Smashing Success
By ROBBY LUCKEStaff
Do crowds gather at automotive competitions mainly to see the crashes? Spokesmen for race organizations like NASCAR might debate the point, but at the fifth annual Demolition Derby, it was indisputable.
Wrecks — within a carefully controlled setting, with emergency personnel on hand — were the whole point, and the numbers spoke loudly: last Saturday night, Sparta was not the largest community in Alleghany County. Alleghany County Agricultural Fair officials estimated attendance at 3,000 to 3,100, a crowd which overflowed the grandstand area at the Justice Carlise Higgins Fairgrounds.
DEMOLITION — Sheriff Mike Caudill of Sparta, driving "Hillbilly," sets
his sights on Car 28, driven by Brad Mabe of Laurel Springs in the
second heat of last Saturday's Demolition Derby. Mabe also had to watch
out for "The Violator," (far left) driven by Tyrell Francis of Sparta.
Caudill and Francis went on to win that heat and Francis ended up being
first overall in the main event.
