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 The fair this year was plagued with rain every
morning for the first several days. That equaled an over-wet track
that made it impossible to host the annual harness races, the
tractor pulls and the Wooten Rodeo. All of those events had to be
cancelled.
The annual Miss Logan County Fair Pageant was moved to the north
livestock show arena on Tuesday night as was the annual 4-H
scrambles on Wednesday evening.
However, the rains did finally stop, and hot weather moved in drying
the track out nicely by the end of the fair.
On Sunday evening, youngsters in their battery-operated Power Wheels
had a perfect nice track for their few minutes of banging and
bumping to the delight of the crowd in the grandstand. The event
ended with a race for a trophy that was literally larger than the
little girl that won it.
That would be the last time the audience would see a dry track as
the water truck came and pelted down gallons of water to create that
mud that everyone loves during a demo derby. The truck would return
again during the evening, and by the time the derby got to class
number five, the mud was so thick and deep that cars were quickly
coated nearly to the point of being unrecognizable and on more than
one occasion guests in the grandstand were bombarded with big clods
of mud coming up for the rapidly spinning wheels on the cars.
Between the Power Wheels and the “grown-up” class was the youth
compacts. This event features kids who are too young to be driving
the streets of Lincoln but are well practiced at driving a bump and
crash vehicle. The requirement of this event is that every youngster
needs to have a responsible adult in the car with them.
The youngsters are much more aggressive in their vehicles than one
would imagine. At one point a car was roughly pushed out of the
competition area through an opening at the north end. The local fire
department engine was on that end, and gathered in that area was a
large group of people who were forming a line across the track.
Seeing what was happening just seconds in advance, the crowd
scattered and fortunately no one was hurt. The announcer issued a
warning about getting to close to the competition area, and also
asked that the large end loader/tractors on had be used to block the
openings during competitions so there would be no further incidents.
The youth event was fun and interesting, though at one point a bit
heated. When the responsible adult in one vehicle became a little
bit concerned about the driving skills of one of the competitors, he
came out of the passenger seat like a flash of lightning and
confronted the responsible adult in the other vehicle.
The announcer quickly called for order and the Logan County Sheriff
deputies were there almost as quickly as the irate passenger. The
announcer then shared that there were only two options, everyone
would be peaceful and civil, or he would call it a night and send
everyone home. The situation was quickly under control, and later in
the evening, there was an exchange of handshakes between the two
that caused the raucous to begin with.
The rest of the event went well, and the crowd enjoyed the show as
was reflected with their loud cheers when the last car still moving
was announced.
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The second class of the night was Mini Vans & SUV.
This was a fun show with no drama other than that which is customary
at a demo derby. There were vehicles that were boiling out steam
from their radiators as the cars sustained front damage. One vehicle
got its back end hung up on one of the concrete pilons.
Unfortunately it was a rear-wheel drive vehicle and no amount of gas
and spinning rear wheels would take it off the pilon.
The best fun of the night in this class was watching the inflated
dinosaur that was mounted to the top of one of the vehicles. At
times he looked fierce, but at other times, the air movement from
the other vehicles made him appear to be trembling with fear. Eather
way, he got the attention of at least a few in the audience.
The Bone Stock Compact class was the largest class of the night with
30 entries. The competition area was so crowded that there was
almost a complete jam up/pile up as soon as the green flag was
thrown.
One car was adorned with
multiple little rubber duckies. One can only imagine what those
little squeaky toys might have had to say about the ride they took
had they been able.
Vehicles inched into positions to deliver debilitating hits
to competitors and after close to an hour, it came down to three
vehicles still moving in the field of 30.
The carnage of 27 cars jammed the track, leaving a space about the
size of a postage stamp in the middle of the track for the final
three drivers to fight to the finish. After some hard work, one car
made it to the north end of the track where there was about twice as
much room. However, it didn’t stay there long. The breakaway from
the center gave the driver the opportunity to put some speed on the
next hit as the car went right back into the pit of carnage.
The Logan County EMT’s were called out onto the track after one
particularly hard bump. The driver experienced some severe pain and
was helped out of his vehicle. He was checked out by the paramedics
on the hood of his car, then assisted off the track.
The modified class was next with a lot more speed and a lot more
noise. While this was a smaller class, the competition was stiff,
and the speed of the vehicles made it hard to keep track of all that
was going on. The event went on without any major incidents. This
was also one of those heats where that the mud got so thick; it was
very hard to tell one vehicle from another.
The sky was growing dark by the time the fifth and final class of
the Open Wire Full Size vehicles came onto the track. This was a
small class with only five vehicles, but it was no less entertaining
than the classes ahead of it.
Several of these vehicles had exhaust pipes coming straight out of
the manifolds on the engines. These are fun to watch because they
get to throwing flames as the competition heats up. One car reached
that point toward the end of the competition and the flames burned
for quite some time.
All in all, the night was a great way to end the Logan County Fair.
The audience cheered and shouted at their favorite cars and booed
and chided others. This is typical of any demo derby and the crowd
did not disappoint the drivers with their shouts and support, just
as the drivers did not disappoint the crowd with their ability to
take the hard knocks and give back as good as they got.
[Nila Smith] |
