Weiser truck and tractor pull huge success

After over 30 years, the night air was filled with the sound of revving engines and cheering fans Friday and Saturday night at Fred Hust Arena.

 The Weiser Truck and Tractor Pull, put on by Believe Pulling Sled, attracted a large crowd of spectators from near and far to witness some of the beefiest trucks in the west pull thousands of pounds of weight across the arena floor.

 Competitors came from Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, and other western states. “It actually went really well,” said Jacob Petero who, with brother Matt, owns and operates Believe Pulling Sled. Both are Weiser High School graduates.

 “This was probably one of the bigger events that will happen this year for pulling,” Jacob said. “We had a lot of great support. Everyone was very happy. Several locals either pulled or supported other pullers or helped out in some way. The Sheriff’s Department and the police department rolled through, and everything went great.”

 Laser Land Leveling out of Boise was on hand to prepare the arena for the competition and Woody’s Towing, which also entered its own truck in the competition, lent its services for anyone who needed it.

 “It looks like we will be coming back next year,” Jacob said. “Of course, we have to jump through a couple hoops and get it cleared with some folks, but it looks like we will have the green light for the same place, date, and location.”

 Competing last weekend were some big names in the pulling world, including Skyler Neibaur who owns Live A Little Productions, a professional motorsports production and event management company based in Idaho Falls. The company puts on over 80 events throughout the year, including the Monster Truck Insanity Tour, Western Grand National Truck and Tractor Pulling Series, Freestyle Motocross Insanity and UTV Rodeos, Liv’n Concert Series, Zombie Rampage Paintball Hunt, and more.

 “We’re off this weekend, which is extremely rare,” Neibaur said on Friday. “We love the Peteros and wanted to come support them, so we hooked on the trailer and headed for Weiser.”

 Neibaur entered two trucks in the competition, “Cheap Shot Re-Loaded,” which ran in the Super Modified Two-Wheel class, and “Shake and Break,” which competed in the Pro-Modified Four-Wheel class.

 Cheap Shot has an astonishing 2,500 horsepower, while Shake and Break churns out about 1,200. Both are alcohol injected, running on methanol.

 Shake and Break, driven by wife Brittany in the competition, has sentimental value for Neibaur.

 “Crazy story: this truck was built the year I was born,” he said. “My dad, who is here with us this weekend, built it with a couple of his buddies in Twin Falls. So, obviously, I grew up with truck pulling my entire life. I ran a pulling organization for 12 or 13 years – it was based in Utah – before I started Live A Little Productions. These two trucks come out of the trailer two or three times a year now, with such little time we have. But we love truck pulling.”

 Neibaur said he is happy to see the sport return to Weiser and praised the Petero brothers for their efforts and the quality production they put on.

 “They have worked their butts off and have come up with a huge payoff purse and, actually, the amount of money they have come up with is unprecedented in this part of the country,” he said. “They’ve put a lot of work into it. We’ve been talking about this since, I think, January or February, so we wanted to come support them, make this a good show, and come back to Weiser every year.”