Casten Heppner's 2002 Crown Victoria made an impact on the competition while he represented Box Elder/Big Sandy in the Chouteau County Fair's demolition derby last weekend. "We are at the Mayhem on the Mighty Mo getting ready to wreck some cars," Heppner explained with, what he called, a 'cheesing it' grin on his face in advance of the evening's fun. This was Casten's 12th appearance in the local derby since his debut drive 17 years ago. At the age of 14, before getting he'd gotten a drivers license, he was already mixing it up with the competition. "Mom and dad had to sign a waiver and get it notarized. I bugged them forever to get them to finally do it." Since then, he has driven in 31 derbies with no sign of slowing down.
Casten got into the sport through his older brother: "I helped Calenn, my older brother, build his very first one. My dad and my uncle used to do it way back in the 80s. I just grew up watching them. It was my favorite thing ever." He loves the adrenaline rush that comes with smashing up his derby car year after year, but he especially loves the reaction the events get from his kids. "My kids go nuts! And Katie... Katie thinks I'm super cute when I do it." Heppner explained that his kids are a part of the preparation every year as his paint crew. "My kids do the painting. This year they wanted to do autism awareness. Natalie wanted it."
The 2002 Crown Victoria Casten drove this weekend had over 200 hours of work invested in it, mostly in late night building sessions. "There's nothing skipped on this car. It's all top notch." Much of the work and expense in building a car comes down to accumulating performance parts and specialized equipment, from the derby specific gas tank installed in the back seat to the engine under the hood. "In the stock car world, it's called an 'aid mod' and it is 500 horsepower of silly fun." The progressive improvement to the car makes a big difference "...getting all the parts over all the years. It's just slowly making everything better. You have 8 to 15 thousand dollars into these setups. You can go out and blow up a 7 or 8 thousand dollar motor in just one night, and then build it again."
When I asked, everyone on Casten's team (and Katie) agreed that the biggest difference in the outcome was in the driver and your luck. Katie was quick to point out that a fluke with a broken wire of cable could easily put you out of the competition. Sunday, Casten was eliminated in the first round due mainly to bad luck. Steering column issues and the rear end bending downward instead of up with his first rear end collision
hampered his efforts throughout the remainder of the event.
Beyond good luck and progressively improving his cars, Casten explained that the biggest improvement has come with experience, which is also the feedback that has meant the most to him. "Over the years how I have progressed: from being able to keep my cool when I need to. I would just go as hard as I could. I would never think about the hits. I would never plan them out. Now, if I need to drive slow and only hit tires, I'll do that. Then if I need to turn it up and try to push someone over the berm... It's way more strategic now than I've ever been before."
Heppner was particularly enthusiastic about the turnout and participation in this year's derby, due largely to the dramatically larger purse offered to the winner. "It's huge (the purse). It's a monster. It's the most money I've ever seen here... All these chain cars will be a blast to watch. We're just here to put on a show for the crowd." He felt the larger prize was an important part of the effort to grow the local event. "Trying to get more people interested. More people, more sponsors, more younger people in the game, and they're doing it with these chain cars. Holy cow! They said it's about 30 cars, and that's the most they've seen here in a lot of years."
Casten and I finished our conversation as he was hustling off to a pre-derby driver's meeting by expressing his appreciation to his family and friends: "Just a huge shout out to Katie and the kids. They keep it going. Them and my amazing crew. I couldn't do any of this without Duke and Riley..."
