The Crash Course Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Crash Course Podcast
The best demolition derby podcast! For enthusiasts and fans alike! Presented exclusively by FingerLakes1.com.
We welcome Zach and Adam Eaton on to talk about their win in Sturgis, and we catch up with Jacob Wood, who was among the many winners in Peoria, Ill at Whiskey City. We also have news regarding the return of a popular winter show in Minnesota.
Dustin Woods of Triple D and King of Ohio joins us tonight. We struck up a discussion following the Butler Co. Fair news in Ohio, and continued on along the discussion trail of several been a hot-button issues within the sport of Demolition Derby. Dustin joins us to talk candidly about issues in the sport and potential fixes.
There was carnage all right. Capital City Carnage is in the books, and we will break down all the happenings from the Stormont Vail Events Center with a couple different guests tonight.
We recap Palmetto Destruction and Hillbilly Bash and take some time to remember Bobby Brockway.
In the final run up to Palmetto Destruction, we catch up with a couple drivers heading into the show and recap what to expect at the indoor event this weekend.
Jacob Gilliam joins us to talk about his background in derby, and his presentation at the upcoming SMW Expo.
Mark Elliott joins us to talk about the opening round of action on the Unified Point Series during Redneck Rumble. ,Winner Adam Eaton is currently tied for the lead, but is not among the registered drivers. We will see if his mind changes for the 2023 campaign.
We welcome Casey Smith and Nick King to the show. Casey Smith is on to talk about the annual Derby Expo and Summit. King will be on to talk about a parallel topic to the expo, unified rules and implementation.
Carolina Derby Promotions joins us ahead of the Palmetto Destruction in Florence, SC. Billy Monroe and Jason Padgett will be on the air via zoom, discussing the show and the evolution of their promotion.
Casey and Dylan Koranda scored a two-man win at Cornhusker Chaos 2023, and will join for the show. We will touch on Billy Bash, and wrap with a few points comparing the motorsports world with the primetime football coverage relating to the Demar Hamlin.
Following up on the news about the restructured Unified Points Series program in 2023, we catch up with the past two champions, JD Laurine and Steven Sickles. Laurine had Santa drop off a few Crown Vics, which leads to assumptions about 2023's season. Sickles has already inked his name in as a member driver for the series, but has also found a new way to spend the winter - wheeling virtual derby cars with RDP.
Mark Elliott pops in to offer his final thoughts on 2022 before looking ahead to the restructured plans for 2023.
We connect with youth- and full-size pilot Scotty Drevenak, Jr., who secured the third and final ring for the 2022 season. He won the youth full size at Turkey Derby in Wabash, IN and sealed his third place effort in the 2022 standings. We also follow up with a few thoughts from Justin Yeager, who was named the overall 2022 season Mad Dog Award winner.
The first of a couple episodes dedicated to recapping Blizzard Bash, we will talk with Jason Brodzinski and then Colton Neuhalfen. The two teamed with Ryan Songalewski and Rhett Gleue as Team ExtremeSki and went on to win the National Class win at the 2022 Blizzard Bash in Topeka, KS. They took the long way around, facing National bracket elimination in the C-main before rallying to win their C-, B- and A-feature.
Chris is joined in studio by defending Blizzard Bash Champion Mike Wurth!. Later in the show, Tony Burkhart calls in.
Hosts Chris Marquart and Brian Tomkins follow up on Buried Alive III. They also talk to Ken Kiskadden over the phone to recap his win. Johnny Starks will join over the phone as well who won both weld and his main class in the virtual derby event. All that and more!
TJ McCullough joins us to talk about the upcoming Buried Alive III event in Dunbar, PA and we break down some of the teams heading into Blizzard Bash.
Host Chris Marquart is joined over the phone by Tim Clark of Smash It Demolition Derby. Chris and Tim will discuss Smash It demo and Blizzard Bash!
We will focus on results from around the area, and take a dive into the new studio here at FingerLakes1!
We share some news regarding the Iron City Nationals, catch up with Jason Droz and share some notes regarding the RDP Rampage event from over the weekend.
Smash It, Hard Core and the Unified Point Series had events since last week, there was chaos in Sandy Creek where Paul Reynolds was able to score his first heat win, and western PA is seeing a push for more unified rules. We will dive into all of it this week on Episode #412!
A busy weekend brings us to episode No. 410. We talk about announcing at Land of Legends Raceway and we reconnect with a longtime friend in Kristopher Polley. Porkchop was working in Albany and made the ride over. Brett Relyea won at Chemung, and raced time to get here. Chris Rookey scored a win, and Matt Scheltema checks in after finding some "leftover stickers."
We catch up with Missouri's Ron Pine, the 80-year old driver who won LaPlata's legends heat.
Adam Foushee has expanded his role in demolition derby, purchasing the DEC Headers business and relocating it to his home in Kentucky. We will catch up with Adam, and recap all the action at the Day of the Dead in New Alexandria, PA in addition to talking with Seneca County Fair winners Bob Apgar and Frank VanHouten.
A huge weekend of derby action will bring us to conversations with Brian France and JD Laurine, before we get into the coverage of all of it and a recap of the Iron City Nationals Heat Lineups.
This episode of the Crash Course will open with Bill Miller, driver of the No. 2.2 who has now climbed back into the Unified Point Standings' top five following a wild night at Lawrenceville. Brandon Thomas won on an emotional night in Minnesota and Austin Chrisler scored a win in the MidSummer Mayhem run. We will finish with the final thoughts from Ron and Brian McClung on last weekend's return of Billy Bash.
A busy weekend brings us to conversations with Craig Bedell, Spencer Jumper and Ricky Lewis. Last week, we talked about the building momentum for Craig Bedell, who celebrated a birthday yesterday and won $4,000 last week at Mini Meltdown. Spencer Jumper won at Buck Motorsports Park, with Clay Jumper running to second. Finally, the return of Billy Bash in Canada was a rousing success, with Ricky Lewis taking the win in the Pro Compact division.
Summer schedules continue to be full. We catch up with Meltdown winner Al Crockett, recap King of Ohio with Scotty Drevenak, look at Unified Points Results and Hard Core’s team show and more.
Tim Haniszewski and Jacob Lewczyk join us in studio. We catch up with Team Amateur Hour after their win at Road Rage. Lee Seager will be on the line while we try to catch up with Cory Herzog and Ben Byington. Then, after a LONG chase, Mad Mike's Derby Shop finally won at Norwalk, OH's Days of Wreckoning. Above all, Mike DiFrischia won it with Ronnie DiFrischia and Xavier Tate on the team. All that and more!
Episode No. 402 might as well be 402 and 403 together! We will follow up on Road Rage's team show with Mark Benjamin. We will recap ALL of Bash for Cash and catch up with Rob Baker about Border Wars... and more!
On the go-home episode ahead of the 2022 Bash for Cash, we share memories and reflections of past trips to Washington Courthouse, Bellfountain and Chillicothe.
Mark Elliott shares an update on the 2022 Unified Point Series. Tim Clark Jr. updates us on the Bash for Cash and we celebrate #400.
Almost done with mulligans (we hope)! We are back this week to test drive some of the additional setup changes and hopefully march on toward a successful #400.
Luke Shofner won at Spring Explosion and we check in with him before we catch up with Zach Herman, Freddy White and Patrick Delles
Casey Smith joins us ahead of the highly-anticipated SMW Expo at the new SMW facility and showroom.
Zack McCormack, of Zack's Workshop, is working on expanding a 102-in & under wheel base "micro' class class up in Ontario, Canada this year.
Travor Jones picked up a huge Unified Point Series win at Wicked's Team Show this weekend in Sturgis, KY. Steve Cioppa checks in following his run at the Palmetto Destruction in Florence, SC. Jonathan Furr won the event and Brett Relyea served notice that Bad News was on the grounds, as well.
We expand on last week's compact topics, welcoming Capital City Carnage compact class winners Jacob Wood (Hobo) and Mike Koch (mod). We will also look ahead at some upcoming events as the schedule draws closer and some weekend happenings across the derby world.
We dive into the popular stories of the weekend as Justin Montgomery and Justin Stephen scored wins on the weekend at the Stormont Vail Events Center. We will also peek ahead to the coming weeks' action in Peoria, IA.
This is the go-home episode for Capital City Carnage, and we catch up with Candice Jo Freese in the final run up to action March 3-4-5. We will also look ahead at the busy Domination Motorsports 2022 season. Then, fresh off the 2022 Derby Banquet and Swap Meet, Kristi and Devon Germain join us as they break news on their 2022 campaign.
We catch up with TJ McCullough, who won in Wytheville this weekend. Ian Doyle and Michael Soler visit in studio. Soler won the RC derby at Motorama in Harrisburg, PA. Doyle is working with Bobby Edwards and promoting RC events through Pure Chaos, and oversaw Motorama for the first time. Pure Chaos will be hosting RC action at Speedworld in Auburn, NY as well.
We take a look ahead as the season will be hitting full swing in the coming days. We have Motorama ahead on the RC circuit, with Whytheville looming large this weekend for the Unified Point Series.
We continue to see more upgrades here at FL1. We will also dive into the idea of left over cars, and what you might find under all this snow in various parts of New York (or elsewhere).
Dylan Simonton rebounded to win the stock class at Redneck Rumble in Sturgis, KY. The win banked important early-season markers on the Unified Points Series, but also offered redemption after missing the bell at Blizzard Bash with the same car. We also catch up with Marcus Hays, who will follow up on a few give-away programs to benefit the Tatters family. Scott Tatters Sr. lost his wife, Dolores Rae, on January 2…
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Brett and Preston Relyea join us to talk about the Derby Banquet and Swap Meet. We will also try to catch up with Smith Metal Works' Casey Smith for an update on their second spring gathering at the new SMW shop.
We welcome Battle at Daytona Beach class winners Ty RIchards and Michael Newgent to the show, and catch up with Unified Point Series director Mark Elliott.
Jason Koch checks in ahead of this weekend's Battle at Daytona Beach. Mike DiFrischia has bought a local auto shop, ensuring the local legacy will carry on.
We open the floor as part of our annual year in review, and take questions from the live chat.
Kristi and Devon Germain were in the neighborhood, and drop by to talk about the happenings with Impact Motorsports. Jeff Schoeman checks in by phone and we talk with Ron McClung about the re-launch of Billy Bash.
Mason Stacey ran to second in the overall Unified Point Standings and Terry Abbati took third as the youth drivers finished in the top 10. We catch up with Mason and then Terry to talk about the year, the points chase and what is to come.
Unified Point Series Champion Steven Sickles talks about the busy 2021 season and his run to the championship.
A whirlwind two weeks has brought us here. We will catch up with Cheesy and Mike Wurth of TBL. Wurth made the final shot to help TBL win the National Bracket at Blizzard Bash. We will catch up with Stringer, who had his hands full in helping Team AzzKikr win the Blizzard Bash Limited Weld Bracket. We also catch up with Casey Smith of Smith Metal Works, who helps inject some welcome good news into the community while looking ahead to 2022.
We take a hot lap around the country as drivers scramble to rebound from last-minute setbacks on the eve of Blizzard Bash 2021. Guests include Mike Schmidt, Tory Heid, Ryan Sonaglewski, Corey Ludington, CJ Barnes and Smash It's Tim Clark.
Sean Porth ventures into the deep waters with his first Blizzard Bash build. We follow up with Steve Lahnen, a WNY regular who struck gold in the wire class at Buried Alive II, and finish with Bo Lockwood, who scored the $15,000 pay day in the headline event.
Bo Lockwood joins us to look ahead to Buried Alive II this weekend and we touch base with TJ McCullough going into the event in Cumberland. We finish by chatting with Kody Koch; Koch Promotions have the Turkey Derby and Battle at Dayton Beach coming up, and he joined his team in winning the virtual Blizzard Bash team event.
Jeremy Gulley joins us to reflect on 2021, and the $100,000 donation to Team Sanfilippo in hopes of helping research a cure for MPS Type III. We also follow up with Frankie Guy as the Hard Core Season closed at the end of September with the Final Confrontation.
Returning tonight, we will catch up with Laine Frerichs to recap his championship clinching run from the weekend. We will also chat with Jeff Clark, who finished a busy 2021 campaign with success.
We catch up with TJ McCullough, fresh off his win at the Iron City Nationals. The win pulled down $10,000 and a Championship belt. Cory Roman won the Big Wayne Kicker Class at the Iron City Nationals, his second high profile win of the summer. Jason Pagel wheeled a round back to the win at the Full Throttle Fall Nationals in Fairbault, MN, netting a $10,000 payday as well.
We look ahead to the Iron City Nationals this weekend in New Alexandria, PA and catch up with Tommy Woodbury as DNA Motorsports prepares for the Green Mountain Fall Bash.
A busy Labor Day weekend featured tons of action. Brett Petro won Mayhem on the national stage; Regionally, Matt Gascon Jr. won Kings of Old School. Tommy Stark joins us to talk about a local win as well, and Mike Ernst will join us to talk about finally getting the win at Rushford. We will also meet up with Jimmy McChesney, who was back in a car again in Minnesota.
We welcome Darrin Brown and Jeff Schoeman to the show to talk a little bit about bumper science and engineering, building on a DFC project from earlier this year.
We welcome Laine Frerichs to the show to recap some of the midwest happenings from the weekend, and then follow up with Steuben County Fair winner Jordan Earley. We will look at the Unified Point Series, and also look at the upcoming schedule for Frankie Guy's Hard Core Series in addition to the final event for Full Throttle Promotions in Minnesota.
Chance Smith picked up a win over the weekend, fresh off his engagement announcement. Brandon Rhymer never had a more rewarding runner-up showing, and Antonio Corral made the most of an awareness-themed Lincoln.
Frankie Guy stops by to talk about the Hard Core Series. Guy Raymond checks in with after winning three straight.
We dive into the New York circuit, following up on our local Seneca County Fair. Tim MacCheyne won the full size event, and we follow up with unlikely full-size qualifier James Brown. Dustin Newgent put his second win in as many weeks on his Volvo, and we will also recap other derby happenings.
Cory Roman discusses the King of Ohio win, and we recap a ton of derby action from around the country.
Justin Stephen talks about his win at Bakken Beatdown, and Chad Winne talks about his win at Brewerton!
Jeremy Gulley joins us to talk about this weekend's Mini Meltdown, hosted by Spinning Wheels. We will recap Hard Core's Destruction on the Knob, and we will catch up with Matt Vern Newcomb about an upcoming stock build endeavor. And, the Crash Course Nationals are this week!
Casey Smith from Smith Metal Works joins us as a follow up to the SMW Youth Full Size class at Bash for Cash. We follow up with May Mania winner Parker Lazenby and recap the remaining results from the Memorial Day weekend before turning our attention to a busy June 4-6 weekend. We catch up with Border Wars winner Josh Turner, and take a look at the Road Rage Entertainment and T-Bone Memorial derbies.
We look at the 2021 Bash for Cash in Chillicothe, OH. Northeast drivers performed well, with Patrick Delles becoming the first double Mad Dog winner in the compact class and David King taking home the kicker class feature. Mike Tosco joins us to talk about his Turn Back the Clock win, and more.
We look ahead to the 2021 Bash for Cash in Chillicothe, OH. We touch base on the results from Bethel, and catch up with Tommy Woodbury III and DNA Motorsports!
Butch Cisco, James and Ethan Cisco join us in studio as they prepare for a multi-generational assault at Bash for Cash. Ken Kiskadden and Steven Sickles won at Hard Core's May Meltdown in PA, and Brandon Thomas has the Full Throttle ready to go green in Minnesota! And the Virtual Bash for Cash was this weekend!
Frankie Guy joins us to look ahead to the May Meltdown opener, kicking off the Hard Core Tour. We will have Mark Elliott with us to look back at the River City Rampage and Unified Point Series, and we will finish with Steven Sickles, who picked up a win at RCR.
An absolutely stacked weekend of derby action has brought us to a very full Monday night. Local regular Frank VanHouten will join us in studio to recap his victorious trip to Burlington Motorplex, where won with his Thunderbird. On the phone, midwest star Randy Schwartzkopf picked up a bone stock win at Urban Destruction, and he will be followed up by fellow Urban winner Michael Amburgey. Domination Motorsports was in action as a team over the weekend, Jacob Pruismann's 448 Promotions kicked off in Iowa, and Deadman took over Upperco, MD as well during a very busy weekend. We will cover as much as we can tonight; Happy Birthday wishes to Mark Cioppa!
Unified Point Series action was back in full swing at the Derby Icons' Spring Explosion. Hunter Braden and Roger Hunter teamed to win the 2-man Pro Stock bracket. Trevor Dailey teamed with CJ Milton, Jeff Miller and Darren Hill to win the 4-man Pro Mod side while Ryan Shofner put on a driving showcase to help his team to second overall.
Visit DerbyTees TV for the on-demand Spring Ex videos!
Winners:
2man RWD Street Stock: Ricky Duggins / Dan Roos
Kicker Cars: Don Santel
Youth: Jayden Stanfield
2man FWD Street Stock: Jesse Cushaway / Corey Miechiels
2man Trucks: David Merrill / Mark Golden
2man Pro Stock: Hunter Braden / Roger Hunter
4 man Pro Mod: CJ Milton, Jeff Miller, Darren Hill, Trevor Dailey
We recap No Mercy with TJ McCullough, and connect with New York drivers Cotye RIley and Guy Raymond, who each found success in Cumberland.
We welcome Vince 'Toast' Olivas and Sauk Rapids winner Jay Baumler to the show to talk about Toast Promotions' season. We also catch up wit TJ McCullough as Deadman's No Mercy is on the horizon. We finish with Smith Metal Works' Casey Smith, who offers final thoughts on the SMW Derby Expo.
We take a few moments to remember the mark left on the Northeast Derby Community by young Martin Gulley. We will also be taking notes from the live chat to share and pay tribute.
Dustin Woods and Triple D announce a partnership ahead of their appearance at the SMW Expo April 10.
Jason Sauer checks in with an update on Most Wanted Fine Arts and the derby in Florida, and we extend our thanks to the derby community. Also, happy 11th birthday, Martin!
TJ McCullough shares details on the 2021 Buried Alive derby, and then we follow up with Realistic Derby Project and Prodigy Gaming
Casey Smith joins us to talk about the upcoming SMW Expo, planned for April 9-10, and then we catch up with Mark Elliott to touch on some Unified Point Series developments.
TJ McCullough gives us an update on the Deadman Derby Productions' No Mercy event, and then Mark Elliott follows up with news on the Unified Point Series.
Mark Klein of DerbyTees.com and DerbyTees.TV join us to talk about the new reality series venture, 'Derby Builds.' Ontario County, NY driver Elijah Hicks was in the neighborhood and will stop by, and we will also catch up with photographer and Unified Point Series web designer Shannon Davis.
Mark Elliott joins us to recap the Redneck Rumble from the weekend, and then we catch up with Michael Kelley. Kelley won the Metric DP Class for the second year in a row.
We check in with Mark Elliott for a 2021 Unified Points Series preview, and then catch up with Missouri driver Tyler Reed.
We take a few minutes to remember Todd Heenan on a rescheduled Tuesday, and then take a look at some of the other happenings and plans for the rest of January and February.
Tyler Smay and Cory Roman have been brought up quite a bit in the last two months. We catch up with both of them tonight.
Steve Terlow joins us to talk about the 2021 edition of the T-Bone/Chad Draeger Memorial in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and other events planned by Lunatic Promotions this coming season.
Frankie Guy and Justin Hartzell all out with Hard Core in 2021. The duo will host Hard Core Derby Promotion's 10k to win event next year along with a full slate of qualifying action.
Planning for the 2020 derby season has become increasingly difficult, and it's hard to say but this doesn't feel much like Christmas.
Thanks for stopping by for episode #334. Shawn McCollum joins us to talk about the Young and Wreckless season. RDP dropped an update just a few minutes ago. I've been bombarded with questions about guest line up. We will hit on that during the show.
Come interact with us in the live chat. Throw out some of your favorite memories, or some of questions you want answers to.
Casey Smith joins us to talk about the youth division and the growth of the SMW Youth Program while looking ahead to 2021.
James Brown pulled down the win at Burlington in the Weld Compact division. We catch up with him before traversing a number of derby topics.
Kyle Baker joins us to talk about the win at Buried Alive, and then we welcome Mark and Marcella Benjamin to the studio. We will talk about the upcoming RDP Blizzard Bash online derby, and look at the RDP's Suicide Prevention and Awareness Initiative.
The northeast enjoyed some hard-hitting derby action over the two days of TJ McCullough's Buried Alive Derby in Cumberland, MD. We will talk with $10,000-class winner Tim Mann, two-event winner Steven Sickles, Rumble winner Ken Kiskadden and McCullough in this episode.
We welcome TJ McCullough to the show to talk about the Buried Alive derby, set for October 30-31. We also recap the Wicked Team Derby.
Canadian-based Impact Motorsports has a new ownership group. We also dive into the weekend's Unified Point Series results.
Guy Raymond has two wins and a second in his last three starts, and they came within a week of each other for the hometown-focused driver. We will catch up with him and then shift gears to Brenden Whisman, who won the Rear Wheel Drive Super Stocks at Courthouse Crash.
We catch up with Chris Quenzler, who won a the Hard Core Hobby Stock Championship at Roaring Knob Motorplex in Dunbar, PA before talking with Jon Shipley and Don Santel. The duo are first and second in the ME527 Unified Points; Shipley won the last-chance event for Hard Core Compacts while Santel won the last-chance event for the Hard Core Full Size division at Roaring Knob. Shipley now has eight wins on the year and Santel has seven. We finish with Crash Course Nationals winner Bobby Krouse.
An exceptionally busy northeast weekend saw the Keystone Nationals anchor a three-derby trifecta as Burlington ran along side Spinning Wheels' Sunday stop at Bethel Speedway. We will focus on that, welcoming some local stars who ventured to New Alexandria, PA for the Keystone Nationals. We will preview Hard Core Derby's Final Confrontation with Frankie Guy. We will catch up with Mark Elliott to look ahead to the next dates for the ME527 Unified Point Series. It's a busy one!
As we look ahead locally to a busy weekend at Bethel and New Alex for the 2020 Keystone Nationals, Devon Groeneveld was busy in Montana as his team scored a win. We will open with Nick Schumacher and Case Barker, and we will also dive into the season wrap-ups with Jacob Pruismann's 448 Promotions.
We will be all over the place tonight! First, we will be catching up with Nick Quenzler following his Hobby Stock win at Labor Day Lockdown. We will finIsh with Chris Lancaster, who scored a win on the weekend and is looking ahead to some team show action in Bakken. In between, we will look at Domination's event in Hawarden, Burlington, 448's event, and more. Follow along in the live chat!
Tim Clark with Smash It Demolition Derbies joins us to talk about the changes to Blizzard Bash and the rest of the fall schedule. Steve Cioppa joins us to look ahead to the Keystone Nationals, booked for September 19. We will also look back on Spinning Wheels' Mini Meltdown from the weekend.
Mark Elliott and Roaring Knob compact winner Jeremy Riley take the first stint before we welcome youth fullsize winner Alex Paluch and his dad, Eddie Paluch to the show. We finish up with Pete Hansen, who won the full size class there. Plus, I made a friend in England, derby coverage from the midwest and more!
Josh Decker comes on with a Spinning Wheels update, including notes on the Meltdown update. We will also follow up with Ryan Shofner, a real-world derby driver who won Friday's virtual Sin City Showdown with the Realistic Derby Project.
A full weekend of activity brings us to a busy Monday. We will catch up with Kristi and Devon Germain to follow up on their experience as first-time promoters. We will also criss-cross the Midwest to touch on Urban Destruction, Domination Motorsports, Unified Point Series action and 448 Promotions events.
We follow up with Don Santel following his win on the Unified Points Series trail, and then catch up with Brandon Thomas. Full Throttle Promotions has more than 100 cars pre-registered for their event coming up in two weeks. We also take a moment to reflect on Rick Engelhardt, Dave Kessler and Larry McBryar.
We follow up with John Shipley, who picked up his fifth first-place showing , on the Unified Points Series trail, and we recap a great weekend locally here with Ed Brewster.
Cheesy and Darric Wurth, who are each entered to run Modified cars at Capital City Carnage, join us to talk about the builds and the battles. We will also highlight the Blue Ridge Bash and take a look at the latest Unified Points Series developments.