Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Caitlin Fischer's father, Dennis, coaches her for competitions.

It's Saturday afternoon, and 15-year-old Caitlin Fisher has just finished straightening her naturally curly brown hair.

Her brow sparkles with glittery eye shadow and her bronzed skin looks flawless.

She hops in the family's Dodge pickup truck with her parents, Dennis and Aida Fisher, who will be her chauffeurs for the night. But they're not going to her friend's house or the movie theater.

They're going to a tractor pull.

"I just really wanted to do something different," said Caitlin, a former cheerleader at Blacksburg High School who turned in her pompoms last fall and joined the Mountain Empire Antique Tractor Pull Club.

"That's probably the main reason I decided to get into it. Tractor pulling's definitely not the normal thing that most girls in high school do."

She's right about that. She's not only one of the youngest members of the Mountain Empire club, but also one of the few female pullers at competitions in Virginia and West Virginia. And chances are, she's the only one wearing makeup and Abercrombie & Fitch jeans.

"When most people think about the tractor pulls they think there's a group of old men who have drug out their old tractors," said LeJeanne Cassell, secretary of the Mountain Empire club. "She definitely stands out." Out of 100 or so competitors at an average event, only a handful are females, said Dennis Cassell, club director.

Tractor pulling is just what it sounds like. In the past, farmers would get together, hook up their tractors to a heavy sled and see who could drag it the farthest. Now, the concept is still the same but it's not just for farmers and dirty tractors anymore.

Caitlin doesn't just represent the changing face of tractor pulling, however. She's got real talent on the tractor, and 65 trophies -- 18 of which are first-place titles -- to prove it. Caitlin has also won two first-place points championships, all in 2¹₂ years.

"I guess I just have instincts for it," she said. "It's like I can feel something before it happens and then I can make adjustments."

Caitlin first set her sights on tractor pulling during the family's annual visit to the West Virginia State Fair in 2004.

"We'd see some girls out there pulling and I just thought it was so neat," she said. "They looked pretty cool up on those tractors."

Though they were initially hesitant, Caitlin's parents gave the OK.

"I couldn't have imagined that she'd be doing this now," Aida Fisher said of her only child. "She was my little dancer and gymnast for so long. But I could just tell that in her heart she really wanted to do it. And she's one of those people that when she sets her mind to it, she'll do it."

The Mountain Empire club only allows tractors from 1959 or before, so jazzing up old tractors has become somewhat of a hobby for the Fishers. Dennis Fisher is a Blacksburg firefighter and superintendent of the Christiansburg Solid Waste Treatment facility; Aida Fisher is the office manager at a Carilion Clinic medical office in Blacksburg.

"We wanted something she could be competitive with," Dennis Fisher said of the tractors. "There's a lot of work involved in getting them back in good condition. We repaint them, make sure the gears are running good and get new parts if they need it."

Caitlin has done particularly well on her shiny red 1951 Allis-Chalmers tractor. She rides it in the 2,500-pound weight class and has had 38 top-five finishes with it. Last year, Caitlin drove it to victory at the West Virginia State Fair.

The Fishers have also refurbished three other antique tractors: a 1937 John Deere, a 1951 Farmall, and Caitlin's personal favorite, a little green 1949 John Deere.

In its original condition, an antique tractor can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. Finding a good one also takes a little digging around. Caitlin's tractors have come from local people, friends of friends and even eBay.

While the Fishers do love their tractors, they also love the pulls.

"It's like we're a family," Dennis Fisher said of the events. "You'll go to these different pulls and see different tractors from place to place, but it's pretty much the same core group. Everyone is really friendly."

Most are, that is. Caitlin has been called a redneck and made fun of for her hobby. But she takes it in stride.

"I don't care what people say, I really don't," Caitlin said. "More people know more about it now, though, and in school, people will come up to me in the hall and wish me luck on my next tractor pull. It's nice."

The tractor pulling season generally starts in late spring and wraps up in the early fall. With 17 scheduled pulls and a few championship titles she's vying for, Caitlin has a lot on her plate this summer. Today, she'll be in Rural Retreat, pulling with the '51 Farmall for the first time.

"It's definitely my thing and I'll keep doing it as long as I can," she said. "I like it all ... the different tractors, meeting cool people. But my favorite part is definitely winning the trophies."