r/motorsports • u/SufficientSecret7164 • 3d ago
How’s the community feel about demolition derby?
Demolition derby, not banger racing. I’m not sure if it’s commonplace anywhere else apart from the US, Canada, and Australia. As a promoter and driver, I’m always super curious to get outside opinions of this sport.
Demo derby has been going through massive changes the last decade or so. Very rarely is a person able to take a car, do bare minimum, and run it for decent money. $50,000 builds for $100,000 team shows requires a lot of knowledge and time. Is there a place for this in the Motorsports realm, or will we forever only be viewed as a bunch of rednecks?
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u/AboveTheLights 2d ago
I’ve never been a big fan. It’s fun enough to watch every once in a while but I’d never participate. For the same or less money I can race a bomber or hornet class race and have more fun and be less sore the next day.
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u/rudedog9d 1d ago
Yea, I'd rather see "banger" or "enduro" races. Taking clunkers and beating them up is fine, but let's run a circle over a pit IMO.
Around me, it's like $500 of average to win. On Asphalt, they'll also wet the track and put big tractor tires out. It slows cars down for safety, and also creates some interesting and hilarious obstacles to avoid with your beat up car on slippery wet pavement. Some of the most entertaining races I've ever watched
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u/SufficientSecret7164 1d ago
If asphalt is the only choice, I’d rather see a circle track being utilized over a full fledged derby as well.
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u/mR_smith-_- 3d ago
I love it, it has to be those shitty junk yard cars with a terrible paint job. I don’t want to watch highly modified derby’s
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u/SufficientSecret7164 2d ago
The years of cars still resembling what they were and non painted frames. “Higher levels” of derbying have the super built cars- I don’t think the spectators will ever latch on to that.
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u/Gloveslapnz 2d ago
I just want to see bangers go at it, not custom built units.
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u/SufficientSecret7164 1d ago
It’s honestly so impressive of the lengths some of these builders go for a well built ride. The ingenuity is insane, one of the hottest derby products right now is a steering shaft that’s flexible. And then these well built machines play bumper cars and almost put you to sleep. The performance is lacking
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u/bowmanjo 1d ago
Me and my mates who follow motorsport refer to banger racing and associated disciplines as ‘lowest common denominator’
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u/dsgrntld187 1d ago
People thought I was crazy when I put 3k into my derby car 20 years ago (I was), but 50k? Whew. That takes it off the radar for a lot of people who might be interested in trying it out and definitely has me rethinking what I'm going to do with this 04 Crown Vic.
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u/SufficientSecret7164 1d ago
The “national” level shows have definitely priced people out. The heats make it more expensive with no reward unless you get in the top bracket. 03+ Vic’s are definitely sought after and you could still get away with a solid build for under $5k, just depends on the level of derby.
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u/pretty_pretty_good_ 20h ago
The only exposure I've had was watching the Louis Theroux episode about them. The communities seemed devoted and wholesome, if a little eccentric. Not sure how it's changed in the last 25 years though.
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u/Catatafish 1d ago
Safety killed demolition derbies.
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u/SufficientSecret7164 1d ago
I disagree
We need more specialized safety- especially with bumper heights and points on the bumpers.
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u/Catatafish 1d ago
Hitting eachother in in a tiny square arena at 8mph isn't fun.
Bring back the figure 8s, push offs, and last man standing ovals.
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u/cheap_chalee 21h ago
You need to check out the Outlaw Figure 8 racing at the Indianapolis Speedrome.
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u/SufficientSecret7164 23h ago
It’s an absolute bore- big loud expensive bumper cars. Utah has a solid formula down- massive tracks and hard hitting. Australia doesn’t even use barriers, just throws them into a field. Compacts are seen as a sideshow, but they’re arguably the funnest to watch and get us closest to the roots of the sport.
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u/ghrrrrowl 18h ago
Cross Australia off. I’ve never seen or heard of it here. If you want budget racing, sprint cars, hill climb and rally are prob the cheapest 4 wheel motorsports to get into here.
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u/SufficientSecret7164 3h ago
The ADDA is pretty new but there’s a community there that’s trying to grow it! Queensland and NSW
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u/Eulielee 7h ago
Only been to one. And not a demo derby.
Jackson Wyoming does figure 8 racing and we happened to be there. It was fun. Seemed like there were tons of mid 90’s econo boxes at the time - tercels, k cars, escorts, Saturns, Volvos.
No hits to the drivers door as they crossed the middle. And most were trying to keep them in mostly working order.
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u/turnonebrainerd 7h ago
<<It was fine when they were just smashing up stock cars with minimal prep as anyone could put a car together for cheap and have some fun it it’s out of hand with how advanced and build some of the classes allowed I know junk car are not $100 any more but spending $10k to just smash it is a few times is wild not to mention people sourcing and hoarding the “good cars” I know all motorsports have a high entry cost but the cars can last years atleast>>>
One sentence!
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u/odney7828 2d ago
As a Brit I enjoy demo Derby's at the end of a banger meeting, but us demo Derby's seem wayyyyyyy too tame
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u/RacerRovr 2d ago
It’s a rare time when we do something that’s more extreme than the US version! Uk/Dutch banger racing is insane compared to US demo derbies
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u/raceace701 3d ago
It was fine when they were just smashing up stock cars with minimal prep as anyone could put a car together for cheap and have some fun it it’s out of hand with how advanced and build some of the classes allowed I know junk car are not $100 any more but spending $10k to just smash it is a few times is wild not to mention people sourcing and hoarding the “good cars” I know all motorsports have a high entry cost but the cars can last years atleast