Demolish This!

Apologies, between posting the videos on YouTube, my wife blogging about it, and talking about it on the air, I haven't posted a blog about my experience in the POW-MIA Awareness Rally Demolition Derby.
Earlier in the year, our TV station (KPVI) agreed to sponsor the Demolition Derby portion of the POW-MIA Awareness Rally on July 26. During the course of the conversation between the organizers and my General Manager, I was volunteered as a driver of the Channel 6 car. Mind you, I have no experience in the world of professional car wrecking aside from a couple of fender benders, but those were not on purpose.
As the date drew closer, I did get a little nervous about the event. From the daily updates on what the crew at Dave's Glass and Tint were doing to the car to make it derby compliant to my wife calling our insurance agent to up the policy, my concerns began to grow. But the night of the event came and it was "go" time.
My '82 Olds had to undergo some last minute modifications as I got ready to take it into the arena, but the time for being nervous was over. There were two heats and the top two cars in each heat would then go on to the championship round. I drove in the second heat and boy was my world rocked! My only goal was to not be the first person out... I was the first person out. I made a couple of hits and I was T-boned a few times. My problem was that my transmission began to slip so I couldn't find a gear and one of the three ignition wires broke so I couldn't restart the car after it died, so I pulled by flag. I was done.
I was toed back to the pit and the crew fixed the transmission and got the wires out so that I could re-start the car by hot wiring it. And in short order, I was ready for the third heat (consolation round).
Because the organizers had fewer cars then expected, they had a third heat for the cars that lost in the first two heat and could still move. Since I only took a few bumps in my heat, my car was ready to go.
The third heat was awesome! I made a few good hits and I had one spectacular near miss. When it was all said and done, my car and another car had won the heat, I moved on to the championship round. Back at the pits, my car was smashed up and the engine was shooting steam... but it was still running.
The championship round had five cars including mine. I was told by the crew that I had one or two hits in the car, so make them good. The round started and one car was out quick. He didn't pull his flag, but he didn't make a hit in :60 like the rules state, so I guess he was the first one out. Then two cars ganged up on me. My engine had died and one of the cars spun me around they began to pummel me. You can see the damage in the video on YouTube. And yes, the driver of the #3 car told me after the derby that he was trying to flip me over.
I was pretty sore for the next few days, but what an incredible experience.