Eli Pace / epace@skyhinews.com
Sixteen-year-old Mason Lemon was a hometown favorite at Saturday’s Get Smashed Demolition Derby in Kremmling, perhaps because the young driver only got his license about nine months ago.
Judging by the volume of the grandstands, the teen from Kremmling was one of the crowd’s picks to win as he competed in a black 1994 Chevy Astro during the derby’s first-ever classification for minivans.
The teenager almost didn’t make it, though, because he barely arrived with his van in time for the event, said Amber Lemon, his mom.
Mason admitted that the Astro, which he got from one of his neighbors, came together at the 11th hour, and perhaps a little later. But he said the work he and his team did to get it ready was comprehensive.
“We did way too much to it,” Mason said. “We completely stripped it, put a roll cage in it, wired it, put a gas tank in it and ran fuel lines…”
On Saturday, Mason didn’t win the event, but he came away hooked on the derby.
“Yes,” his mom was nervous watching her son drive, she said, but after all the work he did, she thought it was all well worth it.
“They spent many nights (building the van),” Amber Lemon said. “Like the last five nights, they’ve been sleeping in the shop. They were doing it with pure determination — they got it done.”
After the wrecked vans had been cleared out of the ring, Mason and his friends climbed on top of his and posed for triumphant photos, his third-place finish that ended with getting flagged seemingly far from mind.
As for the van, Mason said he’s going to keep it for another derby, though he really wants to bang steel with the trucks and in the fully welded classification.
“I want to do all the classes except compact,” he said.
Mason recalled growing up watching his uncle and Chuck Martinson, who also ran in the derby, and has known since he was 5 or 6 years old that he too wanted to drive in one someday. Now that he’s done it, he can’t wait to do it again.
Put on by the Middle Park Fair and Rodeo, Saturday’s demo derby awarded drivers cash prizes in multiple classes. Entertainment came from the many wrecks and a live band, acrobatics from Candela Collective Performance Troupe, and children’s games while crews cleaned up the carnage before fireworks capped off the night.
For his reckless abandonment, Kelly Faylor won the highly coveted Most Aggressive Driver (MAD) Dog Award.