From family bonding to a message on sobriety, here’s why this year’s Alaska State Fair demolition derby drivers compete

Alaska Public Media

Center

High Factuality

From family bonding to a message on sobriety, here’s why this year’s Alaska State Fair demolition derby drivers compete

Rick Fields (left) works on his demolition derby car with his friend Kody LaFond (right) in a garage in Wasilla on Aug. 13, 2023. (Anisa Vietze/Alaska Public Media) Seventeen days before the demolition derby, Rick Fields was in the shop welding and grinding a make-shift gear shifter. He spent weeks working on his car, a 1988 Ford station wagon, all in preparation to destroy it in minutes. “It works in theory, right?” he said as he inspected his…