Racing Model T Fords with squealing pigs: A Tillamook County tradition

Traditions grow deep roots in Oregon, but few are as simultaneously silly and serious as the annual Pig-N-Ford races. Like the name suggests, this tradition involves two things: pigs and Model T Fords.

It happens every year at the Tillamook County Fair.

Crowds pack the grandstands. About a half dozen racers line up. The starting gun goes off. They sprint across the dirt track to a set of plywood pens and scoop up a piglet under one arm. Then, they dash toward a Model T. And with a squealing pig under one arm, they crank start their Model T with the other. With a sputter, the old cars —stripped down to just chassis, engine, and bench seat — lurch from the starting line, kicking up a country blend of mud and manure.

And they’re off!

“You’re getting the dirt in the face and in your teeth,” third-generation Pig-N-Ford champion Ben Salo said. “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 a really raw feeling.”

Related: ‘The Evergreen’: Pig-N-Ford tradition endures in Tillamook County

The racers make one lap, come to a sliding stop back at the starting line, cut their engines and dash to the pens once again to carefully drop their first piglet and scoop up a second.

There’s a crazy kerfuffle as the T-s speed in, the racers leap from their seats — sometimes over other cars — jostling elbows against each other and frantically sprinting to crank start their antique racers and get a head start on the others.

For the audience, it’s, well … zany. For the racers, it’s dead serious competition.

“You ask any racer out there on championship day, ‘Are you here to put on a show?’ ‘No, I’m here to win!” Salo said.

Salo 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, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

There’s nothing on the line except pride and bragging rights. But those bragging rights are etched on the side of the trophy. On the brass plate is the handful of family names who have competed against each other for generations.

First started in 1925, the annual event is nearing its centennial.

The origin story of the Pig-N-Ford races has been handed down like local folklore. Racer Chris Hurliman summed it up: “Way back in the day, there was a couple of dudes 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!’”

“Tillamook County Fair is a really small county fair,” said Mike Bentley, the announcer of the event and board member of the 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.”

County fairs are typically held at the end of summer, the agrarian harvest time of year. Today, less than 3% of Americans are directly engaged in farming, yet county fairs remain a summer favorite. As county fairs go, Tillamook’s is a classic: it has the livestock barns with 4-H and FFA kids proudly displaying their animals; iconic rides like the tilt-a-whirl and yo-yo; a once-a-year gluttony of fair treats like cotton candy, Pronto Pup corn dogs and, of course, hometown ice cream from Tillamook Creamery.

For kids, the county fair is the big meet-up and last hurrah before a new school year sets in. For neighbors, the fair is a chance to catch up and show off their pies, plump pumpkins, and perfectly glazed cinnamon rolls. It’s a friendly blue ribbon competition.

It was from this theme of neighborly competition that the idea emerged to take working Model T Fords used on the local farms, strip them down to engine, chassis, and bench seat, and then race them around the dirt track of the fairground.

In its early days, the competition was open to all comers, with participation varying from year to year.

“It used to be just for show years ago, and so anything went and it was pretty hilarious,” said Parry Hurliman, who has been involved with the Pig-N-Ford race for more than 50 years. “Somebody would jump on somebody else’s car or crank start or shut their car off.”

The Model T Pig-N-Ford Association was formed in the early 1950s, establishing 10 franchises that would participate in the event each year and establishing ground rules and standards.

They mandated that each of the Model T’s had to be stock — no secret souped-up engines to give an unfair advantage. And the size of the pigs became capped, making them smaller and easier to handle.

The handling of the piglets is the primary concern of the association. They want to avoid any criticism of animal mishandling, so they self monitor, placing designated safety officials along the track. A driver can be immediately disqualified for any mishandling of a pig.

There are two heat races Thursday, ­Friday and Saturday, with the winners competing in the championship race Saturday evening.

“And whoever wins that, that’s a big day in Tillamook County,” Bentley said.

Kimber Wassmer, who has had many members of her family involved in the Pig-N-Ford races, said there are encouraging signs the tradition will continue.

“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 T’s,” said Wassmer.

The quiet fairgrounds come to life Aug. 7-10 for this year’s county fair. The model T’s will soon arrive and be fired up. Numbers written on ping-pong balls will be drawn from a coffee can to determine the starting order. And the tradition will go on again.

Salo said he hopes to defend his championship from last year, but he knows that with one hand on the steering wheel and another on a squirming pig, anything can happen.

“It’s built into us, into this family,” he said. “It keeps us who we are.”