Demolition Derby Sees Surge in Attendance at Northeast Montana Fair

Despite dropping an event and one Herby Derby cancellation, LeeAnn Walls described the Milk River Motorsports Demolition Derby on July 30th as, "having gone rather smoothly." Walls commented that originally they had planned to have the Herby Derby, the Chains and Bangs, and the main Derby, but due to only having a single entry the Chains and Bangs were cancelled. Nonetheless, the stands were near capacity as over 1,300 people crammed in to watch the event. Walls said this was a 500-person increase from the year prior with a 2015 attendance of only 800 people.

Regardless of the Chains and Bangs Derby, Walls did comment that the Herby Derby was a big success, "The idea is to get the younger generation fired up about it [demolition derbies], and to give them a chance to get their feet wet without the intimidation of the time and money." She compared the cost of the mainstream derby to the Herby stating that, "some cars in the big guys derby can run over $10,000, and almost all of their free time has to spent working on their cars ... the Herby Derby costs $50 to $200 for the cheapest car you can find that still has an engine that runs or could run with little work needed."

The Herby Derby event had seven cars on the course with the top two finishing in the money. Mike Bunk of Baker took home the Herby Derby first-place prize. Jake Hentges of Glasgow took home the second-place prize, along with the "Most Aggressive Driver Award," which is awarded to any car in the entire derby, but is not usually given to a Herby Derby car according to Walls.

The main Demolition Derby had nine entries with two qualifying heats and one finals heat. Finishing in the money were: first place - Scott Skoyen of Chinook; second place - Garrett Powell of Chinook; and third place - Willy Lauckner of Nashua.

Combined prizes for the Herby and Main Derby were over $9,000 with first place receiving over $4,000 for their troubles. Walls said the prize pool was raised by entry fees, contributions from the Northeast Montana Fair Board and Milk River Motorsports.