LOGAN, Utah — Don't deny it, most of us have an inner-race car driver. It gets some of us traffic tickets, but for a few hundred bucks, Utahns can take those urges out on a track.
Trash Car Racing is not demolition derby, it’s racing with contact.
"Outdrive, outmaneuver, and outlast the other drivers," explained race promoter Wayne West.
The races take place at tracks all across Utah throughout the summer and early fall, with the action continuing Saturday night at the Cache County Fairgrounds.
So who exactly participates in Trash Car racing?
"I started doing it for my mental health," said Amber Smith. "I got in a wreck on the freeway and I noticed on my way home I was skipping past that spot every day on the way home. I thought, well, that’s not healthy, so what better way to fix it than to crash on purpose?"
For Colin Curtis, it started with a car his wife got him for Father's Day a few years ago.
"It just kind of grabs you. Once you do it once, you can’t not do it again," he said. "It’s like trying eat one potato chip."
Race Zachery Ferguson is the captain of the Shake N Bake team. He says he's always wanted to race in NASCAR and this is the closes he can get.
"We have people on our team that used to be … car salesmen, from mechanics to someone that works in a science building," Ferguson shared.
The way to go about building your own trash car is to start with a running beater, add a rollbar, driver’s side door protection, upgrade the seat belts and tear our the interior. Now you are a race car driver.
The promoter says they do all they can to keep costs down, with just a couple hundred bucks needed to get drivers on the track.
"Most of the time the salvage company will just sponsor you a car," said West. "And when you’re done with it, you just bring it back in for salvage."
