Demo delight

MOSES LAKE — The 2022 Northwest Ag Demolition Derby brought fast-paced fun to participants and excitement to attendees as cars smashed, rolled, collided and raced around the rodeo arena during the Grant County Fair.

“I had a blast. It is such an adrenaline rush,” said Moses Lake resident Cindy Welsh. “When else do you get to strap in a car and just go crazy?”

This is Welsh’s eighth year demoing and it is a way her family is able to spend time together. Her husband, Tony, used to demo before a neck injury and got her interested in demoing. He still helps but does not demo himself. This was her nephew, Cameron Zabala’s, first demo.

The demo saw many different types of cars.

“Everybody has a different opinion, a lot of the guys run rear-wheel drive cars like Camaros. Mines a front-wheel drive,” said Welsh.

She explained that rear-wheel drive cars are popular because they kick up more dirt and fishtail more going around corners than front-wheel drive cars at demos.

For those wanting to get into demoing, Welsh said to look up the rules, start working on the car as early as possible, get familiar with the car and have a trailer to haul the car.

Welsh said there are many ways that drivers prepare themselves and their cars to be as safe as possible. Some of the safety precautions include helmets, seatbelts, moving gas tanks, an “H” bar installed right behind the driver's seat in case of a roll, all glass and easily breakable plastic removed, a fire extinguisher within easy reach of the driver, a hole in the hood for easy access to fires and batteries moved from the front to the inside of the car and strapped to the floor.

Welsh explained safety is really important because the cars are taking a beating.

“They look like we are going slow, but they are hitting hard,” said Welsh. “A lot of these people are throttled down the whole time, where usually you would let up to go around a coroner, you're full force as fast as that car will go in drive hitting whatever you can to get out of your way.”

Welsh said she hasn’t had any serious wrecks yet but did have one that she was hit so hard she was sent to the chiropractor.

Grant County Fire District 5 was on scene in case anything went wrong.

There were several tip-overs and rolls, one of which stood out because the car rolled completely over and back onto its wheels. The driver did not immediately climb out of the car, which brought a lot of concern by demo officials and had EMS personnel worried.

The driver, Aj Hara, was able to climb out after a few minutes and walk off the track unassisted.

“It wasn't bad at all, it was just landing on the top of my head hurt,” Hara said.

He said that he has rolled that car once before but that this roll was the worst one. He said this was the 16th year demoing with that car. He said he plans to fix the car and keep competing.

“That car is fine. That’s not even close to as bad as it's ever been,” Hara said. “That car has been totaled out like five times already.”

Despite what it's been through, Hara said he had it going really well until he rolled.

“I was kicking (butt), my car was ripping. I just rebuilt the front end so I thought it was going to be pretty fast and it was fast until I hit that tire,” said Hara. “I just got a little wild right on turn three and I was cutting it close and I thought maybe it would be okay if I bounced off the tire and I hit the tire too much.”

GCFD5 Captain Travis Svilar said with such a high-speed event it is important for EMS to be present.

“What happens with these cars is they take so much of the structural integrity out of the car so they become real light, they have roll cages in them but they’re structurally not really sound so when they roll, and that roof collapses, there's potential that they could be trapped in there,” Svilar said.

He explained that the crews at the derby have specialized tools with them so they can get the people out of the cars safely if they get trapped.

“Most of these guys, you aren’t going to transport them, they aren’t going to be injured,” Svilar said. He said the safety harnesses and the roll cages inside the cars do a good job of protecting the drivers. It is accessing the drivers, once the car has rolled, that is the challenging part for EMS because the cars are welded and bolted with steel bars to strengthen them but it also makes it hard to get into.

Svilar also said the department loves coming out to events like the demo derby, not just to be able to help in case of an accident but to connect with the community and help build relations outside of emergency situations.

“We’re here to make sure that they’re safe and if they do have an accident, we can properly get them out of the car and give them the care that they need,” said Svilar.

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com. For more coverage of this year’s Grant County Fair, visit www.columbiabasinherald.com.