The temperature was hot at the start of Friday’s Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby, but the action in the muddy main arena got even hotter as the night went along.

Featuring a total of 101 entries, spectators packed the grandstands to see drivers compete in five different classes of car-crushing action.

First up was Bone Stock Minivan, which saw seven older model family transporters bash each other to the delight of the crowd. In the end, it became a family affair as the Roberts had the only three minivans left standing. Eventually, Shelby Robert of Red Bud outlasted the field in her white No. 3d entry. Her father, Jeremy Robert of Modoc, placed second in his maroon Toyota No. 11x entry. Taking third place was Dallas Robert of Valmeyer in his No. 33 minivan that resembled the Mystery Machine from the classic cartoon “Scooby Doo.” The Mad Dog Award went to driver Sonni Merlenbach of New Athens in her No. 18m.

The next event of the evening was Mini-Car Weld, which featured 19 cars. That field was whittled down to four cars and then down to the final three after the No. 96 car of Hurley Reynolds went down. Placing first in this class was Corey Stumpf of Columbia in his black No. 23x entry. Second place went to Colin Cygan of Columbia in No. 12, with Eli Gummersheimer of East Carondelet taking third place and winning the Mad Dog Award in No. L1J.

The third class of the night was Mini-Bone Stock, which had a field of 29 cars filling the track. There wasn’t much room to work up hard hits early, but the field eventually thinned out and came down to the black-and-white No. 87x of Tyler Barnes from Fults trading blows with the black-and-orange No. 77 of Waterloo’s Lane Riebeling. Barnes outlasted Riebeling to place first and also take home the Mad Dog Award. TJ Ervin of Columbia placed third in his No. 34e.

A fiery fourth event featured the Full-Size Bone Stock class with 28 total cars. Shortly into this one, the black-and-blue No. 20x of Valmeyer’s Robby Oliver burst into flames. Oliver jumped out of his car just in time, as the flames grew more intense. It took several volunteer firefighters on hand at the arena to finally extinguish the blaze. This event saw a couple other minor fire incidents before the field was finally narrowed down to the No. 8 of Valmeyer’s Eric Smith, No. 99a of Dylan Allscheid from Fenton, Mo., No. 007 of Cutler’s Gaylord Brock, No. 15s of Red Bud’s Shawn Kelley II, No. 325 of Red Bud’s Bobby Biermann and No. 33 of Dallas Robert. When it was all said and done, Brock placed first, Smith took second and Allscheid placed third. Biermann won the Mad Dog Award.

Rounding out the night were the heavy hitters in the Full-Size Semi-Stock class, which featured 15 cars. Those trading early blows in this event included the No. 31 of Valmeyer’s Evan Thien, No. 76 of Carlyle’s Michael Voss, No. 454 of derby veteran Pat Seymour of Waterloo, and No. 46 of Waterloo’s Tony Ahrens. With the field slowly but surely scaled down to six cars, Seymour was having success with his patented revving reverse ram technique before the No. 36 car of Red Bud’s Lucas Krebel was able to connect with a hard hit to Seymour’s driver side. It all came down to a dance between Ahrens and Voss, with Ahrens finally emerging as the victor. Third place went to Krebel. Receiving the Mad Dog Award in this one was Red Bud’s Daniel Krebel in No. 7.

See our large collection of images from this year’s demo derby by clicking here.