Rick Belanger maneuvered his vintage John Deere tractor in a 360-degree turn.

“I have to go add more weight,” he said.

Belanger wasn’t going off to drink a milkshake. He was adding weight to the rear of the machine to help him pull 11,000 pounds of cement before a cheering audience. It’s a ritual that takes place several times a year at Belanger’s Ponderosa Salvage Yard in Epsom.

While most of the pulls are one-day affairs, he held his annual two-day pulling festival the weekend of May 16.

Belanger takes his pulls seriously. He’s created an arena on a back lot at the Ponderosa, complete with bleachers, a dirt track for the pulling, and a tent where scorekeeper Terry Hillsgrove announced the winners by microphone.

Charles Mewkill of Pittsfield is the pullmaster.

“Basically it’s like a horse pull, with different weight classes, he said. “You keep adding more weight until you can’t pull any more.”

Mewkill runs tractor pulls for Belanger and at various Old Home Days and fairs around the state. “They get two tries, and the goal is to pull it at least 10 feet,” he said.

The huge machines waited just outside of the pulling area. A vintage Farmall backed up to the pulling area, and volunteer Ray Hillsgrove attached it by chain to the skid full of cement blocks. The Farmall spun its wheels, smoke belching from its metal chimney, as the two front wheels left the ground. Volunteer Steve Bennett stood at the rear with a tape measure, and called the results to Terry Hillsgrove. Hillsgrove wrote the measurement on her clipboard, and as the Farmall lumbered off, two more volunteers raked its tracks out of existence for the next competitor.

Belanger’s pulls are family affairs. Wives, girlfriends and noncompetitors cheered from the bleachers while children played with smaller tractors and trucks in a sandy area.

Ray Hillsgrove watched an antique Ford tractor strain at the load. He’s been pulling and helping with pulls for 15 years, he said. He owns two Allis-Chalmers machines, one a 1952, one a 1949. Tractors for the pull have to be made in 1965 or before, he said. He had already competed, garnering three firsts and a second.

“I pull in the lighter classes, so I’m done early,” he said, adding with a grin, “If you pull early, the track is in better shape.”

As the classes progressed, the drivers added iron weights to the rear of their machines. It’s important to get all the weight on the back wheels, Hillsgrove said.

“You want as much weight on the drive wheels, or back wheels, as possible,” he said. “But if the front end is up, that’s less weight to be transferred from the load.” It’s a balancing act, Hillsgrove concluded.

Belanger, wearing his trademark straw hat, maneuvered one of his machines into position. Smoke poured from his chimney, and his front wheels literally left the ground as he pulled. He braked, and Bennett called out his score. Mewkill flashed him a victory sign.

“You got it,” he mouthed.

The winning rigs in each class would receive a trophy with a golden tractor on the top, guarded by Terry Hillsgrove in her announcer’s tent. But everyone’s a winner on his “pull weekends,” Belanger said. There was a spaghetti dinner followed by entertainment.

“I’m going to put the band in my salvage shed,” he said, gesturing to a large metal building. “The acoustics are great.”

The sun began to slip behind clouds, and some of the spectators donned sweatshirts. But they stayed, watching and cheering as their favorites pitted their strength against the blocks. Dust flew as the machines spun their wheels. A small boy rode around in a toy John Deere tractor, and a larger boy hovered around to see if he could help. A forklift lowered another cement block through the air for a further test of strength, adding to the load on the skid.

As he hitched up another rig, Hillsgrove said he pulls at town fairs, Old Home Days, and at events in Maine. “Some people like to fish,” he said. “We like to do this. It’s just bigger kids playing with bigger toys.”