Metal Meyhem

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the Teton County Fair’s Demolition Derby was a down-home event. Jackson Hole motor heads salvaged abandoned cars found in the surrounding fields and brought them back to life, only to put them to death again for our amusement and their bragging rights.

Times have changed. Today, the first place payout for the climactic event in the annual county fair can reach upwards of $4,000, making our unsanctioned derby attractive to out of town drivers on the pro circuit. Derby cars have become hard to find, and few are free. Most start around $500, and drivers and sponsors invest at least $2,000 before all is said and done.

What may seem like a simple idea – smashing cars together in an arena until only one is left – has become a sport of both brains and brawn as drivers and their pit crews work to make the toughest derby cars within regulation.

FYI: There’s plenty of cheats.

A trailer, a ski-boat, two Figure 8 cars, two sleds and six derby cars sit in the driveway of Shaun King’s home in East Jackson. King, 26, is the founder of Redneck Racing and is the new owner of Action Snowmobile, located on South Hwy. 89. He’s competed in Jackson Hole’s Demo Derby for the past six years and in general is a prominent figure in the motor sports world throughout the region.

The Redneck Racing crew will have the largest local representation at this year’s derby, with a total of five cars competing and one auction car (the proceeds of which will be donated to Jackson’s Volunteer Fire and Rescue.) This year, King, along with 12-year derby vet and New York City Sub Shop driver Jamie Bauer, will help inspect cars to make sure they meet Teton County Fair’s Derby rules and regulations.

“The outta towners are getting sneakier,” said King. “They’re welding their frames to their bodies and covering them up, hiding it. They’ll weld behind the tires. They’ll weld it and grind it down and throw oxidizer on it so it looks old and rusted.”

Welding the car’s frame to the body makes the care nearly indestructible, especially when it’s done to a mid- ’70s GM or mid-’70s Chrysler, the weapon of choice for many derby drivers. It’s also illegal. But in the past, pre-derby inspectors have been lax to say the least, with officials letting illegal cars, mostly from out of town, compete for the sake of having more cars and therefore a bigger pot of cash for the winner.

“I don’t mind the outta towners coming, but those guys need to be built to our rules,” said Bauer. “All the cars need to be built in the same fashion and be equal. Too many years they’ve been letting ’em go and they’ve been winning.”

“We are here to take Jackson back for Jackson,” added King. 

Indeed, hometown pride is a major source of motivation. This is Jackson Hole’s derby, and it has been too long since a local has come out on top. Rules and regulations change from derby to derby, but many cars compete throughout the region unchanged.

For example, if a car is built for and wins a derby in Idaho under one set of regulations, it could later be entered unaltered into a derby in Wyoming with different regulations. If inspectors don’t thoroughly check the vehicle to make sure it’s up to local specs, the car could go on to win unfairly if its structural reinforcement is superior to the other cars in the arena. After investing time and money into a vehicle, some drivers will run their vehicle unchanged in as many derbies as they can in the pursuit of the winning jackpot.

Luckily, we have a new board of inspectors this year to make sure all the vehicles will be up to local specs and thus have an even playing field. Scott Shervin, owner of Shervin’s Independent Oil and Automotive Center on South Hwy. 89, is on the Teton County Fair Board and is bringing in three independent inspectors who are also judges from Afton, Wyo., to inspect the derby cars this year.

The boys from Afton, along with three veteran drivers from the Redneck Racing Crew, will inspect every vehicle in this year’s derby. Of course, the Redneck Crew will not be allowed to inspect their own vehicles. 

After the inspection, every driver and their pit crew will have a few hours to get their vehicle into legal condition, if need be, before the derby begins. But if a frame is welded to a body, or if the team is running a modified suspension, it could prove difficult to fix in the allotted time. 

“All the drivers get the rules when they enter,” said Shervin. “If they don’t read them that’s their fault.”

Last year’s winner, Tory Thomas, will be coming up to compete from Rock Springs with his ’74 Chevy Impala. The son of a derby driver, he’s been competing in derbies for 16 years.

“I like running outta town derbies,” said Thomas. “Everyone’s out to get ya’. In my hometown, I know all the drivers and they might take it personal, but in Jackson, I’m not afraid to drop the hammer.”

So far only one woman has entered the Jackson Hole Demolition Derby. Sarah Jeffco, 22, of Alpine, who will be marrying Jamie Bauer the Friday before the derby in Curtis Canyon, will be driving a ’79 Chrysler Cordoba in this, her first derby.

“When I was four, my mom sold our ’68 Impala to a demo derby driver,” Jeffco said. “It got second place. I’ve wanted to do it ever since.”

Jeffco, who described herself as very competitive, promised to “send the outta town people back outta town.” As far as smashing into her husband with a one-ton piece of metal, Jeffco said, “I don’t want to pick on him, but I’ll do what it takes to get the job done.”

“How’s that for a honeymoon?” quipped Bauer. 

“I’ve spent the time and effort, and Jamie’s spent the time and effort, to make two of the best cars we’ve built so far,” King said. “The outta towners that do make it into the derby will pay dearly. It’s about time someone from Jackson’s out there winning.”
With local drivers and pit crews becoming more professional, taking more time and effort to make their derby cars indestructible, they’ve begun to demand a professional paint job. Local artist Jason Blair, 32, along with up and comer Bobby Poinsett, 19, have supplied this year’s demand for local style.

Blair, whose artwork has been featured in 14 magazines over the past three or four years, has added his touch on this year’s Super Man-themed vehicle along with Tyson Young’s “Metal Mayhem” vehicle.

Although the origins for the concept of the Super Man-themed vehicle are obvious, less so is the “Metal Mayhem” car, which features an array of hand-painted skulls. Turns out Blair took the concept from one of his earlier works on local sledneck Dan Adams’s Modified IQ 600 Polaris Switchback, which has been featured in Sledneck’s Magazine.

Over the years, Blair has made his mark on 12 derby cars, and right out of the gate he won best paint the first year he decided to get involved. Although he primarily works for Evans Construction, his passion is the airbrush and he works that on the side. He hopes Bobby Poinsett will pursue his talent for airbrushing and has supported Poinsett by buying the first piece that Poinsett ever made — the hood from a Chevy Trailblazer featuring a panther walking through fire.

This year Poinsett painted New York City Sub Shop’s American flag-themed car, which took part in the Fourth of July Parade and will be driven by Jamie Bauer during the derby. Poinsett is also doing the paint for Shaun King’s car, however the theme has not yet been revealed. It will be unveiled this Friday at the fairgrounds, according to King.

Poinsett got into airbrushing at the age of 15 when his mom’s friend, Darla Jackson, owner of Golden Era Graphics, thought he might get into the art form after seeing his work from art class. Poinsett took it a step further by interning at Teton Motors Collision Center.

“I learned how to do the sanding and prep work involved with painting so I could do it right, so your work doesn’t fall off,” he said.

No easy task when two tons of steel collide, as they will this Sunday. As for the rest of us, all we have to do is sit back and watch.

Photo by Neal Hendersen
Shaun King, founder of Redneck Racing, is both a competitor and an inspector in the Demo Derby.


Will they or won't they streak the demo derby?

In recent years, the Demolition Derby, the climax of the Teton County Fair, has been upstaged by streakers. For weeks in advance, folks talk about whether some will dare a bare-bottomed run across the rodeo grounds, and for weeks afterwards, the community debates whether we should make a big deal about it, what punishment fits the crime, and how – or whether – something should be done to stop it.

This year, in order for the Teton County Fair Board to secure its special event permit from the Town of Jackson for the Demo Derby, it had to reduce ticket sales by 10 percent (about 300 tickets), ban the sale of alcohol at the event, and end it by dusk, around 9 p.m.

Yvonne Robertson, manager of the Teton County Fair, said the “general feeling” is that if the derby is out of control this year, the Town of Jackson will not issue a permit next year. So as you stand blurry-eyed at the fences in your breakaway Adidas track suit, contemplating a buck-naked dash into local history, stop: You might just ruin the derby forever. At the very least, you will be shocked, beaten and/or publicly humiliated.

Deputy Todd Stanyon, who arrested streakers in 2005 and 2006, will not be on duty at the Demolition Derby this year. This past March, while extracting a drunken, disorderly man from the Mangy Moose in Teton Village, Stanyon was “mule-kicked” in the knee, blowing out his ACL.

In 2005 Stanyon Tasered John Rodgers, who was naked and wielding a fire extinguisher above his head in the arena. “He refused several orders to drop the fire extinguisher,” said Stanyon. “It would have been pretty funny to blast an officer with a fire extinguisher, but we’re not going to take that risk.” Stanyon shot Rodgers in the back with a Taser, shocking him with 50,000 volts of electricity (but less than a quarter amps), then made the arrest.

In 2006, Seamus McKinney streaked the Derby and almost made it out of the arena. On his exit, however, he met Stanyon face to face.

“He made a beeline for me,” said Stanyon. “I made eye contact with him and ordered him to stop, but he lowered his head and hit me like a line backer.” McKinney was then taken to the ground and punched three times in the ribs by Stanyon until he submitted and was handcuffed. Video footage of the escapade can still be viewed at www.RedNeckRacing.com.

“I was grateful for the video,” said Stanyon, “It’s the best piece of evidence you could ask for.” Stanyon noted that the video shows him shout in Mckinney’s ear ordering him to submit, shows McKinney not submitting, and then shows Stanyon punching McKinney in the ribs – blows that can be painful but don’t cause much physical damage.
So where are the streakers now? John Rodgers, 23, is now a performance artist in Toronto, Canada.

“I had my back to Stanyon, so I never heard a word he was saying,” Rodgers said. “I had no intention of spraying him with the fire extinguisher,” he said, adding he holds no animosity toward Stanyon, despite the Tasering and “thousands of dollars in lawyer fees” he had to pay. He says the incident is behind him.

“It was free form human expression,” he said. “I think the act brought to the surface issues of censorship, human expression, violence, the human body and pornography.
Seamus McKinney, 26, is working in his home state of Maine for the summer and is not sure whether he will rejoin the Jackson community come winter. On top of “a lot of financial expenses,” McKinney is required to serve 40 hours of community service at this year’s fair, for which he has flown back to Jackson Hole. As advised by his lawyer, McKinney declined to comment on the Demolition Derby.

So, would-be streakers, beware. Teton County Sheriff Bob Zimmer said he doesn’t want to talk about streaking, doesn’t want to hype it up or give anyone any bad ideas. He did say his deputies and Jackson police officers would be on hand in force, as usual, to protect the public and enforce the law. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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