Jim Weers and his Top Gun machine capped the Nebraska Push Pullers portion of Tuesday's Golden Harvest Tractor Pull with a win at the Washington County Fairgrounds.
“Being last hook, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad,” the Diller driver said. “It worked this time.”
Tractors worked into the night after his victory, pulling a sled in front of a county fair crowd for the second-straight night. Monday's C & C Complete and VSE Antique Tractor & Pickup Pull preceded the events of Tuesday's Golden Harvest event.
“The horsepower. The speed. The smoke,” Arlington driver Max Greunke said when asked what draws people into the fairgrounds' main arena to watch. “It's even hot out and everybody's still out here.”
Weers believes people in agricultural-based communities are particularly interested in his sport. They drive their own tractors every day to get their jobs done.
“They can connect to this as good as anybody can,” he said.
Competing can be addicting, too.
“It's an adrenaline rush, you know?” Greunke said. “A lot of dollars, a lot of time invested into it and you just hope nothing breaks, but my hands are numb right now. It's just an adrenaline rush.”
Arlington driver Lee Petersen and Marty Gieselmann of Blair, meanwhile, have been friends for a long time. The Washington County Fair tractor pull is always worth their time and efforts.
“It's just a lot of fun,” Gieselmann noted.
The setting and people in Arlington for the event make all the difference.
“Hard to beat,” he said.
