Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Pull has Venue Change

Features Editor, Linda Moody @ Daily Advocate - Greenville, Ohio

ANSONIA, Ohio — The fifth annual Ohio State Championship Pull will be relocating to the Darke County Fairgrounds this year.

Usually held at Eldora Speedway north of Rossburg, the event’s location is the only change in this year’s National Champions Tour Event at 7
p.m. on June 23, 2012.

At the fairgrounds, there will be four national champions classes, two tracks,  E-3 Sparkplug Super Modified Tractors, MAC Trailer Unlimited Super Stocks, Premier Crop Insurance Pro-Stock Tractors and Air Dog Hot Rod Semis.

All proceeds will continue to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), $40,000 of which has been donated to JDRF in four years.

“The annual tractor pull at Eldora Speedway has been a big success,” said Roger slack, promoter and general manager at Eldora. “However, circumstances will not allow us to host it here in 2012. The good news is the Ohio State Champion Benefit Pull for JDRF will remain in the county and will be contested this year at the Great Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville. With the expansion to a national championship event and two full lanes of pulling action, the added lane could hamper our ability to get the race surface in optimal condition for a new major event the following Saturday and the Kings Royal just a few short weeks afterwards.”He went on, “We are committed to assisting the Barga family in promoting the event and have kept June 23 clear in our schedule here at Eldora. As a longtime pulling fan myself, I can’t wait to be at the Great Darke County Fairgrounds to see one of the greatest spectacles of ground-pounding horsepower and brute force that also benefits the community through the money contributed to the JDRF.”

“It’s the same weekend as always. Not a lot will change, just the location,” said Ron Barga II of Ansonia, whose family is active in the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League-sanctioned event. “This will be a plus for Greenville and nice for the community to keep these pulls going. It’s important we keep our home base on board. Over 3,000 people attend each year.” He went on, “They have a great pull during the county fair, and we feel the fairgrounds is an excellent place to be moving to. Fortunately, it was a great alternative for us. It’ll be quite a show.” Barga will miss Eldora but is looking forward to change.“We had a great partnership at Eldora,” he said. “Tony (Stewart) is a great guy. I will miss working with them, but we’re excited about coming to the fairgrounds and to work with the fair board.”

Participants, Barga said, come from as far away as Kansas, New York and, like last year’s winner, from North Carolina. “Last year, Eldora did a license plate sweep and found out that 60 percent of the people attending the pull were from Darke County,” Ron II said.The Barga family finished fifth in the national points last year, according to him.

Tractor pulling has been in the family blood since the family patriarch, Ron Barga, started pulling in the 1960s in farm stock tractor competitions. Today, the family has two super modified tractors with jet turbine engines.

Every year when June 23 rolls around, the Barga family, which is now comprised of a third generation, head for the ohio state championship pull.

Ron I, who works on the family’s 5,000-acre farm with his brothers Dennis and Jeff, continues to compete. Other members of the family include Ron's wife, Doris; their children and spouses, Randy and Janel, Ron and Jessica, Brad and Mandy, Galen, Lee and Darrick, all of the local area; Annette Barga of Toledo; and Maria Barga King of Russia, Ohio. There are also 15 grandchildren.

The Barga children take time out of their busy schedules to keep the family tradition going. Randy, Brad and daughter Maria work on the family farm. Ron II is an ag loan officer for Greenville National Bank and has the Premier Crop Insurance Co. in Ansonia; Galen is an engineer at Cummins in Columbus, Ind.; Lee manages the family egg/chicken business; Darrick, is athletic director and head basketball coach for Ansonia School; and Annette teaches deaf communications at Bowling Green State University.

Forrest Lucas is owner of the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League and for the last two years, several Lucas Oil Pro Pulling league events were televised on CBS Sports, ESPN and Versus.

“We’d like to see it grow into a two-day event,” said Ron II. “We just have to take baby steps to pay for it. We have to come up with the purse money through sponsorships and ticket sales.”

The reason the proceeds from the event go the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is because of its effect on the Barga family. Three of Randy’s four children have been diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes.

Those who plan to attend should know that general admission is $15, a pit pass is $20, while children 12 and under are admitted free.

“I’d like to thank all of our sponsors over the past four years and hope they’ll continue to support the benefit pull,” Ron II concluded.