Derby
Car Demolition
Every year on July 1st Vauxhall has a Demolition Derby that brings interest from across Alberta.
The History of the Derby
The Derby Started in 1995 as part of the 75th Anniversary for Vauxhall. It was sponsored by the Vauxhall Lions' Club and the Vauxhall Ag society and started as a Heavy Horse Pull in the morning and Combine Demolition in the afternoon. The Ag Society looked after the Beer Gardens and Heavy Horse Pull and Cindy Willis looked after the Combine Demolition along with the Lions' Club.
This continued in future years:
1996- The Lions and Ag Society continued the Heavy Horse Pull (6 Teams) and Combine Demo and split the gate receipts with the Lions Club.
1997- The Ag Society decided to take on the whole operation: Horse Pull, Combine Demolition, Beer Gardens, and Gate as they did not want to have to split the gate receipts. There were 6 horse teams and and 6 combines. Winning Drivers of the Combine Demolition: 1. Jerry Heerink- $1,000, 2. Luc Delanoy- $600. 3. Steve Kozalenko- $400. Three tents were rented from the Warner Rodeo Assoc.
1998- There were 11 combines. The Derby started at 4:00 pm and there were 10 teams in the Horse Pull. The Knights of Columbus did the gate for us; Jake Unruh and Anne Johnson looked after the Calcutta; Millers' Excavating dug the demolition pit and Dean Oseen was the announcer and auctioneer. Green Power donated tractors to remove the carnage. Winning drivers of the Combine Derby were: 1. Marvin Skretting - $1000, 2. Lyle Neuls - $600, 3. Felix Mathieu- $400, 4. Dayne Jones -$250, 5. Rob Forsyth-$125. Tents were rented from the Town of Warner and the sled was rented from the Foremost Ag Society.
1999- We decided to drop the Horse Pull, due to the noise of the combines and added cars. There were 6 combines and 13 cars. Winning drivers for Combines: 1. Jerry Heerink-$750, 2. Lyle Neuls-$550, 3. Don Crawford -$350, 4. Marvin Skretting- $150, 5th Dayne Jones- $50.00.
We paid 6 positions for the Cars: 1st Mark Redekop-$600, 2nd Vince VandenDungen- $450, 3rd Darryl Staples- $300, 4th Vern Habraken- $150, 5th Darren Klemen- $75, 6th J Peters -$75. Three tents were rented from the Warner Chamber of Commerce.
2000- There was 18 cars and 3 combines- only paid 1st for Combines – Lyle Neuls $750. There were 9 places for Cars: 1st- Duane Mills-$550, 2nd Terry Broderson- $400, 3rd Jeff Beliske- $250, 4th Scott Oseen- $150, 5th Bernie Kayar-$100, 6th Lare Leevourt- $100, 7th Randy Redekop-$75, 8th Marty Hoffman- $75, 9th Vern Habraken- $75. Tents were rented from the Warner Chamber of Commerce and 5 new bleachers were made by Harry Faber for the Ag Society.
2001- 18 Cars; Winners: 1st-Scott Oseen, 2nd-Harvey Pepnek, 3rd-Casey Crowson, 4th-Darren Brandics, 5th-Glen Muzylowski, 6th-Al Miller
2002 – 23 Cars; Winners: 1st-Steve Carlton, 2nd-Clayton Wheld, 3rd-Harvey Pepneck, 4th-Mike Van Hal, 5th-Glen Muzylowski, 6th-Al Miller
2003-15 Cars-Winners: 1st-Steve Charlton, 2nd-Gerry Kultgen, 3rd-Al Miller, 4th-glen Muzylowski, 5th-Darren Brandics, 6th-Scott Oseen, 7th-Bernie Keugen
2004- 13 Cars-Winners: 1st-Steve Charlton, 2nd-Al Miller, 3rd-Gerry Kultgen, 4th-Clay Wheelon, 5th-Duane Mills, 6th-Abe Krahn, 7th-Lucan Bennan, 8th-Darren Brandics
2005-Winners-1st-Kelly Kultgen, 2nd-Steve Charlton, 3rd-Mike Proccer, 4th-Neil Wynacht, 5th-Jeremy tolsma, 6th-Simon Leevaat, 7th-Darren Brandics, 8th-Chris Haavend
2006 – 14 Cars-No winners. Each car received $50.
2007-No derby. The Ag Society sponsored an open-air movie instead.
2008-- No Derby, we had Trevor Panczak and Roughstock Supper and concert - Proceeds went to the Library.
2009-20 Large Cars/ 6 Small cars Winners: Lg Cars 1st Duane Mills, 2nd Tonia Elgie, 3rd Jimmy Shelson, 4th Andrew Geerlings, Sm Cars 1st Neil Klassen, 2nd Diedrich Peters, 3rd Duane Mills
In 2009 the Vauxhall Agricultural Society had our Demolition Derby revitalized after there being no derby for a couple of years. It was headed by two brand new members of the Society Jennifer Crowson and Debbie Brummelhuis. It took many hours of convincing the veteran members of the Society as there was a lot of legwork to be done; Jennifer and Debbie were up for the challenge. At that time, there was a lot of bridges to cross and many road blocks. Some of the road blocks were: Would we have a location or grounds to use for the event? Would we be able to find Vendors or entertainment? Would we get enough cars and drivers? Would we have enough time to plan it all? Would we be able to get insurance? Would we be able to have access to EMS? Would we have enough manpower to make the day a success? Once the Society was in favour of moving forward the girls got to work. They started by approaching the Town of Vauxhall along with Brian Schnarr to ask permission for the use of the grounds used previously for many years; we were granted access with some slight limitations and were given notice on March 17,2009…...that was less than 4 months to plan and have everything in place. Next was the manpower: Chris Rijkens, Neil Klassen and Mark Vanden Hoek (all non-society members at the time) stepped up to help. We got a Facebook group up and running to get the word out and many phone calls were made………we were off to a running start!!! As the months passed and July 1 was fast approaching we had the veteran members all helping along the way, we booked Local entertainment (Pieces of Red, a local band), had driver meetings, had local societies take care of Children’s Entertainment, Food Concession, Beer Gardens. We also had a huge supper planned at the community hall at the end of the day. Before we knew it Canada day was here!!
Many other groups made the day a huge success. The day started with a pancake breakfast held by the Vauxhall Business Society, followed by a Parade marshaled by the CAO of the Town of Vauxhall-Barb Miller, next up was the Demolition Derby held by the Vauxhall Agricultural Society (with many groups helping) , a supper held at the community hall by the Vauxhall Catholic Church Ladies, a Ball game put on by the Vauxhall Spurs and of course the day ended with an amazing fireworks display put on by the Vauxhall EMS.
2010- 19 Large Cars/5 Small cars Winners: Lg. 1st-Duane Mills, 2nd-Shawn Umsheid, 3rd-Bryce Mezgan, 4th-Birdie Lanser Sm.: 1st-Deeds Peters, 2nd-Peter Neufeld, 3rd-Jake Peters.
2011- 21 Large Cars/ 3 Small cars Winners Lg. 1st Shawn Umsheid, 2nd Duane Mills, 3rd Lisa Bexte, 4th Bryce Metzza Sm. 1st Deeds Peters, 2nd Elisa Wladyko, 3rd Abe Banman.
2012-14 Large Cars/ 7 Small cars Winners Lg 1st Darrwn Brandics, 2nd Bryden Geremia, 3rd Dave Merver, 4th Casey Crowson Sm car -1st Jesse Oseen, 2nd JJ Peters, 3rd Franz Peters.
2013- 11 Large Cars/5 Small cars. Winners Lg car-1st Shawn Umsheid, 2nd Fallen Stopanski, 3rd Brent Bexte, 4th Jim Elgie, Sm Car: 1st Jesse Oseen, 2nd Kevin Locke, 3rd Jodie Unser.
2014- 12 Large Cars/6 Small cars Winners Lg car-1st Shawn Umsheid, 2nd Julie Townsend, 3rd Jim Elgie, 4th Dallas Bulchowsky, Small Car- 1st Cornelius Neustaeder, 2nd John Siemens, 3rd Kirk Beler.
2015- Winners Lg car-1st Casey Crowson, 2nd Dan Brandics, 3rd Quinton Meiers, 4th Dallas Bulchowsky, Small Car- 1st Dave Giesbrecht, 2nd Isaak Wolf, 3rd Dallas Bulchowsky.
2016- Winners Lg car-1st Jim Elgie, 2nd Mitch Brummelhuis, 3rd Casey Crowson, Small Car- 1st John Siemens, 2nd Jaret Kester, 3rd Tom Stahl
2017- Winners Lg car-1st Kolton Kopervas, 2nd Tyler Wladiko, 3rd Shaun Umscheid, Small Car- 1st David Peters, 2nd David Giesbrecht, 3rd John Siemens
2018- Winners Lg car-1st Duane Mills, 2nd Dan Brandics, 3rd Jim Elgie, Small Car- 1st Mel Marlen, 2nd David Giesbrecht, 3rd Ryan Neale
2019- Winners Lg car-1st Duane Mills, 2nd Mitch Brummelhuis, 3rd Carl Echlin, Small Car- 1st Melanie Chudo, 2nd Tonia Elgie, 3rd Rachelle Mercier
2020 - Canceled due to COVID-19
2021 - Canceled due to COVID-19
2022 - The Vauxhall Ag Society was finally able to host the Demolition Derby once again this year. The Town of Vauxhall enjoyed a full weekend of events with Canada Day landing on a Friday and the Post Centennial Event was Held on Saturday July 2nd. This long weekend of entertainment brought in a record setting amount of people to attend all events including our Demolition Derby. It was a very successful event for our community members to attend.
2023 - The Vauxhall Ag Society Demolition Derby has been canceled for this year.