LaSALLE – The Monroe County Demolition Derby is all about smashing things.
But there is plenty of building that happens as well, especially for the Goldsmith family of LaSalle.
LaSalle Township supervisor Aaron Goldsmith and his brother Adam have been competing since they were in high school.
The last few years they have gotten their children involved.
The brothers are registered for this year’s event on Tuesday, Aug. 4 along with Aaron’s son Kyle and Adam’s daughter Rylie Gardner.
“It’s all about family bonding for us,” Aaron said. “We definitely lean on each other. We help each other with parts and tools, whatever we need. I don’t have a garage. I just work on the car in my front yard.”
Aaron is 47, three years older than his brother.
“We started back in the late 1990s,” Aaron recalls. “I thought it was a good idea, so I got my brother to do it with me.
“That was when we were single, no kids and some extra money.”
Running demolition derbies requires money.
The first expense is find a car that has a chance to survive the rigors of a derby.
“I’ve had several cars,” Adam said. “They range between $800 and $2,000.”
Then then come the costs of making the cars derby worthy.
“You’ve got to fix them up and buy parts,” Aaron said. “This car I’ve got not I’ve had for four years. I just put $1,000 into it.”
What have the brothers gotten for their money?
No derby wins.
“The results are less than impressive,” Aaron joked.
The youngest of the LGoldsmith Goldsmith The youngest of the LaFountain derby team has enjoyed the most success.
Gardner, now 17, took fourth in the feature race during her debut three years ago.
“It was really nerve-wracking,” she said of climbing behind the wheel of a derby car before she had a driver’s license. “Then the adrenalin kicked in and it was pretty cool.”
She won her heat that first year and her car was voted best in show. She was doing well in the finals until an engine fire knocked her out of the race.
Gardner said her father encouraged her to race.
“He honestly bugged me to do it,” she said. “He is really close to a lot of people associated with the Monroe County Fair. He told me they wanted me in the derby.”
Gardner, who was a freshman at Erie Mason at the time of her first race, got a lot of support from her classmates.
“They thought it was pretty cool,” she said. “No one at our school had never done anything like that. They thought it was fun. It was a cool experience.”
It’s also a cool experience to have the best derby showing in the family.
“It’s definitely something to brag about,” she said.
She has run in heats against her cousin before and once against her father.
“We try to avoid each other,” she said of her strategy when competing against family members. “We just try to get down to the final two, then do what we have to do from there. That hasn’t happened yet.”
Kyle, 20, is a veteran of five derby events.
He has fond memories of his debut.
“I was nervous until I got hit the first time,” he said. “Then I thought, ‘OK, this is not too bad.’ Then, I had a blast.”
Like Gardner, his Erie Mason classmates gave him a lot of support.
“They came to the track with us to hang out,” he said. “They liked watching. It’s a different experience in the pits than the grandstand.”
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Demolition Derby smashes part of family bonding for Goldsmiths
Reporting by Niles Kruger, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Niles Kruger, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
