At demo derby, get wrecked, not angry

If things went different, Sam Hill thinks, he might have become an irritable man.

Luckily, he’s not, because he competes in demolition derbies.

“Smashing,” Hill says with a grin when he’s asked what he enjoys about the sport. “Where else can you do this legally and get away with it? It’s road rage therapy at its best.”

Hill is one of dozens of drivers who competed in Friday’s demolition derby at the Delaware State Fair. Most, but not all, of the drivers were men. All of them came towing rustbuckets that, in any other context, you’d want hauled from your yard immediately.

But in demo derby, the most banged-up car just might have the most trophies to its name.

The drivers and the crews who came with them, mostly their family, were at the fairgrounds hours before the derby kicked off at 7 p.m. They popped the hoods of their dented cars and dove in with wrenches to make sure the engines started. Some filled radiators with chronic leaks. Others tightened the chains that hold the passenger compartment doors shut.

Randy Hurd, 25, explained the changes he made to his late-model Buick sedan when he first bought it for derby use. The whole passenger compartment got stripped down to the frame except for the driver’s seat and the steering wheel.

And as all drivers do, Hurd moved the car battery and the fuel tank from the engine compartment to the interior, resting on the floorboard. As Hurd drives, gas sloshes around beside him in a belted-down tank.

Hurd’s day job has him working as a tractor mechanic, so he knows his way around an engine. The Buick, he says, is reliable, more so than a smaller Volvo he came to last year’s derby with.

“They just tore me up,” he said of that competition. “Volvo might be the safest car on the road, but it’s not the safest car in the derby.”

Scrapes and bruises are common, drivers said, but major injuries seemed pretty rare.

“You’re not supposed to hit driver doors, but if someone hits your door, you’ll get your knees banged up,” Hurd said.

Johnny Ottinger, 49, of Bridgeville has been around the derby block, with 29 heat wins under his belt and more than a few "feature" wins, in the derby's main event pitting winners of heats against each other.

In the early heats, Ottinger says, he plays it safe, staying out of the way when he can.

"But you want to be a more physical driver in the feature," Ottinger said. "Drivers get more aggressive in the feature. It's good for anger management. You just let it all out in one day."

Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter@JamesFisherTNJorjfisher@delawareonline.com.