For the event’s roughly 3,000 spectators Friday night, Woodland’s Demolition Derby – held at the Yolo County Fairground at 1250 E. Gum Ave. – was an opportunity for people to get together and enjoy seeing cars demolish each other in a relentless clash of metal-on-metal destruction.
For father and son Ron and Matthew Alves, the derby was an opportunity to partner – and compete – with each other for the main event’s $6,000 grand prize.
Ron, 71, has recently won two derbies and came to Woodland expecting to do the same. He placed second in his heat of the pickup derby and received the mad dog award.
“When you win, you’re just lucky because nothing broke,” he joked. “But it’s all fun, and when you win, it’s just an extra bonus.”
Ron noted that only winners or contestants who place get a cash reward, while the others are paid with the enjoyment of the event. He noted that he quit for a while but recently started doing it again to spend time with his son.
“I’ve just been having fun derbying with these guys and derbying with my youngest son,” Ron emphasized. “We’ve done pretty good the last couple of years, but good or bad, it’s all good derby.”
Matthew, 30, explained that his father and uncles used to participate in derbies back in the day, which made him interested in the sport.
“He just kind of decided to come out of retirement because I was doing it, and it’s fun,” Matthew said regarding his father. “We get to share an experience like that together. Not everybody gets to do that.”
Matthew placed third in his pickup truck heat and placed second overall during the pickup main event. He has participated in derbies for nine years and has been doing them with Ron for the last two years.
Together, they both have amassed six wins – three each.
“It’s always kind of a competition,” Matthew added. “We work together and if we both make it to the end, then it’s a competition.”
Stacey Akins, 49, had only done one derby 25 years ago but decided to do one more to spend time with her family.
“It’s myself, my husband and our twin boys and we’re all running in the same heat together,” Akins emphasized.
Akins is from Woodland and decided to join the derby when her sons decided they wanted to do it.
“I was like, ‘alright, I’m gonna do this,'” she recalled. “It’s my last one and my car number is 49.9 because I’ll turn 50 on Monday, so it’s like going out of the 40s with a bang.”
Although she and her family did not win, Akins said the experience of working together has been amazing and brought them closer.
“It gets a little tense every now and then, you know, you have four cars that we’re working on, but it’s been a great time,” she highlighted.
The 7 p.m. event attracted roughly 3,000 spectators and lasted nearly three hours featuring two pickup truck rounds, a car round and a final pickup truck event that pit the winners of the previous two rounds against each other.
Below are the results of each Friday night demolition derby event, according to the organizers.
Pickup trucks: Heat 1
- Chase Covington
- Brian Frommit
- Matt Alves
Pickup trucks: Heat 2
- Jon Mattiolli
- Ron Alves
- Emerson Kingsley
80s and Newer Cars
- Garret Lloyd
- David Ruvalcaba
- Jesus Campos
Pickup trucks main event
- Dylan Thiel
- Matt Alves
- Chase Covington
Ron Berg spearheaded the organization of the event and explained that he helped start the Woodland Derby in the mid-1970s.
“It got bigger, it got promoters and then it got circuit runners,” he explained.
He would eventually help create a volunteer “A-Team” from the Yolo County Fair that took over the event in 2004 and has been running the show since.
Although Berg is no longer competing, he said that his son-in-law and grandson – Garret Lloyd – were both participating in Friday night’s demolition derby.
“I got into it… and then my son-in-law, he got introduced to it in high school,” Berg explained. “I had him come out and he started working with the cars with me, stripping them and everything and wanted to do a derby car so I let him go ahead and do this thing..”
Berg helped his son-in-law work on cars teaching him how to strip them and, eventually, helped him build his first derby car.”
“So I let him go ahead and do this thing,” he recalled. “Then my grandson comes up, and he rode around with me for years in the pits and he got to liking it and wanting to do it. He’s been through 15 or so derbies now… so he’s got some good seat time. They know what they’re doing.”
Lloyd won Friday night’s 80s and Newer Cars Demolition Derby taking home the $1,000 grand prize.
The event continued Saturday with a stock car non-welds and compact cars demolition derby.
