Sell-out crowd enjoys annual demolition derby

The Sanders County Demolition Derby was a big success with a complete sellout with 3,868 tickets sold for the three and a half-hour show.

"They definitely got their money's worth, it was a great show," said Randy Woods, the fair board chairman, who received comments from dozens of people telling him it was the best derby they had seen. The fair made $121,868 on the derby alone, the biggest moneymaker of the fair.

Nearly 30 cars were part of the "Carnage on the Clark Fork" Sunday evening, the final event of the Sanders County Fair. The competition was broke down into four heats with seven cars in each heat. The top three drivers from each heat moved onto the main event. However, the fair office could not locate the results of the derby.

The only Sanders County drivers were A.J. Sanders, Rob Hall and Nate Clearmont, all from Thompson Falls. All but two of the drivers were from Montana with one from Idaho and one from Utah. Stirrin' Dirt Racing, the company hired to conduct the derby, hails from West Haven, Utah. Woods said the derby ran a lot smoother with a professional organization running the show. A driver from Baker, Mt., traveled almost 650 miles to participate.

Sanders, a veteran derby driver, used two different vehicles during the competition. He was bumped from Heat 2 when Justin Clark of Sheridan, Mt., pushed his car up onto a concrete barrier. The vehicle still ran, but his back wheels had no surface contact.

The heats went for about 15 minutes apiece with very little lapse time between heats as tow trucks quickly removed stalled cars. Heat four was delayed twice for officials to remove a bumper and when a fire was spotted in one engine, although it went out before an extinguisher was used. The main event went only about 20 minutes, with some of the heaviest hitting in the derby, said Woods, who ran the tractor to till the arena and water truck between some of the heats. Fair Manager Melissa Cady also helped with tractor work between heats. The derby went for just over three hours, ending shortly after 8 p.m.

This was the second consecutive year that the first place derby winner received a $10,000 prize. Second place received $7,500 and third received $3,500. The qualifiers of each heat received $300. "It was a really good show with a lot of hard hitting," said Woods. He said they plan to continue improving on the derby, but have no plans for any major changes.