Bremer County Fair Combine Demolition Derby: Iowa Farm Machines Collide

(music)

[Derby Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Bremer County Fair Combine Demolition Derby.

[Derrek Sommerfelt] It'll be loud. A lot of smoke. Crashing, crunching, tires popping.

(combines crashing together)

[Ron Leistikow] Parts breaking. People like to raise a little hell. I mean, it's crazy. 

(combines crashing together)

[Jacob Mundt] I don't know, it's just like awesome, just going in there and getting after it. 

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[Jacob Mundt] I probably started when I was 18. Once you get your first combine, trying to basically go from an operating combine to a demo combine, it's pretty hands on, it takes a lot. 

[Jacob Mundt] That ain't gonna work, it ain't even on there. Get your welder out. Get the pickup over here.

[Derrek Sommerfelt] We're in the pits for the Combine Demolition Derby. It's basically how it sounds, I guess. It's combines that go after each other and try and take 'em out. As you can see, they're definitely not like the ones in the field today. A lot of these are from the '60s and '70s era. We have them remove the glass, make the separator inoperable, remove the unloading auger, remove the ladder, make the heads a battering ram. 

[Jacob Mundt] Genius doesn't know how to fix his combine, so we'll just let it leak diesel everywhere. And then after that, we'll fire up the welder. Why not. I mean, I don't got any better idea. How 'bout you? 

[Derrek Sommerfelt] Some of these got bought for $300 or $400 -- some of them might have cost a couple thousand.

[Jacob Mundt] No, the combines do not cost $20,000. They are $1,000. It's like, well yeah, we buy it for what we can take it to the scrap yard for. But let's let them think that, then they come and they're like oh my god, look at these dummies. 

(combines crashing together)

[Derrek Sommerfelt] We'll have two heats of large combines and then we'll have a small feature with six small combines. 

(combines crashing together)

[Derrek Sommerfelt] A medium feature with six medium combines. And then we'll do the large feature with four.

(combines crashing together)

[Jacob Mundt] Well, I can't promise it's gonna work, but I can promise it's better than it was. 

[Ron Leistikow] There's always a couple that don't make it in there. You have to make it into the ring. If you can't make it in the ring, you aren't going to get any pay because you've got to show up, even if you only drive a little ways, it's still gotta run. 

[Derrek Sommerfelt] Popped tires, the back axles get taken out so they can't steer and then they're just dragging around. Or if your engine overheats or something like that. 

[Jacob Mundt] You hardly ever get the front tires popped on these things because they're tube and they're tanked, unless you have a tire like that piece of junk. 

[Man's voice off-screen] Hey! Don't talk about my tires like that!

[Jacob Mundt] He ain't gonna last. 

[Man's voice off-screen] Hey! 

[Jacob Mundt] You've got to have a helmet on, a neck brace and then they'll give you a little dumb earpiece and it's really uncomfortable. It's safety.

[Ron Leistikow] Anybody will tell you it's the number one crowd pleaser, money maker. Everybody likes to see stuff smashed. 

[Derby Announcer] Some of you are here for the red, some of you are here for the green, but we're all here for the red, white and blue. Please stand and sing with me our national anthem. 

[Derby Announcer] Oh say can you see 

I

[Derrek Sommerfelt] It's a rush when you can put on a good show and seeing the crowd and seeing the way the fans react.

[Derby Announcer] Who's ready to crash some combines? 

(music)

[Derby Announcer] 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... go!

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[Derby Announcer] Wow, a big four-way crash?! 

[Jacob Mundt] For a while you just start smashing them, you just go at it, and then after a few hits you're like, okay I've got to be strategic about this. I mean, if you hit the rear ends out of 'em, they're pretty well done for, so you gotta build them suckers strong. 

[Derby Announcer] Oh my goodness!

[Derrek Sommerfelt] Just when you think you've seen it all, something different happens. 

[Ron Leistikow] The most fun is smashing and crashing and all that stuff, tipping the combine over and people like to see crazy.

[Derby Announcer] Oh he might flip! Oh, that was close!

[Jacob Mundt] It's just, I don't know, it's just a blast. If you have little kids they just love this stuff. They just eat it up and they watch and big stuff, boom!

[Derby Announcer] Look out from behind! Oh! Big boomer! And he's out!

[Ron Leistikow] And everybody knows everybody in that combine demo. 

[Jacob Mundt] Yeah, with a bunch of my best friends. We're all farm kids and farm people around here, one way or another we're connected to a farm. 

[Derby Announcer] Down to two are moving on. What a show! How about that, ladies and gentlemen? 

[Jacob Mundt] Yeah, baby! Going to the finale! That's what I'm talking about!

[Derrek Sommerfelt] Well, if you haven't seen it before, it's kind of an experience. And if you have seen it before, it's still an experience. 

[Derby Announcer] Thank you so much for all of this equipment helping pick up these damaged combines. We couldn't do this without them for sure. And the last runs of the large combines still to come. 

[Jacob Mundt] My first year that I ever did this I actually won and I was surprised, I was just blown away. And then last year, in this I got second. 

[Derby Announcer] All right, here they come. Number 21 is Jake Mundt. Number 15 Logan Buseman.

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[Derby Announcer] Man this is fun! They're beating the tar out of each other. Now, all four of these here are in the money. 

[Jacob Mundt] It's cheap, it's fun, they pay you to show up basically. You go in and make a hit, they pay you. 

[Derby Announcer] Boy, talk about some great hitting right now. Look at these guys go, putting on a show! Remember, last one standing, that's all we're looking for, last one standing. 

[Ron Leistikow] It's unbelievable, but it -- so basically it's homegrown stuff. 

[Derby Announcer] They want you to get up on your feet and cheer.

(crowd cheering)

[Derby Announcer] Oh no! Look at that! Oh! Holy cow! Oh, back up Buseman and give it a good shot. Oh, he gave, he said no mas. Logan Buseman, the large combine champion of the county!

(crowd cheering)

[Derby Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, who had a great time at the Bremer County Fair? 

(crowd cheering)

[Derby Announcer] Who wants to come back next year?

(crowd cheering)

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