the bistro off broadway
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Greenville's Shannon Rader (509) looks to eliminate his final competitor during competition at the
2015 fair demolition derby. CNO Photo by Dylan Knoop
 
Rader Takes Double Win
Fair Ends With a Bang
By Dylan Knoop
 
GREENVILLE- You should always expect the unexpected, especially in a demolition derby.

Smash It Demolition Derby was back again to entertain the crowd Saturday night at the 2015 Great Darke County Fair.  With over 100 entries spread across 7 classes, from the kids and the power wheels to the lawn mowers and cars, it was destined to be a great showing.

Through the night, mud was flung high and into the infield stands, mowers flipped over, cars came over walls, and even the occasional fire under the hood brought the crowd to its feet. But there were two individual competitors that really came to put on a show of their own.

Some people may not see the lawnmower derbies as exciting or as competitive as others, but one man took his competitiveness to a new level.  Greenville’s Shannon Rader had an entry in the stock mower class, in which he took the win.  In a shocking announcement to the crowd, he kept his stock lawn mower on the track and participated in the modified mower derby.  The same mower, two different classes, but most of all, Rader came away with the win in both classes.

"I knew this mower was actually built for the stock rules,” said Rader. “I knew I could withstand the modified boys."

With Rader's experience, he has also been known to have gutsy ambition as well.  Something that he used in his favor.

"I've run with the modified guys a couple times before, so I knew if nothing was broke then I was going back for the modifieds,” Rader stated.

Although Rader made it to win, he had a huge disadvantage against his other competitors.

"The goal is to try and break them down so I wanted him to back up as far as he could, just go heads up and get him from the sides because his front wheels versus mine, his front wheels are protected, so mines not, so basically go heads up with him and that he burns a belt or break something underneath," Rader pointed out.

Rader stuck to that strategy the entire time.  Both mowers were so strong that a time limit had to be set in place and if neither of them had dropped out, the prize money would have been split.

With three minutes to go, the competition started to back down.

"It's pretty much hands down whenever the other guy was smoking because I knew that he was getting smoke on his belt so I knew it wasn't gonna be long till he was out."

At the end of the night, Rader went home with two mower victories and a top five finish in the mild weld car class.  The other big performer was Greenville’s Tom Dillman, winning the mild weld class two years in a row.  Tom could not be reached for an interview.

That wrapped up another night of demolition derbies and another successful year to The Great Darke County Fair.



 
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