Farmington Fair goes out with a bang, a crash…a derby

FARMINGTON – In the heat of an 85 degree fall day, contestants for the 27th annual Demolition Derby began to line up in preparation for the evening’s event. The rough skeletons of trucks, cars and even some mini vans revved their dramatic engines, kicking up the dust of the dry fairgrounds, excited and impatient for the afternoon to pass.

“There used to be hundreds of cars in the line up, but the numbers keep dropping every year. My son and I have a bet going that we’ll see fifty tonight,” Steve Lillie Sr. said.

Lillie is one of the handful of guys in charge of orchestrating the event- registering contestants, making sure their vehicles are up to code, and keeping the line moving throughout the competition. The crew of mechanic-minded men, many former derby drivers themselves, also work behind the scenes, along with other family members and friends, to get the contestants ready for the next heat- a series of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants fixes to keep the engines running.

“I’m just gonna try to keep it upright tonight,” Taylor France said.

France was one of the few women in the competition and outfitted her car to match- hot pink details and a spray painted traffic cone on top for a unicorn horn.

“I’m excited. I want people to know it’s a girl driving,” she said.

Later in the night, after the first heat, France waits next to her smoking unicorn while Lillie’s crew hammers out a dent in the side with the hopes of fitting her battery back in. She went on to rank fourth place in her heat before her battery finally quit on her.

As with most, France didn’t have too much of a strategy going onto the track- just protect the front end and go for it.

“I just hid my nose as much as I could,” Darren Curtis said.

Curtis’ Mitsubishi Galant pulled in first in his heat, going on to win the trophy of the night in the final round.

“It was just luck,” he said.

Regardless of strategy, the Farmington Fair Demolition Derby is an all time favorite- filling every corner of the grand stands with spectators. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans flanked the sidelines, propped in lawn chairs in truck beds, or perched atop the cab for a better view.

“It’s not every day you can jump in a car and smash into someone,” Contestant Marshall Cassidy said, summing up the height of the night.