The National
Tractor Pulling Championships has been putting Bowling
Green on the map since 1967. Started by a group of Wood
County tractor pullers, and soon joined by others from
surrounding counties, this supercharged event attracts
pullers and spectators from all over the nation to Bowling
Green every August. Though the tractor pull's one of
the largest events to regularly come to the area, it
is still a grassroots effort that heralds back to Bowling
Green’s rich agricultural heritage.
Before farmers had tractors to help in the fields, the
earliest of pulling competitions were held with horses.
Dating back to the 1800s, farmers fastened their horses
to barn doors and competed in pulling them the farthest.
One by one, people would jump on the moving door making
it harder to pull. The horse that pulled the farthest
was deemed the strongest. The horse has been replaced
by highly-engineered, spectacularly out-fitted tractors,
and The National Tractor Pulling Championships, the
largest event of its kind in the nation, draws up to
60,000 onlookers through the gates of the Wood County
fair grounds each year. The event easily sells out the
more than 1,700 camp sites available on the Fair Grounds
and fills area hotels and restaurants with crowds of
tractor pullers and the excited fans.
The tractor pull held in Bowling Green is often compared
in scale and importance to what the Daytona 500 is for
racing fans.
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And, the on-track action is only part of the draw to
the event. Spectators can move around the grounds and
interact with drivers and see the powerful tractors
up close, and attractions at the tractor pull other
than the main events on the track include a kiddie tractor
pull for young pullers ages 3-10, who compete early
in the day before the big tractors steal the show. A
tractor museum is set up on site for fans to visit,
as is a trade show for devotees to sell and trade merchandise
and equipment.
Starting in the 1970's the modified division started
to increasingly thrill the crowds which provoked the
drivers to start adding more and more engines and very
soon the tractors lost their traditional look and transformed
into modern day dragsters on dirt. Soon tractors became
single use machines, not used on the farm, making the
"Pull on Sunday, plow on Monday" motto a part
of tractor pulling history. The range of tractors now
entering the pulls has created different classes based
on power. Some divisions include: Two Wheel Drive Trucks,
Four Wheel Drive Trucks, Mini Rods, Open Super Stock,
Diesel Super Stock, Pro Stock, Modified and Unlimited
Modified.
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