Gregg Randall, the NTPA executive director, told PRI, “Pulling is a historic sport that predates the piston engine.” The sanctioning body overseeing the event was the National Tractor Pullers Association (NTPA), an organization that manages dozens of events East of the Colorado River every year. Attending these pulls in person is a tradition that’s easy to understand, given how friendly everybody in the segment is. The crowds helped celebrate the event’s 54th anniversary and were treated to some great action as competitors chased down their share of the weekend’s $250,000 in purse money and contingency prizes. The host for this past weekend’s event was the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association, whose “Blue Shirts”-220-plus club members along with executives and board members-put on an excellent show for an estimated 80,000 fans over the weekend. The concept of harnessing modern horsepower to move a giant, weighted sled down a track continues to attract significant audiences both in person and on television. Pulling has deep roots in small-town America. And you might be surprised at some of the rigs pulling this past weekend their quality is evident in the images and video that accompany this story.īut before we get to the weekend’s competition, a little history: As the tractor replaced the horse across the farm fields of North America, Europe, and Australia, tractor pulls (also called power pulling) developed into a rural pastime. Farmers are no less competitive than any of us, and tractor pulls are nothing if not competitive. Tractor pulls are a literal turbocharged extension of State Fair and 4H events.
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