BOWLING GREEN, OH (WTOL) - Tens of thousands of people will be flocking to Bowling Green, Ohio and it's all to experience the horsepower of the National Tractor Pulling Championships.
Hotels and restaurants are packed and businesses are running out of beer.
The goal is to see who can pull the most weight the furthest down a dusty 300-foot track.
The pulls began Thursday night, a significant change from previous years. That means no more Sunday pulls, which is what fans and competitors wanted.
"They really wanted us to have Sunday as a travel day," according to pull media director David Schultz. "The crowds weren't as big as what they were on Fridays and Saturdays"
Adam Koester travels the nation competing in tractor pulls on his mini-modified puller. Bowling Green holds a special place in his heart.
He not only met his wife at the championships, but he proposed to her there as well.
"The idea was to finish really well, end up in the winner's circle and I ran terrible that weekend," recalled Koester.
Koester said not only has Bowling Green made an impact on his personal life, but the tractor pulling championships are a career-changer too.
He's already in Bowling Green, preparing for a full pull this weekend.
"The crowd sizes and the campers and all the hoopin' and hollerin' and all the people. It's just the best one we go to," said Koester.
There are be more than 330 competitors, around 90,000 spectators and $37 million coming to the local economy in just a matter of days. That's according to the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association. They did a study just to see the impact the massive event has on northwest Ohio.
"There's plenty of refreshment sales, plenty of food sales. The hotels around us, we have 2,100 camp sites. Just those people are the ones staying so let alone all the ones who are coming in, traveling day trips and stuff like that," said Dave Schultz with the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association.
