By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
The first BG 4×4 Fest did not disappoint the thousands of people who explored the mud pit, adult and kiddie pulls, car show, food trucks and vendors as participants or spectators.
Under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, the free, family-friendly festivities started with a convoy of off-road vehicles—not just 4x4s, but a whole lineup of Jeeps, Broncos, pickups and side-by-sides—rumbling through downtown Bowling Green on their way from Culver’s/Walmart to the Wood County Fairgrounds.
At the fairgrounds, they were among the showstoppers that were shining in the car show, showing off their power on the Pulltown USA track used in the National Tractor Pulling Championships each year in Bowling Green or barreling through an enormous mud-filled trough.
Navigating the bumps and grinds of the thick-as-brownie-batter mud pit, Henry Strow generously shared the incredible experience with several adventure seekers not lucky enough to have a 4×4 or off-road vehicle.
“This is great. It’s not something that you get to do every day,” he said about plowing through the mud pit again and again in his ’99 Dodge RAM 2500 pickup truck.
“There’s nothing quite like the thrill of getting to do this,” especially since the pickup is his daily drive on more traditional roads, he said. “I’m really happy to see the fairgrounds bringing events like this to town.”
He also pulled the tractor pullers’ sled 241.3 feet down the track with his V-10 engine. After seeing the National Tractor Pull so often, being able to test his truck’s power was a first for him.
That was part of the experience the 4×4 Fest wanted to bring to the event, said Rachael Thayer-London, one of the event organizers.
More than 20 vehicles tested their power throughout the day on the tractor pulling track. Dave Schultz, president of the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association, said he was pleased with the inaugural event, adding that he expects the event to grow as more people hear about it. He and the “Blue Shirts,” as members of the association are called, were already talking about improvements in the sled pull for 2025.
Car show shines
During the Park & Shine car show at the 4×4 fest, Roger Shiffert was proud to show off his 2000 Jeep Wrangler TJ (True Jeep) “to like-minded people and others who appreciate Jeeps,” he said.
He enjoyed talking to folks at the family-friendly event that was only minutes from his rural Bowling Green home.
His beloved vehicle is sort of a Frankenstein. He swapped the original engine with a Chevy half-ton engine and added an International Harvester back and a Ford F350 axle all to increase the Jeep’s “durability and performance,” he said.
Shiffert is “more of an addict than a motorhead, but there’s worse things to be addicted to,”
he said with a laugh. He also doesn’t put the vehicle, referred to by Shiffert’s son Devyn as “The Princess,” through hard-core, off-road travel.
“She’s a weekend cruiser, who gets put away the minute the roads are salted,” he said.
He also doesn’t buy into the #DuckDuckJeep hype, adding a bunch of rubber ducks to the dashboard of his Jeep. Though after someone had placed a “bikini duck” on the hood of his Jeep, signifying their appreciation of his car, he said he would keep that one because “you don’t see bikini ducks.”
Duck Duck Jeep
Mallory Sweet, a member of Flag City Jeepers and owner of Findlay 3D Printing, was all about the Jeep ducks at the fest. As one of the vendors set up in the Pratt Pavilion, he was hawking all kinds of rubber ducks and related memorabilia.
The duck phenomenon went viral about four years ago, he said. As the story goes, a Jeep-owning woman in Canada went into a store and came out with a bunch of little rubber ducks to cheer her up after a tough day. In the parking lot, she saw a Jeep she liked and decided to leave one of the cheerful ducks on the Jeep’s hood with a note “Nice Jeep.”
She posted a photo on social media and the idea of spreading kindness to Jeep owners took off. Jeep Ducking caught on in more than 30 counties and has become a meaningful tradition that celebrates the spirit of adventure and camaraderie among Jeep enthusiasts, Sweet explained.
Inside the pavilion, vendors were on hand to talk about products such as tires, engine lubricants and oils, swag and, of course, vehicles.
One of the most-visited vendors was Nankin Hobby’s R/C (remote control) Crawler obstacle course. The young and the young-at-heart, like 50-something Jeff Zalar from Paynesville, played with the crawlers, attempting to navigate the obstacles across bridges, over rocks and through tunnels.
Spread across the fairgrounds were a Kid Zone with bouncy house and pedal pull, and a full array of food trucks pedaling lemonade, slushies, kettle corn, funnel cakes, spiced nuts, barbecue and sausages.
Thayer-London was pleased with the turnout of the first-year event, which was a collaborative partnership among the Thayer Family Dealership, Wood County Fairgrounds, VisitBG and the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association. Once they determine the proceeds from the event, the newly established nonprofit Local Drive Inc., will give back to Wood County, by providing scholarships to support “up and coming trades and agriculture talent in our community.”
