![]() ![]() Purists may argue that the event was in fact a race and not a true demolition derby - in which the sole objective is to smash and disable the competition. In Basile's event the participants' cars had been secretly rigged to disintegrate upon impact. Baxter's account describes West-coast racing promoter Don Basile's 1946 staging of a "full-contact" race among four drivers at Carroll Speedway in Gardena, California. The best-documented account of another early event comes from Kevin Baxter's article "Going to Wreck and Ruin," in the DecemLos Angeles Times. ![]() To 1953 for the term to enter into common use by word-of-mouth and possibly local newspaper accounts. The World Series or a heavyweight championship fight would have received national coverage, but a demolition derby at a country fair would not. This is especially noteworthy in light of limited national media coverage of sports in those days. In order for the term to have been commonly understood by 1953, there must have been a significant number of demolition derbies around the country prior to this time. 1953 in the Merriam-Webster's definition indicates the term was in fairly common use well before the late 50's, when demolition derby is generally believed to have begun. 1953) A contest in which skilled drivers ram old cars into one another until only one car remains running.Īt issue: ca. One of the most interesting references to the sport comes from none other the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition, which states that the term was added in 1953. However, there are accounts of earlier events. According to the popular version of the sport's origin, stock car driver Larry Mendelsohn is credited with organizing and promoting the first true demolition derby, in Long Island, New York, in the late 1950s. ![]()
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