Butler Farm Show’s demolition derby highlights collisions
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — ESPN may have Thursday Night Thunder, but the Butler Farm Show had Friday Night Thunder this week with one of its centerpiece events, the demolition derby held at Randy L. Kummer Arena.
A staple of American fairs, the demolition derby is an automotive gladiatorial game to see which rundown car can stay alive through collision after collision.
The derby consisted of four qualifying heats followed by the main feature event. The top two finishers from the qualifying heats advanced to the feature. In between the qualifiers and the feature was a “last chance” qualifier for those who failed to qualify for the feature in the previous four events.
Each of the qualifying heats featured distinctive classes of cars, although all of them looked like they were ready for the junkyard, with all glass removed to protect the drivers in case of hard impacts.
“The first two heats are compact four-cylinder cars,” said race announcer Paul Szmal. “The third event tonight is for six-cylinder cars, and the fourth one is for big rear-wheel-drive, eight-cylinder cars or larger six-cylinder cars.”
Each driver who qualified through one of the heats won $50, while the grand champion of the feature event won $600. Another $50 went to the runner-up in the feature event.
The first qualifying heat was one of two that featured compact four-cylinder cars, such as Chrysler P.T. Cruisers. It took around 20 minutes to finish and was red-flagged halfway through when one competitor, Parker Clauser, in car #38, had his car catch fire after striking the outside wall head-on.
Members of the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company were on hand to douse the flames quickly, and Clauser was unhurt. In fact, he managed to fire up his car to continue on in the heat, but did not qualify for the feature.
“The driver is allowed to get back into the car and try to restart it,” Szmal said. “If they can, they can continue, but if the car catches fire a second time, they're automatically excluded.”
By the end of the first heat, Aaron Amarando, car #2, of Butler, and Jason Biddle, car #8, of Elwood City, were the ones who qualified for the feature, outlasting Parker Myers, car #11, of Cabot, in a three-way battle toward the end.
Later, around 8:30 p.m., first responders were dispatched to the farm show to attend to a 16-year-old male who was reportedly alert with a head injury, according to scanner reports.
The demolition derby wasn’t the only competition going on in the arena on Friday night, as the packed house of spectators had the opportunity to take part in a 50/50 raffle. By the end of the show, half of the proceeds would benefit the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company, with the other half going to one lucky fan in the seats.
By the end of the first heat, the raffle had raised more than $3,000, meaning over $1,500 would go to the lucky winner if the fund froze right there.
“They raised a total of $3,000 in just one heat race,” Szmal said. “That’s pretty amazing.”
