Four beat-up cars, silhouetted by smoke and steam, crash into each other in a narrow line across the center of the frame.

I recently went to my first demolition derby, Woodbooger Demolition Derby. It was at an agricultural fair in Bolton, Mass. To get to the fairground, you parked a 10-minute drive away and took a school bus to the site.

A view of a dusty dirt road from the front seat of a school bus

I found it shocking, obscene, and fun. The first collision scared me, but by the end I found the less violent impacts almost routine.

A red sedan crashing into a car that looks like a police car, kicking mud up in the air. Out-of-focus bits of an audience (head, phone) are in the foreground.

I fit into the crowd better than I expected. There were a lot of other people with canes, earrings, and tattoos, though theirs tended more toward rosary-with-death-date and sleeve-of-skulls-and-Boston-sports-team-logos than mine.

Two sedans colliding next to each other. One car says "Lucky 13" on a sign on top, and the driver's arm is visible with a watch on it.
Two sedans colliding next to each other, kicking up huge clods of mud. One car says "Lucky 13" on a sign on top.
A driver standing on top of his wrecked car, putting his cervical collar through the opening where the windshield should be.

Highlights included:

Several broken axels.

A yellow outdoor forklift carries the husk of a red sedan off the derby field, holding the sedan outstretched like a piece of dirty laundry.

A car with ‘CRASH INTO ME” spray painted on the side.

Multiple cars collide with each other. One car is lifting off the ground with the force of the impact.

A woman playing peekaboo with her baby while cars hit each other in the background.

A referee in an orange shirt gives a demolition derby driver a trophy. Two destroyed cars are on either side of them.

A car ploughing into the perimeter of Jersey barriers and coming like 10 feet from hitting the audience.

A dark, hazy scene: a car driving toward the camera knocks over a k-rail while an audience member takes video on their phone.
Kind of hard to see because it was too dark, but that’s a car driving into the K-rail directly in front of the audience and knocking it over.
Referees in orange shirts direct a large outdoor forklift to put a K-rail back in the border around the playing field.
Here they are putting the K-rail back.

Explaining what a cervical collar is to a drunk person.

A dramatic backlit photo of a huge plume of steam billowing from a broken car at night.

An engine fire that made the driver leap out in a hurry so firefighters could douse the front of the car with fire extinguishers.

Two cars, one with smoke creeping up around the hood, collide with each other in the dark.
Two cars, one with smoke creeping up around the hood, collide with each other in the dark.
A referee and a driver jump over K-rails to get a safe distance from a car with a smoking engine.
A referee and a driver jump over K-rails to get a safe distance from a car with a smoking engine.
A firefighter sprays an engine fire while the car's driver watches.
A firefighter sprays an engine fire while the car’s driver watches.
A referee gives the driver a thumbs-up as firefighters walk away from the smoking husk of his car.
A referee gives the driver a thumbs-up as firefighters walk away from the smoking husk of his car.

Making change for a group of bettors who turned out to also have come from Worcester.

I spent an hour and a half waiting in line for the bus to leave. Even with my cane, it was painful. I do not regret drastically overpaying for a big cup of lemonade. Catch me googling ‘monster trucks near me’ soon.

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