Summertime in Wisconsin means a few things…brats on the grill, a drink in your hand, county fairs, and tractor pulls. But sadly, this year’s summer is going to look a little different due to the ongoing pandemic. As it is well known, dozens of county fairs have either been canceled or modified, which in turn has put the kibosh to tractor pull season.
Recently the Badger State Tractor Pullers announced that their 2020 season was officially canceled, saying that it was not the choice they wanted to make. But sadly, it was thy had to make as options ran low. Greg Elsing is the President of Badger State Tractor Pullers and has spent nearly three decades in the Wisconsin tractor-pulling circuit. For him, this summer will be quite different. “I won’t miss the pulling as much as I’ll miss the people we go to the events with,” he says.
Each summer BSTP organizes roughly 30-35 events and has about 60 competitors. Elsing says it is so much more than that, though. It’s the whole family that comes along,” he explains. “It’s not just the competitor themselves it’s a family sport.” Much like county fairs, these pulls are community gathering places and a time to see folks you haven’t seen in months. Elsing and the BSTP organizers found themselves in a pickle as most of their events take place at pre-existing fairs or festivals. Only a handful of pulls are at private events. With their venue and audiences gone, pulling the plug was the best option according to Elsing.
The scoring system would also be compromised if organizers were to go through with only a handful of events. Competitors usually have time to accrue as many points as possible at a much larger number of pulls. If only three or four pulls happened it would be difficult to crown a champion in the usual way. This is not the result anyone wanted but the tractor pull community, along with everyone else, hopes that things can get back to the status quo in 2021.
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