(engines rumbling) - We got them lined up.

They're at the gate.

They're getting ready to go.

(crowd cheering) These guys are absolutely serious about taking first place.

These guys want it more than anything else you could ever imagine.

These guys are a ball of nerves.

There's no fair warning of when that shot's gonna be fired.

(gunshot bangs) And they're off!

(pigs squealing) (announcer indistinctly shouting) (engines rumbling) Once that shot goes off, they're off to the races, and away they go.

- [Narrator] This is the annual Pig-N-Ford races.

Like the name suggests, it involves two things, pigs and Model T Fords.

- When they come around that first round and they come back to the pigpens, if you watch this, they've already got that car shut off a long ways out.

They're using their foot as an additional brake, right?

And they're coming in kinda hot, and that first place driver wants to get in close to the pig pens, drop his pig off, grab the next pig, and now he's gonna do the same thing.

If he slips that start, that's gonna be a bad day for him.

(crowd cheering) Aw, man.

- It doesn't matter how well you practice or anything.

These cars can be temperamental, so you really don't know who's gonna win.

That's what's exciting.

They can miss their crank.

They can miss the spark.

They could do anything.

So you never know, and they could be way ahead, and then something happens.

These Ts are pretty, they make you work for it.

- Yup.

- I would say.

- You're getting the dirt in the face and in your teeth.

You're holding on because you're not getting held in by seat belts, and you got a squirming pig, and you're trying to adjust your spark and read the track and read the other drivers, and so it's really, it's a raw feeling, is how I'd have to explain it.

You know, you feel every element of the race.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] The Pig-N-Ford races happen each summer at the Tillamook County Fair.

Six qualifying heats over four days that culminate in the world championship, and generation after generation, they are a crowd favorite.

- It's nuts!

- It's the only place in the world you can see it.

That's why we're here.

(crowd chattering) - Tillamook County Fair is a really small county fair.

We have approximately 25,000 people in our county, and in four days, there's over 70,000 people that come to the Tillamook County Fair.

(children shouting) - [Narrator] The origins of the Pig-N-Ford races at the county fair go back a century, and the story has been passed down like folklore.

- Way back in the day, there was a couple of dudes that were chasing a pig down the road, grabbed it, shoved it in their Model T, and decided it was a good idea.

"We should do this at the county fair."

- A guy's pig got loose and a guy drove by on a Model T, jump on and they went and caught it, and that's how we started the racing.

(interviewee chuckles) - The fair was just looking for some entertainment, and how this ever came, you know, in 1925, with these guys coming to the fair and saying, "We have an idea."

(Mike chuckles) - It used to be just for show years ago, and so anything went and it was pretty hilarious.

Somebody would jump on somebody else's car or crank start or shut their car off.

They're starting to go.

They'd shut the car off.

They gotta get out, crank it again.

There was just comical things like that.

- [Narrator] Parry Hurliman has been involved in the Pig-N-Fords for 40 years.

His dad raced, his uncles raced, he raced, and now his son races.

- My dad raised the pigs sometimes, and back in those days, there was no limits on the pigs.

You might have 25, 35-pounders.

One year, we had 60 to 70 pounders, and believe me, you could hardly handle those pigs.

So, after that time, we started regulating the size.

(announcer indistinctly speaking) - What'd you say?

(pig squeals) (crowd laughs) Give the pig a round of applause, ladies and gentlemen!

- [Narrator] Ask any Pig-N-Ford participant, and they'll say that the safety of the pigs is first and foremost.

They put designated safety officials at the sidelines, and a racer can be immediately disqualified for any mishandling of a pig.

- [Parry] We're giving them a ride.

They get kind of used to it.

(engines rumbling) - We're here to race.

You ask any racer out there on championship day, "Are you here to put on a show?"

"No.

I'm here to win."

- [Narrator] Ben started racing as soon as he got his license at age 16.

At 18, he won his first championship.

He's now been racing for nearly 20 years and is hungry to win another championship, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, and his dad, Ken Salo.

- Then these pictures here, they go way back in the '70s, I would guess, these pictures.

- There's Grandpa.

- [Ken] Oh, there's a good one when I was in my prime racing.

There's me and my dad.

He was a several times winner of the Pig-N-Ford races, the championship, and then I was too.

My dad and I built this Model T. - The earliest memories I can remember is this T, sitting in here, you know?

- It's been a good thing for me and my son.

(engine rumbling) - We watched our husbands and now we're watching our sons, but there's a generation right behind them, biting at the bit, wanting to get on these Ts.

- Get your pig loaded!

Start it up!

(engine rumbling) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] After four days of racing, the winners of each heat have qualified for the final race, the world championship of the Pig-N-Ford.

- Probably the most unique thing with winning the championship is that you don't get paid one red extra cent for winning that championship.

However, you get to keep that trophy all year long at your house, at your residence, and that's what they're prideful of.

So, a back-to-back win is just amazing because they're bringing the trophy back home, and if you look on that trophy, there's some guys that have won that several years in a row and there's guys that have traded off and on.

So you've won several time and you've got one under your belt.

So your name's only gonna get put on there one way and one way only, and that's if you're that good.

Those are your best drivers for that week that got there, and whoever wins that, I mean, that's a big day, big day in Tillamook County.

(exciting music) - [Narrator] Like in the previous heats, the drivers draw ping pong balls from a jug.

- One.

- [Narrator] The number they draw determines their starting position.

(announcer indistinctly speaking) - [Announcer] Are you guys excited?

(crowd cheers) (gunshot bangs) (exciting music continues) (announcer indistinctly shouting) (engines rumbling) (exciting music continues) - [Spectator] Come on, buddy!

Come on!

Come on, Salo!

(pig squeals) (crowd cheering) (announcer shouting) Go, Salo!

Yeah!

You goy it, you got it, you got it!

(engine rumbling) (pigs squealing) (crowd cheering) (announcer indistinctly shouting) (crowd cheering) (announcer indistinctly shouting) (exciting music continues) - [Announcer] Ben Salo, happy, happy, because he's got the first place trophy, and he also gets to take this one home, and he gets to hold onto that for a whole 'nother year.

That's the special one right there.

It's got all the names on it.

- First year my dad's not here to watch me win.

He's not here today.

He's at home sick.

We brought home the W tonight, Dad.

(crowd cheering) - [Announcer] This is a classy kid all the way around.

- [Narrator] With the race won and the trophy awarded, it's time for one more Tillamook tradition, a victory lap with the dairy princess.

- It keeps us who we are.

It's built into us, into this family.

It's in our heart.

It makes us wanna do it again every year, because we love it, you know?

(gentle music) (no audio) - Great people just doing their thing in their own Northwest-y way.

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