Boom! Daddy second in sheet metal slaughter
Jason Hamm was feeling the effects of multiple car crashes after placing second at Sunday's Folk Festival Demolition Derby.
"My shoulder is pretty sore, probably from the seat belt harness," he said. "Those last few hits were pretty hard.
"I thought it was a pretty good show," he added. "What did you think?"
Daddy might have been ready for some well-deserved rest, but his pig-tailed daughter, Jasee, was ready for more action.
"Boom!" said the 20-month old, clutching a trophy, and pointing to the silver piece of scrap iron parked in front of the house.
"She's been saying 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' all day," said wife and mother, Carla Hamm. "She had a great time watching the car crashes, she absolutely loved it."
Despite scorching heat, the Marion County Fairgrounds grandstands were filled with spectators Sunday evening.
Excitement was in the air.
Firefighters lined the arena, sweating in their hot and heavy coats, standing ready to extinguish car fires and extricate drivers, if needed.
The traffic cops who normally try to prevent these types of accidents, could only stand and watch.
After the derby cars went one lap around the outside of the giant mud hole in the middle of the arena, the green flags when up and the sheet-metal slaughter commenced.
Engines roared and wheels spun. Rooster-tails of mud flew a hundred feet, pelting fans in the grandstands.
Hamm wobbled to a second place finish in his preliminary heat driving a passenger side wheel that looked like it was about to fall off.
"The upper ball joint broke," said Hamm, 29, who works as a welding supervisor in Hesston.
Working feverishly in the pit area with a cutting torch and a sledge hammer, Jason's father, Lonnie, fixed the wheel before the finals.
Other members of the crew, included Hamm's brother, Lonnie, Adam Kleiber, Justin Friesen, Tim Hein.
The championship came down to Hamm and one other driver, Shane Shafer.
"See that big hole in the middle of my distributor cap?" Hamm said. "That's what put us out of the race."
Hamm said he was pleased with the performance of his four-wheeled battering-ram.
"This car I found out in a field and bought it for $75," Hamm said. "It was a 1981 Chevy Caprice station wagon. It was rust-free. It had no motor or transmission, but the body was all there."
Hamm loaded the old wagon with the same engine, wiring harness, gas tank, and transmission he's used in previous derby cars. He plans to put the same innards in his next one.
Demolition derbies can be dangerous, but serious injuries are rare. To make the event safer, all glass is removed from the vehicle, and deliberately ramming the driver's-side door area is usually forbidden. The mud helps to slow the cars down and lessen the impacts.
Conspicuously absent from derby cars are air bags. Asked if an air bag might help, Hamm said, "It would kind of get in the way."
