Just one tire remained intact on the Silver Bullet, smoke billowed from the Pihl combine, and Tow Mater no longer had rear tires. They and the two other combines in the final heat of the Banks BBQ Combine Derby were out, leaving just two contenders: Captain America, and the Hulk.
The crowd's roar of approval chose the winner: the Hulk's Jeff Duyck, who described himself as from the Forest Grove and Gales Creek area, is the 2025 Combine King. It's his second year in the derby, and during his debut in 2024, he placed second, narrowly defeated by 2024 Combine King Jarod Rigert, who drove the Silver Bullet.
"So I got second, and first, I'm good!" he said in remarks between repairing the Hulk.
"Yeah, it was fun," he said.
This year, it was a family affair: with the recent acquisition of a Massey Ferguson 860 and with the help of the extended Duyck clan, the Duycks got 'Wonder Woman' as the combine was dubbed ready for the derby in about two weeks to add to Jeff's green Hulk.
Candace Duyck, Jeff's wife, drove it, making her believed to be the first woman to compete in the combine derby.
Wonder Woman, disabled by mechanical woes in a prior heat, didn't make it to the final round.
"Now we gotta weld a little pipe around the valve stems, because somebody got in there and hit her valve stem, popped her tire," he said.
He plans to outfit both combines with the upgrade.
"We're learning," he said.
"I've wanted to do it for a long time," Candace Duyck said. "I just finally had the opportunity to buy a combine and the help to get it fixed up," she said.
"We just bought that combine two weeks ago," she said.
She encouraged any other women interested in competing to join the fun.
"Get out there and do it. It was awesome," she said.
"The hard part is, you've gotta have a combine, and you've gotta have a place to store it," she said.
"It was pretty incredible," she added. "Getting out there with the big boy toys, getting to play with the big dogs, be one of the big dogs," she said.
Other people found success at the 89th Annual Banks BBQ Truck & Tractor Pull.
On Saturday, the fifth annual cornhole tournament to benefit Banks Youth Football was held. The winning team, "Papa with the Tony Hair & Asher," was made up of Asher Ackerman and Randy Sloan.
In second place was Ebony & Ivory, which began with Dwayne Villarin and Eric Bunn, and ended with Villarin and Ashton Crossen.
At the kids pedal pull was Zander Collins, 10, of Wilsonville. He met his mark, a red bar on the ground, straining against the weight in the trailer on the pedal-powered "tractor" he drove.
Eve Bollmeier, 13, of Banks drew cheers for a skillful display of climbing, managing to snag multiple bills totaling $50 at the grease pole competition.
The Banks Post will publish additional photos Monday after our images and videos are uploaded.
