Blue Belle

Blue Belle was built in 1984 by John Schroeder, Michael Van Tilberg, and several others from the Australian Army base at Sale in Victoria. Blue Belle ran a 318 Chrysler V8 and made its debut at Briagolong in 1984.

The name Blue Bell was a nickname that servicemen and women gave to mechanics and workshop hands. Blue Bell featured a sticker on the side that read "Army Reserves," which shortly became an issue for the Army at the time.

They saw it as bad publicity, so the sticker was removed and the tractor was renamed Blue Belle to minimise connections with the Australian Army.

When the group had spare time, they would take Blue Belle for laps around the army base.

One day, Michael thought he would try rolling backwards and then doing a burnout in the tractor. It didn't go to plan at all. The wheelie bars went through the tin walls of a building, broke a chair on the other side, and also damaged a picture frame.

To avoid getting in trouble, the boys ran to the hardware store and got another sheet of tin and some paint that was a slightly different colour. They swapped the broken chair for another one from a different building, and for the picture frame, they smashed out the rest of the glass so it looked less obvious. All their work paid off, because no one ever noticed.

When they were finished with the tractor and had their fun, John got to keep it. He competed until Blue Belle was retired a year later.