Have you been in a demolition derby?

Tweet

I ran in my first demolition derby in 2000. I had always wanted to be in one since I began watching them in my teens. I just wanted to find out how the adrenalin rush would feel. I got my chance when my car had run to the point of being done with its useful life. I told my wife that there wouldn't be any trade in value and that I would love to put it in the local county fair demolition derby. She agreed and I started plotting how to fix the car up. Now this sounds like a normal story but here's the rub - I drove this car to work up until one week before the derby. It was at that time that I started painting it and taking off all of the chrome and parts that have to be off. Busting out the windows wasn't the easiest task either. Two hours before the start, I was still working on getting the engine running after moving the gas tank to the back seat. But I got it running and took off to the fairgrounds. I pulled into the lot with my car on the trailer and I could feel all eyes on me. You see, there's a second rub. This was a normal demolition derby. There are compact derbies at a lot of locations now where people run the little cars but this wasn't one of them. And I was entering a 1988 Chevy Corsica. For anyone not familiar, this was like putting a tricycle up against a motorcycle in terms of size. I had a lot of fun just watching people stop and stare at my car parked in line with all of the others. I had one driver walk over and tell me, "Well, at least you have the balls to put it in". I lasted over 2 minutes and never once allowed the front end to get hit. The back end, however, was completely crushed all the way to the back seat. The only thing that stopped me was a flat tire. I definitely gave the crowd a thrill and even got my picture on the front page of the local newspaper when the photographer snapped a picture of another car going airborne over the back of my car. I hope to add some pictures to this discussion later if I can find them and get them scanned. That's my experience. How about you?