IT’s not just the drivers who are of questionable intelligence at Demo Derbies, I have questions over the spectators as well. Early 2000’s I went to a Demo Derby at a fair local to some friends. We both had young kids at the time, around 2 years old. We all went to the fair and were walking towards the ‘track’ area when we soon realized that the noise was going to be a complete no go for young kids, even if we had ear protection. So the two moms and the kids went to do other fair things while myself and the other dad (both Brits coincidentally) headed into the Demo Derby. As we walked into the track/stadium area it was basically packed, but we saw a small area on the bleachers where we would be able to squeeze in. Now at this point I should mention that I happened to be wearing a flowered shirt and my fried was wearing a pink shirt. By the time we sat down, the small space we had spotted suddenly turned into a big open area, everyone else skooched away so there was room for two people either side of is and the area of the rows immediately in front and behind miraculously cleared as well. It turns out demo derby fans might not be phased of noise, fumes, flying mud, gravel, chunks of tire or other dirt, but they sure as hell were frightened of a couple of guys wearing colorful shirts. Next was the girlfriend of one the drivers. She had a small (circa 10-14months) baby in her arms. Stood down right by the debris fence with a cigarette in the corner of her mouth screaming obscenities at the ref (or whatever the ‘race’ control person is called) for not penalizing people who were hitting her boyfriend. The poor baby had no protection of any kind 3’ from cars with flipped headers or exhaust stubs pointing straight up through the hood as well as all the fumes, mud etc. being thrown at it. Not to mention the constant stream of cigarette smoke being blown in the poor things face. The poor kid was obviously deep deep in shock with a totally blank look on its face. To this day I still regret not taking a picture and calling CPS.
As fun as demo derby’s may be that experience with the crowd put me off forever.
So around 2:55 ish (Youtube blocked here at work so only embedded video so no full size) the grey "Brakeless" car slams into the back of that blue car. I wonder if someone was still in the blue car or if they were just working the crowd because that would suck if someone was still in there.....no thanks.
