http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS Thursday, August 8, 2024 25
DEMO
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See DERBY on 26White Collar
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Proud Supporter
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Calhoun County Fair...
“We measure success
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http://www.advisor-chronicle.comwww.advisor-chronicle.com AD-VISOR & CHRONICLE - CALHOUN COUNTY FAIRAD-VISOR & CHRONICLE Saturday, August 10, 2024Saturday, June 8, 2024 15 15
Calhoun County Fair
175th
Aug.
11 - 17A look at some of Mike Grove’s favorite Demolition Derby photos over the
years. (Photo by Will Kowalski)the event at the fair is a local thing,
my favorite derby, and my son –
who will have passed away 17 years
ago this November – myself and the
whole family use a variation of his
car number 628, so it represents my
son’s memory well.”
For his take on why fans love to
come out in droves to the Calhoun
County Fairgrounds each year during
Fair time to watch the demo derby
event, Grove said the following:
“Cars are out there in a controlled
environment and beating the heck
out of each other. It’s just something
people enjoy seeing. What’s not
something people enjoy seeing are
accidents when you’re on a real road
with real vehicles driving. But at the
Fair, with the demo derby, people
enjoy watching cars getting smashed
up – in as safe a manner as possible.”
Grove said that safety-wise, he has
a general mantra: “I pray to God all
goes well, and nobody gets hurt.
“Don’t get hurt, and don’t be stu-
pid,” he said. “Just remember to
never put your hands through the
steering wheel. You get hit in the
front wheel area, and that steer-
ing wheel spins about 100 mph and
snaps – and it could injure your
hands or arms or both really easily.
Putting your hands through the wheel
during a derby, that’s a no-no.”
Also safety-wise, all glass win-
dows – glass located above and in
the doorwells of vehicles – must be
removed to help prevent people get-
ting injured from spraying and flying
glass.
And, there’s a safety rule that disal-
lows one car hitting another car in
the driver or passenger door areas.
“And it’s also recommended that
you move the battery and the gas
tank from their regular places in your
demo cars when you build them,”
Grove said, “as that will help you
stay out there longer when your
front, back and quarter-panels are hit
by vehicle after vehicle.”
Nevertheless, Grove said, injuries
still happen.
“What with all the banging and
crashing going on out there, some-
times injuries happen,” he said.
“Personally, one year, I fractured
my wrist by holding onto the shifter
too hard. I had my foot wide-open
on the floorboard when I hit another
vehicle, and when I had to slam into
another gear to back up, my wrist
snapped.”
Grove explained what kind of cars,
in general, are used at the CCF:
“You strip them all out – they’re
supposed to be bone stock, that’s
what the Calhoun County Fair and
other fairs usually use, like some
of the other fairs I drive in like at
Branch County, and at other places
like Coldwater and Hillsdale,” he
said. “They do also have a welded
class, an outlaw class, for another
demo division, and in those you
can take a car and make it a tank if
that’s what you want to do. Different
strokes for different folks. But I stay
with the bone stock variety.
“And you just take a bone stock
car to the county fair, you have some
fun, you smash up some cars, and in
the end, that car you took in there is
not going to look like the same car
after you get done with it in a derby.
It’s going to be all smashed up. But
that’s just part of the fun of it all.”
Grove said that last year, the CCF
had about 50 cars competing in thebone division, and that cars are bro-
ken down into heats.
“And if you win a heat, you
advance to another heat, or the finals,
and many times there are also con-solation heats,” he said. “Personally,
I happened to win the main event
four years ago. I received a nice tro-
phy and first place money-wise was
$1,000. And that’s nice. And they
also paid down to second and third
places last year and most years.
“But if you’re only into how much
money you can win regarding demo
derby events,” Grove continued,
“you’re in the wrong activity. Sure,
there are some people who go around
the country and compete in big-mon-
ey events, like in Kansas and other
places, in those outlaw classes. But
in the fair-type bone events, like the
one at the Calhoun County Fair, you
compete for fun.”
Which makes county fair-like
events, Grove said, “tough on your
wallet. But it comes with the terri-
tory.”