No Dough Demo Derby

• Posted: August 31, 2008
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• Author: Adam
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• Filed under: Tales from the couch
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• Tags: demo derby, vermont

After eavesdropping on an office water cooler convo I caught wind of the annual demolition derby at the Champlain Valley Fair in beautiful Essex, Vermont. Thinking that a good ol’ fashioned Demo Derby is not something I would see anytime soon, as I was about to move back to suburban Massachusetts, I made it a point, strike that, a downright mission to go. After calling a few cohorts and even a few randoms I was left with no one to go with; but alas, this is when I have the most fun!

So I pack up the subaru and head across rt. 15 to the fair grounds. I pay the 4$ parking fee and received my change from the 20 in the form of 16 one’s, don’t you hate that? Anyway, I park and proceed to the line where I would pay $6 to wait in line again and pay $12 to get into the demo derby (lame, but worth it). After seeing the line to get into the fair I was apprehensive that I would not make the first found of this great American past time. In a last ditch effort I strap on my adventure helmet and take to walking the fence hoping for a way in. I stumble upon a lovely perch that yielded a close up view of the car-nage, just opposite the grandstand where the crowd lay restless. After being spotted by “security” I was told to get down as the volunteer who caught me reached through the fence and said, “here, my grandsons didn’t show up. Stay out of trouble.” and handed me a free ticket to the event. “Gee, thanks mister!” I yelled as I ran for the gate. Thanks to this kind-hearted soul I had an even lovelier perch amid the crowd.

In the end, I got to see the whole derby, from two angles and didn’t pay a dime. The derby was great; 4 rounds of total automotive chaos and 5th round of car rolls awed the jubilant city boy. Also, as an added bonus I ran into a couple good buddies from Union Street Media and was by myself no longer.

Here’s some footage from the event. I was going to post my own, but this is way better.

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