Fair's all-time winningest driver makes not-so-secret return to Demolition Derby

Jason Goff tried to keep his return to the Monroe County Demolition Derby on the down low.

That didn’t last long.

Goff, the winningest driver in derby history, expects to have a car in the Modified Class at the Fair on Tuesday. He only recently started building the car but expected a large group of helpers in his shop in the final hours leading up to the event.

“Some of the guys who will help me build the car are the same guys I’ll be trying to run over on Tuesday night,” Goff said. “That’s the Derby family around here. The derby community is so special.”

The Demolition Derby annually is one of the biggest attractions for the fair. It’s often made up of second, third and even fourth generations of participants. Goff’s dad, Merlin, was the initial winner of the Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby in 1973 and won again in 1983, while Jason has 11 wins to his credit. Goff’s brother, Rick, has one win, giving the family 14 all-time feature wins.

“What makes the Derby unique, over its 50-year tenure, is the fact that it’s not a traveling show, but Monroe County through and through,” said Ron Drager, the owner of ARCA, the derby promoter since the start in 1973. “Monroe County Fair Board Members do a lot of work behind the scenes, the fair managers over the years have supported it, drivers and race team members build cars and participate—we’ve consistently had 90 percent plus Monroe County folks building, sponsoring and running cars in the Derby.”

Goff hasn’t had a car in the Derby the last couple of years when he migrated into the technical side of the derby, helping to inspect the cars instead. He won seven features between 2007 and 2016. His last derby was in 2017.

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“It’s kind of top-secret, but there is no such thing in the derby world,” he said. “Not everyone knows I’m coming.”

The Derby has gone through some evolutions over the years, especially when it comes to the safety of cars. At one time, Goff said, you could get a car derby-ready pretty fast.

“All you had to do was strip the car out, move the gas tank and batter and away you went,” Goff said. “If you did that, you had just as good a chance as the next guy to win.”

Today there are numerous safety features that go into building a car and the newer cars that have computer chips running the engines make it very difficult to turn into a derby car.

The car counts have also changed. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Monroe County Demolition Derby would have around 250 cars entered every year. That has dipped some, but Goff said the car counts here remain high compared to other derbies in Michigan or the Midwest.

“We still get five or six times the cars as other derbies,” he said. “Some derbies are happy if they get 10 cars entered. There are still a good number of people in this county who want to get out there and smash up a car.”

Drager said this show remains one of the best in the business.

“This Derby is among the biggest and best in the country, and the driver who wins this derby has a lot to be proud of,” he said.

Marlin Goff, the first derby winner, died in 2012, but the tradition continues.

“I was born in 1973 and I was at the derby in 1973,” Jason Goff said. “I don’t remember it, but I was there for probably all 49 derbies. It’s family.”

Drager agreed, saying its Monroe County to the core.

“We’re seeing third- and fourth-generation derby drivers who started as kids working on cars with their moms and dads, aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors,” he said. “It’s sort of fitting that the first Derby 50 years ago was cooked up by Glenn Stock, John Marcum and Howard Williams, all Monroe County guys, and most of us involved today are still Monroe County lifers.”

50TH MONROE COUNTY FAIR DEMOLITION DERBY

Where: Monroe County Fair Grandstand

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Price: $10 North & South Wings / $15 Covered Grandstand

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Back for more, Jason Goff is Derby's all-time winningest driver