Smash, crash and the ugliest pickup
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 11, 2015 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Competitors battle each other and the mud during the demolition derby at the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair Saturday.
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Members of the Arrington Volunteer Fire Department work together to put out a fire in the car of Tony Horne of Dudley during the 4-cylinder heat of the demolition derby.
Twenty minutes before the start of the Wayne County Regional Agricultural Fair's demolition derby, Ervin Gurganus of Dudley is sitting where the back window of his Oldsmobile Cutlass used to be, smoking a cigarette.
The car is a heap of twisted metal, gutted to only the essentials -- the gas tank and battery securely fastened to the vehicle's interior.
Its doors have been chained shut.
Gurganus is eyeing the track, trying to calm his nerves.
The competition ring on Saturday had been completely waterlogged by an onslaught of rain, turning the ground into gurgling muck.
"My adrenaline is pumping, yeah," Gurganus said, thumping his hand up and down over his chest. "My heart's about to beat out of my chest."
But once Gurganus climbs into the driver's seat by way of entering through his back window and crawling up to the front, his nerves are made of ice -- he is calm.
"It fades away the moment you sit down in the car," he said. "You just try and keep the wheels rolling and you're good."
He has a plan -- keep his front end clear of the other drivers so his radiator doesn't get hit, and throttle his 3,100 pounds of metal into the competition.
Gurganus competed in both the V8 and four-cylinder division of Saturday's demolition derby, which were two of the three divisions at the competition, with the other being a V6 division.
In the V8 division competition, he held his own until the two other drivers in the division hurtled straight into his car's front end, smashing in the hood and engine, incapacitating Gurganus' vehicle.
David Goins of Mar-Mac came out on top in the V8 division.
Goins has been competing in demolition derbies for 30 years, starting in 1985, and Saturday was the last derby he would ever compete in, making the win particularly meaningful for him.
"I've won three demolition derbies -- one in '95, one in '96, I took a break in '97, and I won again in '98. I just wanted one more win," Goins said.
The constant impact from the other vehicles doesn't bother him.
"I've been doing it for so long it's just like a daily drive at this point," he said.
There were many more competitors in the V6 class, and the constant hum of engines sounded like buzzing bees that was only disrupted by the crunch and clang of metal slamming into metal.
Lee Horner of Goldsboro won the V6 division. He has been competing for 10 years, and Saturday marked his first-ever major win since he began competing.
He said the wear and tear caused by a demolition derby does not only affect the cars the drivers use -- it takes a toll on the body, too.
"Oh, yeah, I'm always sore the next day," Horner said. "It seems like the older I get, the worse it hurts."
Andy Pittman of Pink Hill, the winner of the four-cylinder division, said driving a car with a smaller engine made it far more difficult to gain traction on the muck of the track.
"It's a lot funner than the other divisions, but we couldn't put on as good of a show as we'd like to have done because it was so slick," Pittman said. "We couldn't get any big hits in for the crowd because we couldn't get any speed."
But Pittman had an ace up his sleeve. He implemented a carefully thought out strategy to take home first place amid the chaos of engine smoke and mud-flinging.
He called his strategy a form of "controlled aggression."
"I started right down here at this light post," Pittman said, pointing to the bottom left corner of the track where his car was placed before the contest began. "That out there in the middle of the track is no man's land -- I never go there. All these other dummies, excuse my French, took right off into the middle of the track and they get a hit and then they get stuck because of all the cars and the mud that are in the middle."
Pittman controlled his corner of the track, keeping his trunk pointed in the direction of the other drivers to protect his front end.
"I'd keep the boot out that way and go in, make a hit, and drive back out to my corner," Pittman said. "I did that over and over again until all the other cars were knocked out."
All of Saturday's first-place winners in the derby took home a gigantic trophy and $500 in cash.