By Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

RANDOLPH -- Don Nash brought a black 1973 Chevrolet Wagon, No. 802, to the first night of demolition derby at the Portage County-Randolph Fair Tuesday.

After one heat in the full-size car event, he left the track with a heap of twisted metal barely recognizable as a Chevrolet, much less a wagon. His heat ended with the front end of the car hung up on the concrete barriers at the west end of the track.

The main event of Tuesday's first day of the 150th fair capped off a day that began with Tyler Gallagher of Freedom and Sara Cross of Brimfield crowned Junior Fair king and queen. (See story, page A3)

One question posed to Tuesday night's demo derby racers was: What does it take to make a demo derby car?

Racers move their gas tanks and batteries into the passenger compartment, take out the windows and tie down parts that might come loose upon impact with wire.

"The car's mine. The motor's my buddy's," said Nash, who said he ran a 1977 Chevrolet Caprice at a previous fair. "Lots of welding" also goes into building a demo derby car, he said.

Skid steers and tractors dragged a number of racers off the track after their night ended with broken tie rods, mud-caked, flopping tires or blown engines belching flames, steam and smoke.

Demo derby fans in the grandstands cheered with each hard hit.

In the pit area, Dave Knarr of Rootstown bashed out the damage on his black No. 53 car, a stripped down but relatively undamaged 1994 Ford Tempo, with a sledgehammer. He won both nights of the compact car demo derby events at the fair in 2007 and was one of five finalists in the second heat of the compact event Tuesday night.

"They think I'm cheating," he said with a laugh, motioning to other drivers.

After running Ford Tempos for six years and seeing success, Knarr said that he's starting to see "a lot more Ford Tempos" at the event.

His car, with "Knarrly" stenciled in yellow paint above the driver's side door, had the rear wheels replaced with two donut spare tires. This is key to success, he said because the Tempo is front-wheel drive.

So "you can push the bumper up (in front of the rear wheels) and it'll still run. It turns (the rear wheels) into skis and you just aim the car," Knarr explained.

This year's winner in the full-size car feature will take home $1,500. Full-size truck and compact car winners are bashing and crashing for $500 prizes.

Fair events continue today with the second night of demolition derby starting at 6:30 p.m. -- this year including a garden tractor derby with $300 at stake. For the gearheads out there, other vehicle-smashing events this week conclude with the rough truck contest at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.