The Sun and News, Saturday, July 29, 2023/ Page 11Off Road Derby is family fun at Barry County Fair
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Clara Keizer of Middleville
said she thought off road der-
bys, like the one run by Unique
Motor Sports at the Barry
County Fair Friday night,
were kind of scary until this
summer.
Her big brother Logan said
Clara, 10 years old, begged to
race this time around.
“Yeah, but I got really ner-
vous and I didn’t want to do it
anymore – but I did,” Clara
said.
The nerves popped up on
the infield in front of the Barry
County Fair grandstand during
the drivers’ meeting and lasted
through the playing of the
national anthem. Clara got her
first chance to compete during
a special family race that
opened event – a race with
four Rowleys and four Keizers
around seven laps.
“I couldn’t really see any-
thing. My goggles were cov-
ered in mud,” said Clara, who
spent a little bit of time prac-
ticing operating the vehicle in
her family’s driveway in the
lead-up to the race.
If she could have seen bet-
ter, she’d have seen Logan
take the checkered flag.
Chad Keizer and his wife
Sarah Keizer competed along-
side their children and their
friends Matt Rowley and Keri
Rowley, and their daughters
Megan Rowley and Eva
Rowley from Hastings.
Chad started competing in
demolition derbys and off road
derbys 24 years ago, and Matt
joined in a couple years after
that. Slowly but surely, their
wives and children got
involved too.
Sarah placed third in the
powder puff feature Friday,
slowed a bit late in the compe-
tition by a flat tire. She started
racing 20 years ago and also
scored a trophy in the off road
derby the Tuesday of fair
week.
Logan won his heat in the
youth class and had the lead
on the penultimate lap of the
youth feature before getting
spun around and finishing
behind the top three trophy
winners. Deagan Sanders of
Hastings took that win.
Megan Rowley earned a
trophy too for a win in a pow-
der puff heat. So, the group of
eight Rowleys and Keizers
went home with three trophies.
“Matt Rowley instigated it.
He thought it’d be cool since
we’re all able to, and who
knows how long we’ll be ableto. We might as well take the
opportunity,” Sarah said.
“Earlier this spring the idea
was planted, and we talked to
Jim [Trolard who runs Unique
Motor Sports] and he said we
could do it.”
Matt said Trolard liked the
idea while they were chatting
at the Unique Motor Sports
event at the Lake Odessa Fair
this summer. Matt’s daughters
ran at the Lake Odessa Fair.
“Chad [Keizer] was the rea-
son I got into it,” Matt said.
“We haven’t missed a season
yet, well 2020 but everybody
missed that. Outside of Covid,
Chad has been here every
year. Even years that I didn’t
have a car he said ‘you’ve got
to do it,’ and he has given me
a car.”
“Sarah and I just loved
coming and watching,” Chad
said, “and one night we wereup there and we were walking
out and there was a kid I knew
that I worked with who said,
‘why don’t you go out there
and do that?’ There was anoth-
er buddy that did it.”
He’s been mostly good with
the transition to the off road
derby format – which is a race
around a dirt track where
bumping and crashing are
allowed. There were around
150 competitors Friday andQUESTIONS:
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COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
The minutes of the July 11, 2023 Regular Council Meeting,
which were approved on July 25, 2023, are
posted at the Village Hall at 100 E Main Street and on the
website at http://www.villageofmiddleville.org.See DERBY, page 12Sarah Keizer (right) and Eva Rowley draw for their starting positions in the powder puff feature race at the
Unique Motor Sports Off Road Derby at the Barry County Fair Friday, July 21. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Clara Keizer maneuvers around the course during the special Keizer/Rowley
family race to open the Unique Motor Sports Off Road Derby/Demolition Derby
evening at the Barry County Fair Friday, July 21. Keizer, age 10, competed in a
race for the first time. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Brad Hall of Carson City is interviewed by Unique
Motor Sports’ Jim Trolard after winning the demoli-
tion derby at the end of the grandstand show Friday,
July 21, at the Barry County Fair. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)
Brynn Bolo in the pink 3B car (left) gets around Lydia Griffith on her way to a
win in the powder puff feature at the Unique Motor Sports Off Road Derby at the
Barry County Fair July 21. (Photo by Brett Bremer)