Driven to Destruction by Greg Kristapovich
“You’ve got to be a little bit psycho to go out and purposely buy a car, put money into it – and go wreck it! There has to be some sort of craziness in that!” That’s how Rick Roberts sees it. Rick is a veteran destruction derby driver who has been smashing up cars, and collecting trophies for 26 years. (You can see him in action Sunday, June 28th, at the Mother Lode Fair!) Rick’s regular occupation is security. But for fun, he likes to gamble – by doing destruction derbies! “You’re shooting for, depending on the derby, from $500 to $2,000. You’re gambling that you might win, when you’ve got 30 other bloodsuckers out there doing the same thing! “
Born in Sonora, CA, in 1965, Rick is the 3rd oldest among the family’s four brothers and one sister. None of his siblings enters destruction derbies. “I’m the only crazy one!” Rick admits. “My mom used to date a guy who used to do derbies. Mom used to take me to the fairgrounds to watch the derbies when I was about six, and I said to myself, “I want to do that!” So, in 1984, when Mom had a wagon, I entered my first derby, and it took off from there! To date, Rick has entered 130 derbies, winning 105 trophies! “In 1999, I went to thirteen derbies, and brought home fourteen trophies and about $3,500! That was my hottest year! After that, I started sloughing off with only one or two trophies a year,” Rick said with a chuckle. “Now, it’s basically a hobby for me and my nephew, Erik Burkey, to build and drive derby cars, year-round! I got Erik into it, and he’s been doing it for a couple years, about six derbies so far.”
It is dangerous, Rick will admit! “I have gotten hurt! I’ve gotten ribs broken, and the last race I was in, (June 21st, Placerville) I hurt my elbow. My back hurts, my neck hurts and I got a headache! You DO get banged up in there! But the worst was when I got the broken ribs (Sonora, 1998). The guy hit me in the driver’s side, behind the door! I bounced off the cage and broke my ribs. (Drivers wear a seat belt, helmet and back brace.) They took me out of the car, duct-taped me up; and I went back out there and got 2nd, in the Main Event! I ain’t gonna give up!” Rick declared! “I went to the next race, two weeks later!” Another bad scenario for a driver is “if your trunk is all the way up, and you can’t see out the back window; and someone comes across the arena and hits you!” Derby cars don’t last long, either. “A Chrysler Imperial, 1967-69, or a ’64 Lincoln, you can run ‘em three or four times. But they’re ‘outlawing’ the Imperial because it’s too heavy. A lot of the guys who have those cars are ‘professionals,’ the ones who can spend $1,200 for a car. The typical guy who wants to play derby ain’t gonna buy $1,200 worth of car. So, they’re trying to (make it) fair for everybody and they can buy a car for $50, or free and still compete. But still, guys like me, and other professional drivers buy the best cars to race! If you’re going to be in it, you got to pay for it! Station wagons: you can get maybe two good derbies out of them. A typical car: one derby. Normally, I can get two races per wagon!” Rick explained. Rick also has a trusty “pit crew”: Roger Chase, their Chevy mechanic,w Rick Crook, building the carburetors, fine tuning the engines, and Erik Burkey, changing tires, ‘banging’ and ‘cutting.’ Usually, it’s us four going to a derby, and I can’t lose! But when it gets down to the last couple minutes before it begins, I’m always thinking, ‘Did I get everything done? Is everything right, mechanically?’” And, believe it or not, there are rules. You can’t re-enforce the car’s frame, add metal to the fenders or hood, indulge in “double-teaming” or “driver’s door hits”, or “sandbag”, (when you just sit in the corner and you’re not making ANY hits.) Rick loves the derby. “Just building the derby cars; that’s a high point! But I get mad sometimes. Like right now, I got a carburetor problem. It’s the third one we put on, and it’s not getting right. That’s a low point. But, bottom line: I enjoy the sport, the good, bad! It doesn’t matter, I love it!” But why is his car called U2? “What do you hear every day of your life?” he asked. ”‘You too, come here. Have a nice day!’ ‘You, too!’” And then, ‘You, too’ turned into ‘U2’! “I DO like that rock group,” Rick admits, “but I didn’t pick it because of the rock group. I picked it ‘cause you hear ‘U2’ every day! I want everybody to look at me, even if I win – or lose, and say, ‘Hey, we recognize that number!
