Crashing Derby

The Demolition Derby is one of the biggest events in Salmon each summer. It is always at the end of the Salmon River Days festivities for the 4th of July. The boys look forward to it all summer, especially since our neighbors, the Troughtons, enter in it each year. They live on our same road, so when we pass their house each day, my boys monitor the progress of their "crashing derby cars", and seeing their cars increases their anticipation for the event!

Thanks to Josh and Ammon who went an hour and half early to save us seats, we got some great seats this year! We were in the center of the Grand Stand, and we we were surrounded by a great crowd of people: the Hobbs' family and Stokes' family were right in front of us and the Heble's/Deleski's and Aldous' were behind us. I don't like it when we sit by people who spill their beer on us and have a stinky odor and curse profanities, but oftentimes we end up having to do just that.

When the event was finally ready to begin, Kanyon put his earplugs in. He has ultra sensitive hearing, and loves to watch the cars crash, but hates the noise. He sat on Josh's lap for most of the evening so that he could see the action. The earplugs kept falling out, so Josh cupped his hands over both of Kanyon's ears to help muffle the noise. By the end of the night, Kanyon's hair around his ears were sweaty and his ears were bright red! But Josh's lap and hands were solutions to let Kanyon see and hear comfortably! What a nice dad.

The first event was the motorcycle balloon bashing. Each motorcycle had two riders, one was the driver, and the other one had a plastic bat and a balloon taped to his helmet. The rider with the bat had to try to pop the other riders' balloons without getting off the motorcycle. It was exciting to watch!

Then all the cars came out for introductions in usual fashion: with friends and crew riding on the tops/backs/out the windows of the cars!

The first heat of cars included the biggest hit I've ever seen. The tiger-striped car was hit up onto a border log, then the cop car pushed it over the log, then the cop car hit it again and it hit the iron fence. Dirt from the tires spinning went flying up and hit my arms! In this photo, you can see (where the guy in the fluorescent shirt is walking) on the right another border log and the distance between where the hit log was and how far it got pushed!

Our neighbors, the Troughton's, entered 3 cars in the derby this year. It was awesome because we always had a car to cheer for!!! #25 is Brian's car, and he was in the top 3 in his heat and made it to the final round this year! (Pictured on the left)

Zac's car, #18, had a very cool paint job. Unfortunately, his drive line became unconnected and he didn't make it to the final round. But we loved watching him in his "totally awesome" car!

Chevy was in the Herbie Derbie. Only 2 cars were in it this year! It was hilarious to watch! We got a big kick out of watching it! He was the black and red #54.

Before the main heat began, there was a round of 4-wheeling balloon bashing. There were two 4-wheelers that lasted forever, and were so funny to watch battle each other!

The final heat was anti-climatic. A giant group of cars got in a jam, and only a couple were free of it. They kept hitting each other until there was just one car moving.  The beginning heats were much more exciting to watch, but we were glad that an acquaintance (Justin Reid) won! He's entered for years, and has never won before. It was a great night! Our boys really enjoyed themselves with the quality entertainment!!!