Byards' Bywords: Update 9: Demolition Derby :)

The Jay County Fair was in full two weeks ago and it was a week-long debate here of whether or not we'd get some time to go. We'd gone to the Delaware County Fair last year, but I couldn't help but be slightly miffed at the size of it and what was available to do. It's TINY and hardly qualifies as a county fair at all. Kyle never went to his county fair (when you live in Indy, county fairs are kind of a joke next to State), so on Friday of fair week we decided to head out to Jay County to see what we could get into...

...and it was steaming hot. Yikes! Thank goodness the business exhibits gave away free hand-fans. They were a life-saver. We went mainly to see the Demolition Derby with my grandparents and my brother (Kyle was super excited because he'd never been to a derby before), but until the derby began, we filled our time with:

-getting fair food

-looking at exhibits

-getting fair food

-running into people I knew EVERYWHERE (hey, it's Jay County, what do you expect?!)

-checking out the midway (the rides were a lot cheesier than I remember!)

-getting fair food

Oh and did I mention we got some fair food? Lots of it! I know it's bad for you and all, but it's the one time of year I indulge, so indulge we did. We both got breaded tenderloins, fries, hand-scooped ice cream, an elephant ear, deep-fried breadsticks, and soft-serve ice cream. We did go healthy on the drinks though and got tons of water. It was the most delicious day of my life!

Now for the Derby! If you're not familiar with how a Derby works, here it is:

The Derby takes place on our racetrack and is blocked off by large cement blocks. You have to stay within the blocks, so if you get pushed out or try to leave the boundaries to get more traction, that's a no-no. Also, the track is wetted down....it makes things more interesting when it's muddy and slick!

You enter an old, beat up car that you've spray-painted and written all your friends and family members' names on (okay, that's optional, but everyone does it!). Doesn't seem so impressive, but to succeed in the Derby, you also need to be (a) an awesome driver that knows a lot about cars, i.e. where NOT to get hit and how to hit other people without damaging your own car, and (b) someone who's invested a lot of time and maintenance to what's UNDER the hood of your car. You can't just show up with a half-sputtering engine or someone will knock you off right away. It amazed me how transmissions dropped, gas leaked, tires blew, and whole front sides got crunched in on some of these cars and they still worked perfectly!

All the cars also have long sticks taped to the driver's side door. An intact stick means that the car and driver are still in the running. If you have to break your stick, you're out of the Derby. A driver can break his or her own stick if they give up, but that doesn't happen unless the judge calls on them to do so. Basically, judges make you break your own sticks if your car's not running. So, for example, if you get hit to the point where your engine dies, you have 60 or so seconds to get your engine restarted. A lot of times it's not an issue, but after being hit so many times, the engine needs to sit in idle at the very least for several minutes before it can be restarted. So if you can't restart your engine, you have to break your stick. This also applies to if you get hung up somewhere and your car doesn't go anywhere. You have the same amount of time to get your car unstuck or you're out. You also have to break your stick if you're not hitting any cars within a certain time frame, I think, to prevent cars from just sitting in a corner and trying to win that way.

So mostly what you see is cars backing into each other to do as much damage as possible while still preserving their engines. There were a few regular heats with several larger cars and the best 4 of each heat was taken to the final heat. There was a powderpuff heat where only women were allowed to participate and a compact car heat where the cars were much smaller (and not the boats of yesteryear). In the final heat, there's prize money up to $750 for the top three finalists. I'm not really sure if these guys made a lot of profit, but it is an excuse to be sponsored by companies to wreck your car and hit others, too.

Kyle really got into it and was shouting and screaming and laughing the whole time. I'd forgotten how much I love Derbys. I think we're going to come back next year!