Destruction Derby a bang-up night at the Sonoma County Fair

The NFL could probably learn a lot things from Chris Gascon.

The football league’s hapless leadership, which seems to fumble any controversial decision, would benefit from hearing Gascon gingerly spell out the rules of the road to drivers who were participating in the Destruction Derby on Saturday night at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

As Gascon stood on a table, he told the 15 drivers competing to win the top prize of $3,000 and a 1974 Cadillac that he wanted to see no double-teaming nor sandbagging - when a driver hits other cars softly and stays out of the fray to advance to the final round. Rule-breakers would be kicked out, he said.

“If you get a verbal warning … If we can’t get your attention and we have to stop it and we tell you, ‘Hey, you need to do this or you’re out.’ And if we stop the derby again, we are going to come over and break your flag. If we break your flag, you’re out. There’s no talking about it,” Gascon said. “Just hit each other. Do what you got to do.”

Gascon was part of the team from MoonDog Motorsports out of Modesto, which held the derby in front of a sold-out crowd at the Chris Beck Arena, where a large dirt berm surrounded the extra muddy field.

Dilapidated, American-made cars slammed, crashed, banged and collided into each other in an environment that was part “Furious 7” and part “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

The derby was carried out under a detailed rulebook that spells out all the dos and don’ts under 2015 Bash style rules, from prohibiting radiators from being welded inside the frame to limiting gas tanks to no more than seven gallons.

The suspension rules had 16 different requirements.

Before the race, drivers worked on their cars to ensure they were going to be permitted. Ken Cornwell of Santa Rosa was busy taking a sledgehammer to the trunk of his 1976 Monte Carlo as part of strategy to ensure that when he was rammed for behind, his rear would push up instead of down, which would make the car immobile in the muddy pit.

Cornwell, a 35-year veteran of the derbies, later got under the car to weld a bar in the shape of a “V” to the back of rear of the car to provide additional protection that when the car will be ultimately smashed, it would collapse like an accordion, rather than bend like a spoon.

“The rules are getting heavier and heavier,” Cornwell said.

After the race, the MoonDog Motorsports staff will inspect the frames of the cash-prize winners to ensure their was no illegal tinkering. The rules allow for up to 12 inches of plate for frame repair.

“We know exactly where it’s supposed to bend. We have had it happen. We cut into the cars and there’s plate inside the frame,” Gascon said. “You can’t tell it is there until the derby is over.”

Drivers know his company adheres to strict rules, Gascon said.

“They know we will disqualify you for anything,” Gascon said. “A lot of these guys are our friends. But they know we mean business.”

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.