’t think many know him as well,” Scott said. “We’re fully aware of every part that’s in that motor. But some of the finer figures as to machine tolerances, he doesn’t tell us.

“He learned it the hard way, and now we’re learning a little at a time from him.”

That runner-up finish qualified “Shake, Rattle, and Pull” for its biggest stage to date, the 1986 Indy Super Pull in Indianapolis in January, where Scott claimed victory in what proved to be the last ride for the ’68 sheetmetal.

In the works was an updated look for the Big J entry, and it harkened to one of Scott’s complementary interests: building show cars. The brothers outfitted the Arias and the chassis in which it resided with a 1986 Chevrolet S10 king cab hydraulic flip-top body and an eight-foot bed. No detail was spared in making the three-ton brute a masterpiece: metallic black paint on the boxed frame rails, a plexiglass firewall, and polished aluminum inner door panels embossed with the outline of the 46th state.

The new look was nearly ready for the 1986 GN opener in Meadville, Pennsylvania in mid-June. But the pair agreed that the old “Shake” name no longer fit the showroom-new metal, so the graphics were not yet in place. The white-wrappered Chevy announced its presence with Mike’s second-place finish in the 5,800-lb. class.

By the time the tour stopped in Elkhorn, Wisconsin in July, the “Oklahoma Showdown” livery had been applied. A nod to the Johnsons’ Western heritage, “Showdown” evokes the scene of a score-settling gunfight in a dusty town square. Scott was the victor in the Badger Nationals duel with Davis in the ’62 and then won again in Tomah midway through a seven-way pull-off to assume the point lead in the heavy class.

“We were so excited to be competitive on the Grand National circuit,” Mike effused. “Our belief in the truck and our skills was proving to be true.”

Next came Ionia, Michigan, where a third-place finish behind Davis and class winner Howard Lewis’ “High Roller” knocked “Showdown” off its perch. And the brothers’ championship chances faded further when Scott fell to ninth at the Ohio State Fair Pull. Perhaps the grind of two months on the road had begun to take its toll.

“The mileage we traveled on the pulling circuit was immensely further than most other pullers,” Mike observed. “We’d usually [have to] leave [home] at least a full day ahead of other competitors because it took nine hours just to reach St. Louis.

“Successfully managing our oilfield and cattle businesses required us to be on the job during the week. With back-to-back weekend pulls in the Eastern part of the U.S., many times we left our equipment at another puller’s garage and flew back and forth.”

The Big J Team’s 1986 season was at a crossroads with one Eastern event remaining: Bowling Green. There, the title hopes that had dimmed the previous two weeks blazed anew, as Mike finished third in the 58 and Scott cleared Smith, Steve Jaske’s “Golden Ox,” and Lewis in a four-way pull-off in the 62 to assume a one-point advantage.

“No matter how much you prepare, inevitably things break or conditions don’t work in your favor. Or sometimes it just comes down to our errors,” Mike asserted. “Regaining the lead was so important to give us momentum and carry us forward with added confidence.”

Better still, the Johnsons were headed back to familiar territory, as the season would be settled at the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln, a comparatively short five-and-a-half-hour drive from their home base. Jaske claimed the 58 title despite being surpassed by Mike that weekend. But facing a double pull-off in the 62, Scott and “Showdown” didn’t blink, and they outlasted Davis and Lewis to earn their first crown by three points.

“It was tough sitting on the hot seat for three pulls,” Scott said immediately after the win. “We decided we’d run the same line everyone else was running [and] just try to out-horsepower everybody, and we did.”

Defending their crew cab’s inaugural title would take a backseat to Big J’s business concerns, as work got more time-consuming in 1987. That April, Mike and Dixie had their first child, Myriah, which made travel more challenging.

The Johnsons returned to the fray in 1988 with a completely new, full-size Chevrolet of that model year. The second edition of “Showdown” was powered by a Jerry Janke racing engine and rode on an Engler chrome-molybdenum chassis.

The combination struck it rich immediately, sweeping the light and heavy weight classes in Elkhorn and Lee, New Hampshire around a win in the 58 at Tomah to top both standings tables early on. The duo cooled a bit in Ionia with Mike’s third and Scott’s fifth but recovered with a first and a second in Macon, Missouri. The points pull in Columbus was again a disappointment, but the Enderle Pull-Off bonus round saw the Big J Pulling Team claim two of Kent’s ceremonial checks.

By season’s end, “Showdown” had once more came up just short of the Jaskes in the light class. But this time, the heavy was no squeaker, as the brothers teamed to post a 60-point blowout, with 16-year-old Scott Smith coming the closest.

Despite the final margin, the brothers believe that the second go-round was the more challenging of the two.

“The 1988 [championship] was the toughest because competition was getting stiffer, and everybody was making more horsepower,” Mike explained. “There were more Grand National events requiring additional travel time and expense.”

After proving it twice, Mike and Scott Johnson decided to permanently dial back their full-season schedule. Still competitive, they finished second to the up-and-coming Holman Brothers and “4 Play” in 1989. Then came a fourth in 1990, fifths in ’91 and ’92, and an eighth in ’93.

The brothers also expanded their families. Mike and Dixie had a son, Dakota, who has since married Rachel. Daughter Myriah and her husband Chris now have children Sheridan and Sloane. Kaelee and Tate were brought into the world by Scott and Kristi, who now also have grandchildren Mac and Maebry by Kaelee and Josh and Georgia and Kip by Tate and Lauren.

Eventually, the pair sold “Oklahoma Showdown” to Roger Nelson of Illinois, who regraphicked the truck as “Family Affair.”

“After scaling back [the pulling], we enjoyed many years of growth in our Big J Dozer & Equipment and Big J Pump & Supply Companies, which Scott and Kristi manage daily,” Dixie explained.

At the same time, Mike and Dixie pursued the partnership’s farming interests, expanding the crop and cattle operations.

In that 1986 feature, the brothers admitted that they were motivated in great measure to represent their fellow Westerners.

“The biggest thing for us was bringing the national title back west of the Mississippi,” Mike declared. “When we first ran the nationals, some of the guys from back East told us we were good but not as tough as them.

“We know we can take this truck out and compete against anyone. We’ve worked our way up the ladder.”

Work conquers everything. It conquers fields of 30 title contenders and handfuls of championship pedigrees. It conquers a schedule of seven weekend events and nearly 12,000 round-trip road miles. And it conquers the obstacles of mountain and river, pavement and dirt, breakage and error, obligation and fatigue.

“Me and Scott made up our minds that we were going to come back and win it, and we did.”

The Big J Team went the distance. Twice. And it has earned them and their “Showdown” a place in our sport’s shiniest showcase.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Mike and Scott Johnson, our newest inductees into the Pulling Hall of Fame.