The Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby took place Friday night before an overflow crowd, and it’s safe to say the event was another smashing success.

The derby was halted at one point until fans who had crowded into the arena but were unable to find a seat were moved away from the fence for safety reasons…>>>

The event kicked off with the mini car class. Gage Sumner of Missouri took home first place, followed by Waterloo’s Kaelan Mudd in second after a hard-fought battle with Chris Helms of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., who finished third.

The TVP class was next up, and it turned into an hour-long battle between two cars that was much like watching a chess match. Eventual winner Jason Goeddel of Waterloo and second place finisher Josh Van Meter played a game of cat and mouse, one trying to out-maneuver the other to get into position for the kill shot.

At one point, Van Meter had Goeddel pinned on the wall but Goeddel was somehow able to escape. After an hour of near misses and some big hits, Goeddel took the win.

Brian Lehr of Columbia won third place.

Next up was the stock class, which provided some of the hardest hits of the night. These guys didn’t care if they hit someone with the front or the back of the car — they just wanted to hit something.

The stock class came down to three cars, but for third place finisher Tom Irvin of Waterloo, it was not going to be an easy go. The other two cars still running were driven by Seymours. Irvin took several sandwich hits from the Seymours and returned good hits of his own. He managed to keep his car running for several minutes before it finally gave out.

The car of second place finisher Pat Seymour of Waterloo was still running at the end, but was unable to move due to a
failed transmission, so he was unable to make a hit in the alotted time. This translated to a win for Mike Seymour.

The event concluded with the new pro mod class, which allows drivers to modify and reinforce weak points on the cars to hopefully make them run longer and hit harder.

After about 20 minutes of battle, it came down to Lehr against Ben Hanna of Waterloo. The two drivers had a good battle, but unlike the TVP battle that lasted an hour, these guys just went after each other with each delivering really hard hits. Lehr ended up taking the win with Hanna taking second and Jared Beatty of Jerseyville placing third.

Check out our video of the sights and sounds of the 2014 Monroe County Fair!