CROWN POINT | A simple "go" is too easy for a competition where large vehicles attempt to pull more than 38,000 pounds of weight the farthest.

For them, "green lights, green flag," are the magic words that send the semis, tractors and trucks off with a roar and giant plumes of black smoke.

Fans of John Deere, International Harvester and Freightliner filled the grandstand seats Wednesday for the first night of motorsports at the Lake County Fair. The crowd cheered on competitors from across Indiana and outside the state as they tried to pull the most weight the farthest.

Bob Ziese, 20, of Lowell, started working on the truck he entered in the pull when he was 15. He and his friend Jed Travis, 21, of Lowell, helped run the event with the rest of the West Creek Mudrunners, a motorsports group.

"We work on them all the time," Ziese said.

"We drive 'em, beat 'em, break 'em and fix 'em," Travis said.

For the night's first category, eight semis pulled a sled weighing at least 38,000 pounds on a mud track. Those semis that made it the full 300 feet made a "full pull."

"That's what we've come to see tonight. We've got a full pull," event announcer Dave Good told a cheering crowd after a run from a truck known as "Plum Crazy Binder" from Peru, Ind.

Plum Crazy tied with a truck from Michigan to win the category and the $100 first-place prize. The two were the only semis to make full pulls.

Good, of Kouts, has been an official with the National Tractor Pullers Association for more than 20 years. He likes pulling because it's good, clean family fun, he said. He has watched fathers pass winning vehicles to their sons and daughters and is impressed with the way the competitors help each other out in the pit.

But it's a different story when they're competing.

"On the track, you don't have no friends," Good said.