My Favorite Ride: Brothers crash and burn cars on the demolition derby track

When flames erupted from the engine compartment of Car No. 45 C, I grabbed Mel Crane's arm and squeezed it tight. We were standing in the pits at this year's Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby when the 1976 Chrysler Cordoba his son was driving caught fire.

I said, as if the man didn't already know, "Oh no, that's Aaron's car." 

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Crane said. About then, firefighters with extinguishers in hand ran toward the car as Aaron, who's a pretty good-sized man, bailed head-first out of the driver's side window cavity.

He landed unharmed in the mud, disappointed he was out of contention for the night. His was one of three cars still moving when he reached out and broke his stick. 

I should explain to readers who haven't attend a demolition derby that each car has a white wooden stick attached to the driver's side window frame. When the car can no longer move on its own, the driver snaps the stick in half, indicating he or she is out of the running.

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And another thing: engine fires are not uncommon. This is why there were 16 extinguishers strategically placed around the edge of the derby track. 

Matt Crane, Aaron's older brother, had been hit multiple times and hard early in the derby. He sat parked along the edge of the mud course, stick broken, in his stalled 1976 Chrysler New Yorker. Steam, or smoke — maybe both — poured from the car's big-block engine.

This was the New Yorker's third demolition derby. It ran in two last year, and won the Mad Dog Crowd Pleaser Award trophy, really, and $150 at last year's county fair.

The car's tires have unusually thick sidewalls, "so they can take a hit without going flat," Matt Crane explained a few weeks ago when I visited the barn where he and his brother were getting their cars derby ready.

They inherited interest in demolition derby driving from their dad, who didn't get his car ready in time for the fair this year and, like me, was a sideline spectator at the July 2 event that packed the grandstands.

The Cranes scavenge around seeking solid old cars, preferably Chrysler products, to strip down and transform into derby cars. Matt's New Yorker was located in Tennessee, and a man they know in Paoli who had seen the car and recommended it to the Cranes drove down with a trailer to pick it up.

I suspect that Cordoba has already gone to the car crusher at JB Salvage. It started out as a pretty nice car with just 47,000 miles on the odometer and a sad story. A giant limb fell on the car during a storm and collapsed the roof after the owner parked it under a shade tree to wash.

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Mel Crane said when he went to get the car, he laid down in the backseat and used his legs to push the roof back into place. The car was fine after that, except for the shattered back windshield.

It won the champion trophy at last year's Apple Butter Festival Demolition Derby in Spencer, where the Cordoba's original front bumper was destroyed by crash after crash.

"Just think," the demolition derby announcer at this year's fair said as a dozen wrecks raced their engines and plowed into each other, "these cars were once someone's pride and joy on the showroom floor."

The Cranes have a few of those cars in reserve at their demolition derby barn near Ellettsville. Aaron's next project is a Plymouth Fury, a 1967 or '68; he wasn't sure on the year. And I saw a 1977 Chrysler Town & Country woody station wagon out there that shows some promise.

Also, while at the Crane's barn, I got my hands on a headlight to send Alex Tanford for winning the recent My Favorite Ride headlight identification challenge.

Since all glass has to be removed from demolition derby cars, I absconded with one of the headlights from that more-than-half-century old Plymouth Fury Aaron Crane will drive in his next competition. 

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.