Nash gives the fans what they want at Fair Demolition Derby

Joe Nash is a familiar name at the Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby.

The Maybee resident has been competing in the event since he was 14, taking part in the action a total of 18 times over the years.

Nash won the Semi-Stock Class Feature at Tuesday night’s 50th annual event.

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Nash is no stranger to winning the derby. In fact, with the help of rival driver Matthew Songalewski, he was reminded that he won the event last year too.

“I think I’ve won probably four or five times,” he said before shouting out to Songalewski. “Matt did you win last year or did I?”

Songalewski was able to jog Nash’s memory.

“I guess I’ve won five or six times then,” Nash said with a laugh.

Semi-Stock Class competitors slowly ripped their white flags from their doors one by one, with just four cars remaining in the feature event when things started to heat up.

Nash (RS Recycling), Jason Goff (80085), Dave Roush (202), and Austin Palmer (121) went at each other biding for a Fair victory. Roush and Goff would end up stuck together on the pit side wall leaving Nash and Palmer to duke it out for the victory.

Nash wound up as the last car with a white flag still attached to his door after a few minutes of battling Palmer. He was happily thrilled with the action as the final four went at each other.

“I’d rather do that than the other show, I like driving heavier cars because they don’t bend and you can break a lot of stuff in a little bit of time,” he said.

Following the win Rachel Nash was proud of her husband, but admitted she was a little nervous when Joe almost rolled his car.

“I’m very proud. This is something that the family loves coming to watch him compete in,” she said. “I definitely was a little worried today when he almost got rolled over, though.”

Despite the action of cars smashing into each other doing what the crowd craves, both Joe and Rachel believe the derby involves a little bit of strategy.

“It’s a patience game. You’ve gotta let the other cars do what they’re going to do and see how it plays out,” Joe said.

Rachel concurred.

“You’ve gotta stay patient in the car and go for the right thing,” she said.

Rollo Juckette yet again was on the mic to announce the event. Juckette has been to all 50 Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby’s and announced 48 of them.

Juckette remembers his first show 50 years ago and the excitement from Fair attendees.

“We had over two grandstands full, the first one they had people lined up it was sold out—the people love this event,” he said.

During the Modified Stock Class event a slow moving logjam began to drew jeers from the crowd so Juckette used his microphone to push the drivers to give the fans what they wanted.

“They were sitting around there just playing, these people come to watch a demolition derby. Them guys were just kind of back and forth to see who would end up running out of gas first,” he said.

Juckette didn’t take credit for getting things moving during the final event, though.

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“Someone kind of twisted their arms at the end and made them start hittin’, which made the people happy and that’s what they come for,” he said.

The person Juckette was talking about was Jason Goff.

Goff was knocked out of the Modified Stock Class event early on, but continued to watch from the pit right next to the action. When the crowd grew more and more disgruntled Goff had enough. Red flags went up and when the cars stopped he walked to each driver’s window and reminded them why there is so many fans in the stands.

“I basically told them if they didn’t get on the gas we were going to give the win to the sixth place car,” he said.

It’s about the people who come to watch the show.

“Ultimately, you’ve got to put on a show for these fans and they were struggling to do that,” he said.

The message worked as the remaining cars got moving and the event ended shortly after Goff’s visible encouragement to drivers.

When the dust settled after the action Mark Cuykendall (IMOPOPS) was took home the $1750 grand prize for the last event of the night.

Amanda Souva was the winner of the best appearing car earning her a $75 payout.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Nash gives the fans what they want at Fair Demolition Derby