Dodge County Fair rolls through Scribner

SCRIBNER -- John Zollars thought they could get his son’s car repaired so Trent could be ready for the final heat of the demolition derby at the Dodge County Fair Saturday night.

Trent qualified for the final heat by placing in the top three of the qualifying heat, but his car still sustained heavy damage.

The Columbus man rattled off a list of repairs that needed to be made: “A frame, tie rod, we have a transmission leak and we need a new radiator.”

Even with that list of demands in roughly

30 minutes before the final heat, John remained optimistic.

“If we can find a tie rod, we’ll be back in,” he said. “We have an A frame, and we have a radiator. We’re trying to get some help on the tie rod.”

Time was the fatal blow to Trent’s hopes of a demolition derby title.

“We didn’t make it back in,” John said. “We didn’t get the A frame back on. We ran out of time.”

Justin Muller of Fremont had a different problem after his qualifying heat.

“We’re trying to line up the front end so he can steer again,” said Justin’s father, Mark. “Right now, the steering is all messed up. We bent the whole upper A frame back and pulled it out as far as we can. The more steering you get out there, the better you can do. We will be back in for the finals.”

Justin had better luck than Trent. Justin’s car was ready in time for the final heat.

He placed second in the derby. Dave Bartosh of Dodge won the title.

This year’s demolition derby was highlighted by fires, broken cars and fallen parts.

“People like to come out and watch the crashes and the fires,” said Al Settles, Dodge County Fair board member who coordinates events in the west arena at the Dodge County Fairgrounds. “It’s the main attraction at the county fair.”

The nearly filled stands confirmed that point.

While people still fill the stands to watch the smashes and fires, it’s harder to get entries, said Settles, who started working with the demolition derby when he was a senior in high school about 30 years ago.

With the shortened demolition derby, Settles said he had to find something to keep the crowd there and interested. Last year, the fair hosted its first tough trucks competition -- a timed event where people drive old pickup trucks the length of a field, turn around a stack of hay bails and drive back to the finish line through a series a bumps.

“Cars are hard to find,” Settles said. “That’s why we brought in the tough trucks. Last year, we had 10 trucks. This year, we have right at 30. The fans love it. The derby has gotten smaller. I had to add something to go with it on Saturday night. Two years ago, I went to Kearney to see a tough trucks event there. I thought this was something we could do at the Dodge County Fair. The fans like it.”

One of the appeals for these two events is that none of the drivers do this professionally, he continued.

“These are all local guys. The trucks in the tough trucks event are all old farm trucks. People want to see stuff like this. They want to see the trucks go through the fence, and they want to see the derby cars flip over. This is great entertainment.”