After coming close to cancellation due to lack of drivers, the 2014 Blue Heron Fair demolition derby had its best turnout in almost 10 years.
A grand total of 37 vehicles registered for the August 8 event, which has always been a well-attended kickoff to the three-day fair.
Though the derby hasn’t had much of a problem recruiting trucks for the event, organizers Greg and Brenda Petruchik said finding cars has been an issue for years.
Last year only five cars showed up for the derby, and in 2012 only one registered, so Greg and Brenda were more than pleased with the 14 cars and 23 trucks this year.
Out of the 37 vehicles, 15 of those were return drivers. That means there were around 22 first-timers, said Greg, who has participated himself for about 20 years. Three of the new drivers were between 16 and 18, he said, and needed a parent’s signature to participate.
“We’ve got a new generation of drivers now, because most of them are addicted to it now by the sounds of it,” he laughed. “Some of them said they would be back. They know where they made their mistakes so they’re going to fix that and be back next year.”
“I think this is the start of the next era of the derby,” said Brenda. “This is how it used to be probably 10 years ago. So we’re pretty excited about the whole thing.”
Near the start of the event, the Petruchiks said they were worried the derby would be cancelled because of the rain. However the weather cleared and by 7 p.m. the stands were buzzing with an eager crowd.
“The fans came out and it was a miserable cold night, but the stands were still full,” said Greg. “The town still stands behind it.”
Due to the rain earlier that day, Greg said the arena was in poor shape for the cars and trucks at the start of the night. The grounds had to be scraped twice to improve the conditions.
“We actually scraped the grounds off with the tractors once, then we ran a heat of trucks and it was still pretty slimy out there,” he said. “So we scraped the grounds a second time. We ran all the trucks first, then we ran the cars.”
Brenda added the mud slowed down the hitting because the vehicles were getting traction, even the larger trucks.
The combination of a high number of vehicles, same-day registrations, the arena conditions, and a later scheduled start caused the derby to run much longer than organizers anticipated.
The trophies weren’t handed out until after midnight.
“That last few years we haven’t had that many vehicles. We figured we could start it a little later,” said Greg.
“What do you do when we’ve already set the date and time?” Questioned Brenda. “But handing out trophies at 12:30 a.m., we can’t do that again.”
The Petruchiks said they hope next year will be bigger and better, or at least continue with the same success they saw at this year’s fair.
Organizers are toying with the idea of holding the derby on a different day to avoid running so late, but Greg and Brenda said that needs to be discussed with the Ag Society first.
In the meantime, the couple sends their gratitude to everyone who helped to not only keep the derby alive, but made it the best Barrhead has seen in years.
“We wanted to thank the returning drivers who have stuck through this the whole time, and the new drivers,” said Brenda. “We were really pleased. It makes all your work worth it.”
