Gary Dudgeon
Greensburg Daily News
July 19, 2008 12:11 am
—
The demolition derby, as usual, was a smash with the crowd and perfect cap to the fair.
The periennial fan favorite ended the grandstand festivities Friday
evening before what appeared to be the largest crowd of any
event.
In the finals of the derby, nine contestants earned their way by staying alive in one of three heats; three more
were awarded “mad dog” entries because they were the most
aggressive of non-qualifying drivers and five more came through the
consolation race by number of "hits."
That meant 17 contestants were eligible to continue plus a lottery
winner Jeremy Benefiel got a seat in No. 10 car.
One driver, Josh Taylor, was unable to repair damage to his
machine and withdrew, leaving 17 drivers to compete for the
championship.
In the finals, the drivers competed until only
six cars were still running. At that time, the fairgrounds crew would
remove any car that could not be physically moved by the driver,
leaving the remaining cars to finish the duel to death.
Of the final six drivers, Ray Caplinger, was unable to continue
and quit the race, leaving five cars to restart. When the green flag
flew, Marty Turner, in the No. 16 car, couldn’t get it restarted. The car had the fan belt knocked off its pulley and the
car overheated to the point that there was no more water in the
cooling system. Jason Meyer and Trevor Cook soon followed short
leaving Joe Hansford and Travis Cook to compete mano-y-mano,
machine against machine.
Cook’s car was the more maneuverable of the two machines and he
quickly pinned the 717 against the wall of the arena. When Cook
backed away, he brought the 717 with him. Hansford was unable to pull apart from the fused metal of the two cars.
Officials called a halt to separate the two cars, but Hansford broke
the red stick awarding the win to Cook.
Heat qualifiers were: Heat one: D.J. Sweet, Trevor Cook and Jason
Meyer; heat two: Marty Turner, Josh Taylor and Mike Kelly; and Lance
Schofner, Joe Hansford and Travis Cook.
The consolation qualifiers were Tracy Cook, Matt Mitchel and Jerry
Friend.
Additional “mad dog” starters were Pat Land, Roy Caplinger,
Russell Snow and Dwayne Gibbons.
The top 10 finishers in the championship were: Travis Cook,
Hansford, Trevor Cook, Meyer, Turner, Caplinger, Mitchell, Gabbard,
Schofner and Friend.
Following the championship heat, a powder puff event was run that
had four ladies driving for bragging rights. The 16 JR car driven by
Turner, the No. 3 driven by Friend and the winning No. 13 cars were
joined by the No. 10. That driver was chosen by lottery.
Drivers, in respective order, were Cristy Thompson, Alberta Mozingo,
Sheila Callahan and Crystal Long.
The nearly pristine appearances of cars 13 and 10 got far more
damage in the powder puff as Callahan, Long and Mozingo quickly
ousted Thompson and in a war of hard licks and attrition, Long emerged as powder puff champion with Callahan second.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
The crushed metal if cars 717 and 13 leave the final two cars in an unwanted embrace at the end of the Demolition Derby held before a large crowd at the Decatur County Fairgrounds Friday night.
After officials stopped the event to separate the cars, Joe Hansford in the 717 car, broke the stick to call the derby done for him. Greensburg Daily News
In a duel that continued until the derby resumed when the field had been cut to six cars, Marty Turner is seen crashing into eventual champion Trevor Cook. Turner’s car eventually overheated because of minor damage to the cooling system and he was unable to restart leaving him in fifth place for the night. Greensburg Daily News
Trevor Hoffman is seen besides the trophy awarded to the Demolition Derby champion at the end of the event at the fairgrounds Friday night.
Hoffman is standing on the hauler with the trophy sitting atop his No. 13 automobile. Greensburg Daily News