CAR COLLISIONS CRUCIAL TO JACKSON CLUB

Terry Hadley starts up his '76 Chevy to demonstrate how loud an engine can get. Hadley got complaints from his neighbors when the club was located in Cape, so they moved it to Jackson.

The Tag Team Motor Sports Club works hard to try and repair a battered car. (Photos courtesy Tag Team Motor Sports Club)

Terry Dambach has a friendly discussion while waiting to have the club's car towed away.

This is how a car looks after an every day demolition derby. The club had its work cut out on this one.

The Tag Team Motor Sports Club in Jackson is in the business of smashing cars. The 30-plus members of the club are all involved in getting older, almost always beat up, cars rebuilt and ready to run -- just to wreck them in a demolition derby.

"We just fix the cars up to destroy them," said Scott Renner, one of the men who started the club.

The club was formed just over two years ago by Terry Hadley along with Renner, both of Cape Girardeau.

"We just sat down at the end of a derby season and decided to put this club together," Renner said.

Neither Hadley nor Renner were new to the demolition derby scene when they formed the club.

Hadley has been doing it the longest; he drove his first derby in 1983 and has won several awards.

The entire team has won around 25 awards if you count them all together.

But the club, consisting of men and women, works hard for those awards, preparing for about six to seven derbys a summer.

Preparation for a derby includes picking out an old, usually junked-up car, and getting it running.

Renner said they usually just want the shell of the car. Some of the members prefer Chevys, some prefer station wagons (for durability, if you were wondering), but all say that GM products are the best for "racing."

"They can take a beating better than anything else," Renner said. "If you beat on them, they just keep running. And to win, you need a car that can take punishment."

Next, the club members look for good rebuilt motors to put in the empty car shell.

A good demolition derby car must have several different things: a good strong frame to take the beating of the other cars and protect the engine; good tires are a must to keep the car from getting stuck and obviously a good engine is necessary.

But probably the most important thing is a good driver, because without that, winning a derby is impossible.

The first thing derby drivers do is race in the preliminary race, called the "heat." If they can do well there, they can qualify for the "feature" which is where the money is at.

Prize money ranges from $300 to $600 per car for first place, depending on which derby you go to.

The derbys are held in Dexter, Ste. Genevieve, Perryville, Cape Girardeau and Altenburg, but the club operates out of Jackson, mostly at S and S Automotive on Highway 72.

"We were in Cape at first," Hadley said of the club. "But the neighbors complained about all the noise."

What noise could a club that repairs old cars for demolition derbies make?

Hadley explains by climbing into the seat of his old '76 Chevy, starting it up and revving up the engine to an almost deafening roar.

"That's why," he explained simply, after shutting off the engine and crawling out.

Jackson also gives them a little more room to work and more space to keep some of their older cars.

They have about 12 sitting in a field behind S and S Automotive. Each one looks like it's seen better days.

But that just means they're perfect for the demolition derby.

The club also has sponsors that help foot the bill that the club needs to keep functioning. In return, the club paints the name of the sponsor on their cars so the people who watch the derby can see.

Some of their sponsors are Lil' Sarah Racing, Eagle Oil and S and S Automotive.

Another Tag Team member, Terry Dambach, says the key to winning a derby is to make sure that your car can start and stay running.

"Because no matter what, if you're the last one running, you've won," Dambach said.

Dambach said that they stay running by installing a "starter switch" that starts the car if it dies.

Dambach also added that racing the derby is a good way to take out his frustrations.

He says when he's driving and some "idiot" cuts him off, he just saves up that frustration for the track.

Dambach said he wishes sometimes he could get his wife onto the demolition derby track.

"Because she's a good driver," he said, laughing.

But if you want to win, sometimes you have to be ruthless.

Hadley said to take out an opponent, all you have to do is take out his front end to try to shove the radiator through the fan.

Tom Simmons, another Tag Team member, said this causes the car to heat up.

"It won't last long after that," Simmons said.

Sound a little rough? Obviously, this "sport" is not for the squeamish.

But the members insist it's really not as dangerous as one might think.

"We wear helmets, safety belts and kidney belts," Renner said.

Kidney belts are just straps similar to seat belts that go around the drivers waist. Hadley says he never forgets to wear his since he has kidney trouble.

Mud is also helpful to demolition drivers.

They make the tracks really muddy -- 6 to 8 inches -- so cars usually can't go but 15 to 20 miles an hour.

Renner said he can think of one track that is more dangerous than the others.

"They don't soak that one down enough and we can get up to 35 or 40 miles an hour there," he said.

Despite these measures, at least one member of the Tag Team Motor Sports Club has been hurt.

"It was at a Ste. Genevieve race," Hadley said. "A guy hit my drivers-side door and I was knocked out cold as a cucumber.

"They had to haul me out."

But to the members of the Tag Team Motor Sports Club, demolition derby racing is a sport that requires a lot of hard work and skill, not some wild and reckless hobby.

"It's the only sport that you build something just so you can destroy it," Renner said. "And when you get done, you hope you still have a motor and a transmission so you can start back over again."

The Tag Team Motor Sports Club isn't just work, though.

"Most of our meetings are meetings as well as barbecues," Hadley said, raising a beer to his lips. "We have a little drinking, eat a little barbecue and talk about the club."

It may be a lot of work and it may be a little dangerous, but all the members of the Tag Team Motor Sports Club agree that it's all worth while.

"Some people think we're crazy," said Renner. "I think we're just having fun."