One Week. 15+ Team Members. One Legendary PullTown.

We covered the National Tractor Pulling Championships for a ninth year in a row…

L to R: Phil Myers, Autumn Stevens, Chris Aldrich, Zak Kolhoff

For us at Toledo Aerial Media, the 59th National Tractor Pulling Championships didn't start when the first truck or tractor hooked to the sled.

It started Monday.

We loaded an entire production studio into a U-Haul trailer, left Toledo around 9:30 a.m., and by 1:00 p.m., we had our temporary Pulltown studio unpacked and ready to go.

That's one of the things people may not realize about what we do at the National Tractor Pulling Championships. We aren't simply showing up with a camera to photograph a few pulls. TAM is a full production studio, and for one week every year, the Wood County Fairgrounds becomes our home base.

And this year, we left it all out there.

Before the First Hook

Autumn and Zak interview Karen Owens, Blue Shirt

Monday through Wednesday were all about preparation, storytelling and interviews.

With our cameras, lighting and audio permanently set up, we were ready to sit down with more than 20 people throughout the week. Some of those interviews were for the NTPC itself, while others will become part of Season 5 of our Behind The Hook series.

This year's interviews included Behind The Hook drivers Adam Bauer, Kent and Sandy Payne, and Ryan and Blake Debroux, along with Adam's dad, sled creator Vaughn Bauer, and Lori Bauer. We also sat down with members of the Blue Shirts and their president, Dave Schultz, as well as NTPC announcers Miles Krieger and Dan Mayer.

For Behind The Hook, these conversations gave us a chance to catch up with the teams after visiting their hometowns earlier in the summer. We already knew their names and personalities. We knew more of their stories.

That changes the way you tell a story.

One of the interviews that really stood out to us was with Blake Debroux. He's typically a little quieter, but after spending more time with him throughout the season, we watched him really start to open up. Those are the moments we love capturing—not just what happens on the track, but who these people are when the helmet comes off.

And then there were the conversations about Pulltown itself.

The Blue Shirts of the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association are all volunteers. They work year-round preparing for the National Tractor Pulling Championships and spend the entire event week making sure everything runs smoothly.

They help make Pulltown long before the fans and pullers arrive.

But once those fans and pullers show up, they help bring the place to life.

That's what makes Pulltown different.

Then Thursday Arrived.

There is a moment every year when everything changes.

The first hook.

The engines fire. The crowd reacts. The track comes alive. And suddenly, after days of preparation, interviews, equipment setup and scheduling, it's time.

Here we go.

There is an adrenaline that comes with that first hook that is difficult to explain unless you've experienced it. For our team, that adrenaline quickly turns into a drive to capture the stories happening all around us—to find the best hooks, the furthest pulls, the biggest moments and the little moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.

We want people watching our content to feel like they are there.

Actually, we want them to do more than see it.

We want them to hear it, feel it and smell the horsepower.

Smoke is an iconic part of truck and tractor pulling. It's visual proof of the power being put to the track. And when you combine that smoke with the sound of the engines, the crowd and the intensity of a pull, you get something that is almost impossible to replicate anywhere else.

Pulltown isn't just something you watch.

It's something you experience.

A Production Team Built for Pulltown

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are a massive production effort for our team.

Each morning starts with our whiteboard and a schedule. From there, Autumn, our Marketing & Project Coordinator, sends the team out to capture what we need—whether that's content for the NTPC's social media channels, footage for Behind The Hook, photos of the atmosphere or the next must-have shot from the track.

And that's a lot of content.

TAM manages the NTPC's Facebook and Instagram throughout the year, so we're not just responsible for documenting three days of pulling. We're constantly thinking about the Pulltown story and how to keep fans engaged before, during and after the event.

This year, we had four full-time TAM staff members and 11 contractors and freelancers working across the event.

Everyone had a role.

Phil handled a large portion of the aerial work, finding perspectives and timing shots that simply can't be recreated from the ground. Zak focused heavily on video and our Behind The Hook teams, making sure drivers and crew members were mic'd up and that we were there for the story as it unfolded. Chris captured the atmosphere of Pulltown through photography and emotion-filled video, especially on the track.

Autumn kept the entire operation moving—coordinating schedules, communicating with the team and managing the NTPC's social media throughout the weekend.

And Josh, our FPV pilot, got as close to the action as possible, flying alongside the vehicles and even into the smoke.

When a Behind The Hook team hooks to the sled, it's all hands on deck.

Three or four people may be working together to make sure we capture that pass from every angle we need—the driver, the crew, the machine, the sound, the emotion and everything that happens between the hook and the finish.

Everyone has to be in the right place at the right time because once that vehicle leaves the starting line, there is no second chance to capture the moment.

And We Tried to Capture Everything.

This year, we created more content at NTPC than ever before.

On Facebook alone, the NTPC page generated more than 3.8 million views and gained more than 2,700 followers during the event.

Those numbers are exciting, but what we're most proud of is the organization behind them.

There is always the temptation to think, What did we miss?

This year, we walked away feeling like we captured almost everything we wanted.

The horsepower.

The smoke.

The people.

The emotion.

The atmosphere.

The tradition.

The scale of Pulltown.

The Longest Week of the Year

The schedule gets a little ridiculous.

Monday: 8:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.

Tuesday: 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Wednesday: 8:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m.

Thursday: 8:00 a.m.–11:30 p.m.

Friday: 8:30 a.m.–12:30 a.m.

Saturday: 9:00 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

By the late nights, we start getting a little slap happy.

Someone says something that probably isn't even that funny. Someone else loses it. Then we're all laughing until our cheeks hurt.

It's exhausting.

It's chaotic.

And honestly, we have a freaking blast.

Sunday is when everything finally starts moving a little slower. We tear down our temporary studio, load everything back up and move the entire operation back to our downtown Toledo office.

Then Monday is supposed to be a day off.

Most of us slept.

Chris, however, had a Drone Golf Ball Drop.

He really took one for the team.

By Tuesday, we're back at it.

Because even during NTPC week, our other clients still need us. TAM doesn't stop being a production studio just because we're in Pulltown. We still have projects, clients and deadlines waiting back in Toledo.

That's part of what makes this week such a huge undertaking.

Why We Keep Coming Back

The National Tractor Pulling Championships is our favorite event of the year.

Not because it's easy. It absolutely isn't.

It's because we've learned so much about this sport and the people who dedicate so much of their lives to it.

We have an incredible amount of respect for the competitors, teams and families who pour time, money and energy into pulling. We want to see them succeed. We want to help grow the sport. And we want to tell their stories in a way that makes someone who has never been to Pulltown want to experience it for themselves.

Every year, we learn more.

And somehow, every year, we love it more.

This year was no different.

If anything, the 59th made us even more excited for what's next.

There's Still More to Come

We're still sorting through footage, editing stories and going through the mountains of content we created throughout the week.

We know there are still stories sitting on our hard drives waiting to be told.

That's especially true for Behind The Hook. Season 5 will continue following these teams and drivers, and we'll get to see how their season ends after everything they've put into it.

And we're already looking ahead.

Because next year, Pulltown celebrates 60 years.

We can't wait.

The 59th NTPC was legendary.

We had a freaking blast. We left it all out there, and we're incredibly proud of what our team accomplished throughout the week.

If you've never been to Pulltown, our advice is simple:

Bring your earplugs.

Bring an open mind.

And come learn what it means to get a Full Pull.

We'll see you at 60.