Demolition Derby draws large crowd

With its back frame twisted, Joey Long’s car looked like it had already lost several derby races Friday.

“It looks bad, but it’s not going anywhere,” Long said. “This one’s got at least a night, maybe a second night in it. This car, the type of car it is, is 10 times stronger than that striped car over there. It all depends on the frame.”

Long and four of his relatives have smashed cars at the Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby since 2001. This year, they entered seven cars.

Long’s car took about two weeks to build and is made up of three separate cars. The body is from a Buick, the hood from a Ford and the fender from a Chevy Caprice. Long calls this recycling.

“Not everybody does theirs the same way,” Long said. “We bolt ours down to make them safer. It’s how much you want to go through to build a car. You can spend several weeks on a car you want to win, or you can have fun.”

Though every car is built differently, the derby rules state that the inside of the car must be stripped of anything flammable, including all the seats and lining. The gas tank must then be put in the back and the battery must be taken from underneath the hood and sit next to the driver.

Long installed a roll cage in his car so if someone were to hit the door, the door would not bend in too far and hurt the driver.

Most cars are painted and decorated, but the Long family said if it didn’t have very much time to decorate the cars, the family members would just run them with what they have. Carrie Long, Joey’s wife, used the “Twilight” novels as an inspiration for her design, placing symbols and designs from the book covers all along her vehicle.

“I’m just a huge fan, and I’ve read all the books twice,” said Carrie Long, whose car was chosen to compete for best design.

The derby is the most attended event at the fair, and the fans want to see hard hits and watch someone get flipped over, said Phillip Long, Joey’s brother.

“Everybody knows everybody,” Phillip Long said. “You run against your friends. There are a few grudges out there. ... They don’t like each other, and they take each other out.”

Andy “Kidd” Roberts has been driving derby cars for the past six years, and he’s raced in Monroe, Spencer and Greene counties.

“If you walk up to any derby around here and you say ‘Kidd,’ they know who you’re talking about,” said his father, Tim Roberts.

Andy Roberts built his car, as well as his girlfriend’s car, and though they are in the same heat, they said they’d hit each other if given the opportunity.

“We have to hit each other. We can’t team drive,” Kidd’s girlfriend Whitney Davis said. “I’m not going to go for him, but if he’s there, he’s there.”

Participants must follow a set of rules put in place as safety precautions, including those that state drivers can’t hit the driver’s door of other cars and that the driver’s door must be painted white.

“We normally have to disqualify two drivers an evening because of over-aggressive driving – trying to hurt a driver and not their car,” said Wally Hamilton, one of the vice presidents on the fair board. “The adrenaline really gets going on these things, and we have to remind them that there are children and families.”

About 80 cars competed Friday in the mud pit, each trying to qualify for one of the 17 spots available in the final feature.

Though Joey Long’s car looked beat up before entering and impossible to drive afterward, he still qualified Friday for the final race.

“If you build your car right, you can keep it going for a while,” Joey Long said after his first heat as he prepared for the final. “We’re fixing the fan belts, adjusting the carburetor ... basically all the stuff I just messed up.”