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TURLOCK — On a night when most of his fellow contestants had a hard time even going the distance, Matt Crow and his custom hot rod tractor had no problem going the extra mile.

Crow’s machine surged to a personal-record distance of 321.2 feet to finish second in the 9,300-pound, super-farm tractor class at Saturday’s combined tractor and truck pull at the Stanislaus County Fair.

Driving his 2006 Dodge Ram diesel, Tony Zuniga of Patterson digs in deep Saturday during the Stanislaus County Fair truck and tractor pull in Food Maxx Arena. Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator

“I had a good takeoff,” Crow said. “I was totally pleased with the whole pass. I thought I’d have first place for sure. You pretty can’t get much better than that.”

Aptly named “Smokin’ Crow,” his tractor sent up billows of smoke through a front-mounted exhaust pipe as the front end lifted twice before powering down the track and virtually out of the arena.

With custom-made tires, transmission and engine components from the Midwest and even Canada, Crow’s six-cylinder diesel engine — capable of producing more than 1,000 horsepower — lived up to the challenge.

Hilmar’s Jeff Perry won the event with a pull of 338.9 feet, bolstered by a super-smoker tractor with a 640-cubic-inch engine.

Crow plans to upgrade his 570-cubic-inch engine to a 640-cubic-inch model in the off-season.

“For a while there, we were all running the 570s,” Crow said. “We’re all good friends, because there are only six of us in California. I’ll be ready to hammer it out again next year.”

Crows Landing resident Matt Crow fills the night sky with thick smoke from his custom tractor as he pulls the competition sled down the track Saturday. The tractor went 321.2 feet for a second-place finish in the super-farm tractor division. Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator

The event, run by John Shipman Motorsports and the Valley Tractor Pullers Association, drew more than 100 tractor and truck pullers.

Ralph Serpa took second place in the 6,000-pound super stock truck pull, blazing to a distance of 194.1 feet in a spruced-up 1972 Chevy pickup. His truck boasted a 540-cubic-inch, 750-horsepower engine.

“The track was as good as Turlock gets,” said Serpa, a mechanic at Thompson Chevrolet in Patterson.

“It’s a soft, sandy track. I don’t like second place, because I would much rather take first place, but we’re doing all right.”

Tony Zuniga of Patterson got off to a good start in the 7,800-pound weight class in his 2006 Dodge Ram 2500, but lost steam midway through his pull. He finished with a pull of 163.5 feet.

“The ground was pretty wet, and it felt spongy,” Zuniga lamented. “I wasn’t able to get a whole lot of traction. I’ll be back out here again next year. It’s just mainly for bragging rights.”

Albert Mendes, a third-generation Crows Landing dairyman, also came up short in the 7,800-pound weight class. His 1997 Dodge 2500 turbo Cummins diesel had problems just seconds into his pull.

“I had some malfunctions,” Mendes said. “The motor just shut off at about 100 feet and that was the end of it. I still haven’t figured it out.

The same thing happened last year. God willing, I’ll be there next year.”