The 106th Weld County Fair doesn’t officially start until Saturday, July 20, at Island Grove Regional Park, but it unofficially started Saturday evening at the Greeley Stampede Arena with the National Sled Pullers Association Truck and Tractor Pull. The event started at 6:45 p.m.
with a 1972 Ford named “Black Jack” pulling the weighted sled 227 feet across the dirt on the short track in the arena as fans cheered and applauded the first of 44 “hooks” of the evening. The track was 300 feet long. “It’s unbelievable.
It’s a rush,” described Tyler Greene about the sensation of pulling the sled. “It’s like a rollercoaster.” Greene, from Fort Morgan, was one of many participants in the makeshift pit — a gravel lot behind chutes 10 and 11 of the arena— an hour before showtime.
With the triple-digit weather touring the pit, Greene’s preparation for the pull included checking tire pressures and changing the gears on his truck “Kamikaze,” as well as scouting the track surface. Once he gets a feel for what the track is like, Greene determines what gears he’ll run and how he’ll set his air pressures. Greene is in his 22nd year of entering track and tractor pulls, and at Saturday’s pull, he had family close by.
Nichole Ley, Greene’s sister, was overseeing the event. Once a yearly event in Greeley, the pull returned after a seven-year hiatus Saturday evening, she said. Weld County Fair officials reached out to event coordinators about bringing it ba.
