Called “Dega Demo Day,” Thompson Tractor hosted an event at Talladega Superspeedway on April 4 to showcase Caterpillar’s newest Tier IV BCP products. It was a picture perfect day for attendees to view and/or demo the new K-Series wheel loaders, F-Series backhoes, K2-Series dozers, E-Series mini-excavators, D-Series CTL’s and MTL’s and B3-Series skid steer loaders. Guests saw an incredible array of Cat machine displays in the infield of Talladega Superspeedway and then enjoyed a barbecue lunch in the garage area with other service and supply vendors displaying their products. And most of the crowd took the ultimate opportunity of putting on a fire suit, strapping on a helmet (and HANS device of course) and jumping into the passengers seat of a race car for some fast-paced laps around the track as a part of the Dale Jarrett Ride Along Experience.

In the equipment demo area just outside the track, Cat representatives went over the features and attendees got a hands-on demo of the new Cat 930K wheel loader and D5K2 track type tractor.

After running the Cat D5K2 track type tractor, Tristan McCulloch of Archer Western Contractors, Birmingham, Ala., said, “It ran smooth and I like the pitch control, makes a big difference. On other machines, once you get a full blade, if it starts to slow down, you need to pick the blade up a little bit. But on this you just angle the blade and keep going. I like it, I want one.”

Fred Odom of SDR, based in Millport, Ala., demoed the new Cat 930K wheel loader and was quite impressed with the machine. “We buy a new loader at least every six months and this 930K is a nice advancement on the 928H’s we bought last year.”

Meanwhile at the track, after his first ride along in a race car on Talladega’s 2.66 mi. superspeedway, Dell McDonald, of McDonald Brothers Construction, Huntsville, Ala., said, “It’s just incredible, phenomenal! I’ve been coming to Talladega for 15 years and actually being in a car going about 175 mph gives you a whole new perspective of the track.”

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