Demolition Derby highlight Sunday at St. Lawrence County Fair
Crash and destroy: The whole point is to wreck as many cars on the track as possible
MELANIE KIMBLER-LAGO N WATERTOWN DAILY TIMESDrivers try to keep their overheating cars going Sunday during the demolition derby at the Gouverneur & St. Lawrence County Fair.
By BRIAN KIDWELLJOHNSON NEWSPAPERS
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011
GOUVERNEUR — A demolition derby goes something like this:
Start the engine and get it to idle high. Put the car in reverse and plow it into another car’s rear end. The accordion effect is preferable, meaning the impact is strong enough to send the struck car’s rear end in folds all the way to the back seat. Throw in some blown tires, overheated engines, burst radiators and the roar of an adoring crowd and the demolition derby is complete.
And, at Sunday’s finale to the annual Gouverneur & St. Lawrence County Fair here, successful. Hundreds of demolition derby enthusiasts jammed the fairground grandstand to see more than 60 drivers have it out nine cars at a time inside a 150-foot-by-40-foot sand-banked section of track.
Derby fans made no bones about it. This was no place for finesse and politeness. These stripped-down $400 junkers were making their final appearance as moving vehicles, so they might as well destroy them.
“Smashing cars,” said Matthew A. Moncrief, of Ogdensburg. “It’s good entertainment.”
Richard J. Finley of Gouverneur is a veteran derby contestant. On Sunday, he chose to watch.
No surprise what he likes.
“I look for more hits,” Mr. Finley said.
That philosophy was shared by the drivers as they prepared their cars in the track infield before the race.
James R. Mitchell, 34, a mechanic from Rensselaer Falls, was securing his lime green 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan’s hood and trunk with wire to the bumpers when asked to explain his take on the meaning of “derbying.”
It has never changed.read more at:http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110808/NEWS05/708089985
GOUVERNEUR — A demolition derby goes something like this:
Start the engine and get it to idle high. Put the car in reverse and plow it into another car’s rear end. The accordion effect is preferable, meaning the impact is strong enough to send the struck car’s rear end in folds all the way to the back seat. Throw in some blown tires, overheated engines, burst radiators and the roar of an adoring crowd and the demolition derby is complete.
And, at Sunday’s finale to the annual Gouverneur & St. Lawrence County Fair here, successful. Hundreds of demolition derby enthusiasts jammed the fairground grandstand to see more than 60 drivers have it out nine cars at a time inside a 150-foot-by-40-foot sand-banked section of track.
Derby fans made no bones about it. This was no place for finesse and politeness. These stripped-down $400 junkers were making their final appearance as moving vehicles, so they might as well destroy them.
“Smashing cars,” said Matthew A. Moncrief, of Ogdensburg. “It’s good entertainment.”
Richard J. Finley of Gouverneur is a veteran derby contestant. On Sunday, he chose to watch.
No surprise what he likes.
“I look for more hits,” Mr. Finley said.
That philosophy was shared by the drivers as they prepared their cars in the track infield before the race.
James R. Mitchell, 34, a mechanic from Rensselaer Falls, was securing his lime green 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan’s hood and trunk with wire to the bumpers when asked to explain his take on the meaning of “derbying.”
It has never changed.read more at:http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110808/NEWS05/708089985
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