Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Demolition

Many people go to the Jasper County Fair to see the three demolition derbies, two of them for cars and one for farm combines. I missed them, but I did, however, see four of the five contestants from the combine demolition derby the next day (Friday morning), and they looked pretty good. The front rotors were heavily damaged and the backs were dented up, but they appeared to be in good enough shape that they could be fixed up and re-entered next year.
The orange one was called the General Lee. Some of the contestants must have been fans of the Dukes of Hazard.
The Rensselaer Republican reported on the event and said there were two heats, and then a final competition. They never did say who won, but did report that the last competition for 45 minutes. Clearly these farm machines are built to take a beating.
The one in the picture below was one decorated as the Sheriff from Hazard County and it appears that it was disabled by having its back wheels mangled.
I will have a video of what I saw at the county fair in a post later this week. Until then, click here to see a short video of the demolition derby from Saturday night, the first day of the fair.

1 comment:

30-year-refugee said...

god bless the derbies!

my friend lives about an hour west of minneapolis, a town called howard lake, home of the wright county fair. this fair also has two nights of traditional demo derbies and one night for combine derbies. there are separate grandstand tickets for the derbies, and the combine derby sells out before the fair.

two years ago we went to the sunday derby, which had cars and trucks. (i think the friday night edition is cars only.) we decided we had to see the combine derby, so last year we ordered our tickets in advance and went to see the carnage.

there were more than 5 combines. i'd guesstimate 10-12. there were the big ones, and then some that were smaller, and seemed to be at a disadvantage. (one was painted pink and driven by a woman, i seem to recall.)

it was kind of fun to watch, but not as entertaining as i expected. i'll stick to the cars. with any kind of luck, i'll be at the aug. 14 derby.