GREEN COVES SPRINGS – Shawn Raddatz had a simple game plan Thursday night: push the gas pedal to the floor and hit as many cars as possible with his rear bumper.

Although the Middleburg employee at Black Creek Tractor and Equipment had never competed in a demolition derby before, he said his father had experience in them, and he left him with words of wisdom. Those words proved significant in an otherwise turbulent environmental calamity of smoke, sparks, fire and collision in the inaugural Demolition Derby at the Clay County Agricultural Fair.

There was seating for 1,000 fans, and those seats sold out quickly. But when hundreds more came through the gates, fair executive director Tasha Hyder called for 80 extra seats to be carted from the warehouse to meet the demands.

Nobody in the grandstands or the extra seats needed their seats because they were on their feet during the main event.

Fourteen drivers piled into each other – most were competing in a demolition derby for the first time – and the action was no stopping. The only red-flag period was necessary for the Clay County Fire Rescue to put out two cars on fire.

In the end, Raddatz’s car was the only one still running.

“I think I can still drive it back on  to the trailer,” he said. “I never stopped once they said to go: I floored it, and I tried to hit everybody I could with the back of my car so I could save my engine.”

 (Check out a full report in Clay Today’s April 17 edition).