Demo Derby

The top picture is the "before" the bottom picture is "after". My husband has been working on this car for months. He bought it from a man for $50. It ran when he bought it, but it just needed a little fixing. Then he decided that he would demo it. A couple years back, 4 to be exact, he started hanging out with a guy from work. His name was Brian. Hubby & he got to be good friends. Brian introduced him to demo. Hubby rode shot gun with Brian a couple of times. Summer of 2004 they built a car for demo together. They won first place in their division. They got a trophy and some money. September 2004 Brian was in a car accident (non-derby related) and passed away. My hubby was devistated as they had become good friends. Soon after Brian's death, hubby went ahead with their plans to run their car in the next derby. Unfortunatly, something went wrong with the car and he was never able to get it into the ring. I didn't want him to drive in the derby. But even at that time I knew how important it was for him. However, like I said things didn't work out. Last summer he wanted to try again....but I carried on so that he didn't go ahead to get me to stop nagging. As you can well guess he became resentful about it. After derby sesson was over, we were watching this movie with derbies in it. I believe it had Jamie Lee Curtis in it. Anyway, I could tell that he was upset just by watching him watch the movie. I realized that I needed to support his desire to do this. Even though it is so dangerous. So, I told him that I wanted him to derby next summer. To show how serious I was I volunteered to be in his pit crew. Last Saturday was the derby. I was so nervous for him and myself. I wasn't sure how I would react to seeing him get into an accident over and over on purpose. Oh, I guess I better explain for the city folks. Demo Derby is when they take an older car and smash into other cars. Last car running without penalty wins. We watched as three heats took place. One including girls called the "powder puff division". Then it was his turn. His car made it into the ring this time. The judges lowered the green flag and I prayed harder than I ever remember. Off they went. Smash........Bang........Dust flying everywhere......Little helmets holding little heads were bobbing all over. Through all the noise and chaos I could see my husband grinning from ear to ear having the time of his life. I was yards away behind a barrier and still I could make out his giant smile. He enjoyed every second of the 3 minutes his car withstood the impacts. He made 6th place out of 14 cars. I was thrilled that he was having fun. Not one second did I think of the safty situation. I was confident that Brian had taught him all the precautions. I was so proud of him. It was great.