NORRIDGEWOCK — Randy Chapman hates seeing a good tractor go.

Chapman had brought five homemade tractors, each nearly a century old, to Norridgewock for a “doodlebug” pull on Sunday. A doodlebug is a homemade tractor, typically built in the 1930s and 1940s amid machinery shortages fueled by the Great Depression and World War II.

Originally used by blue-collar farmers for all sorts of tasks over the years, doodlebugs have in recent years become sort of a niche hobby for farmers and tinkerers alike.

As many of the tractors have fallen apart or flat-out died in the decades since they were built, tight-knit communities of tractor enthusiasts have coalesced around their love for keeping these machines alive.

Many of the tractors were converted from a previous incarnation as Ford cars and White trucks of the early 20th century, while others were cobbled together with bits and pieces from other decades-old tractors.

Randy Chapman, right, prepares his tractor before competing in the doodlebug tractor pull at the Maine Antique Tractor Club in Norridgewock on Sunday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“Everything here has had several lives,” Chapman said. “This is not the first iteration of any of these machines, even though it may be their last.”

Chapman has organized doodlebug pulls through the Maine Antique Tractor Club since 2013, and has competed in the event almost every year. He was one of about a dozen drivers in Norridgewock to compete in this year’s pull.

Drivers took turns pulling increasingly large weights with their doodlebugs, increasing from around 7,500 pounds to nearly 20,000 pounds by the end of the afternoon.

To fellow doodlebug owner John Harris, and most of those competing, the event is less about winning and more about the love of machinery.

“It’s not about spending a bunch of money, it’s about being smarter than the next guy and finding junk that’s going to work best for the job,” Harris said from behind the wheel of his customized 1932 Ford AA tractor. “Mud racing, stock car racing, drag racing, all of that racing is all based upon how much money you can spend or how much money you can’t spend. This is about being involved.”

The Maine Antique Tractor Club was founded in 1994 and has about 500 members, including both those who own restored tractors and those who enjoy them.

Aimee Nelson of Troy shifts gears while competing in the doodlebug tractor pull at the Maine Antique Tractor Club in Norridgewock on Sunday. The tractor she was operating was built using a 1977 Dodge camper van. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

With Chapman’s five doodlebugs making up half of the slate of tractors at Sunday’s pull, he lent four of them out to other competitors. One of whom was Aimee Nelson of Troy, who said she was taking part in her first-ever tractor pull Sunday.

“This is my first time pulling, and honestly I’m a little nervous,” Nelson said. “But it is a very welcoming group. It’s not really a competition. We’re all rooting for each other.”