It’s Prince William County Fair week, and one of the most popular events during the fair — the Demolition Derby — is set to take the grandstand on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7 o’clock.
You won’t want to miss it.
We talked to Rudy, one of the founders of the demolition derby at the fair:
Rudy, you oversee one of the most popular destination attractions here at the fair. The demolition derby and you’ve been doing it you tell me for more than 30 years. What brings you back here to the fair every year.
“Well, I really like this particular area. Manassas has been really good to me. The Prince William County Fair and I met one of the Johnsons (is one of the founders and demolition derby originators) years ago when we were at a convention in Maryland and he said we’d love to run a demo but we don’t know. And so I came down here and looked and I said I’m pretty sure we can do it. And we’ve been doing it ever since.”
The demolition derby is held is almost nightly here. It’s so popular and so you have so many people who come back every year and they bring their cars. What goes into these cars?
“Well of course what’s happened over the years has been more and more difficult to get cars. So it does change them a little bit. But basically, we asked guys and gals to bring stock automobiles. We let them make some adjustments to it and of course, we make them remove the things that we think might fly off and create a problem.”
Some of the things like what?
“Well like we always and they’re not allowed to leave the mirrors on the bed to take all the glass out of their vehicle basically stripped the vehicle with the exception of the driver seat and possibly the passenger seat up front.”
For someone who’s watching this and it is maybe not as familiar with demolition derby might say “oh my gosh that’s dangerous,” and that “you’ll never get me in one of those cars.” But is it really dangerous?
“Well, if you want my personal opinion that’s what I think. I guess I don’t think. I mean we’re pretty darn careful. Safety is a pretty big issue with us.
We make sure we check every automobile that comes on the ground and want to participate and that they have something that we do not feel is done properly or a safety issue.
We either tell them they must make an adjustment or they’re not allowed to run.
So I’m new to watching demolition derby, and I’m in the grandstands for the first time. Is it the last car standing wins where we’re sort of the rules the demolition derby?
“Basically, that’s it. You know it is the last I was running under a set of guidelines and rules. That last car running is the winner of that particular heat.”
Finally, why do you think this is such a fan favorite at the fair?
“Well for a long long time you know an individual could come to a fair and participate in the demolition derby, and if one of the family members happen to have an old car that wasn’t worth a whole lot anymore they would just basically tear it apart do what they had to do and bring it down to have some fun. And for a long time, a lot of people would say we don’t care about the [prize] money that you’re going to pay.”
“We want the trophy, and Grandma and Grandpa, aunts and uncles brothers and sisters friends and what all the relatives a lot of times come to the fair to watch and participate. And that was what made it really successful because local people were participating and they were bringing their families. …We’ve run force on the cars six cars eight cars. We run minivans and pickup trucks on occasion. There are some places where we run trailer racing you know. So we’ve done a variety of things and a lot of things.”
“It’s certainly I wouldn’t allow anyone in that type of vehicle to compete against somebody a little tiny Honda or Toyota. Right. You know we’re here to have fun. We’re not here to have anybody get hurt. That’s for damn sure.”
So it’s all that fun. It’s all about trophies it’s about local people and it’s certainly all about demolition derby here at the Prince William County play.
Rudy thanks for talking to us today. You don’t want to miss the Prince William County Fair.
It is going on here in Manassas at the Prince William County Fairgrounds. Come check it out.
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