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By Jennifer Gallus
Staff Writer
“We’re a family of smashers,” laughed Alisha Painschab of her father Ted, her brother Adam, and herself.
This Howard Lake family has created their fair share of scrap metal and recycling from their love of demolition derbies.
Ted has been competing in demolition derbies for 35 years, and when the Wright County Fair started the Combine Demo Derby last year, he jumped for the chance to try something new.
“It’s fun wrecking things,” Ted laughed. “When you get up in that big combine – it’s a whole different experience.”
Ted’s combine last year was “Mad Goose,” a John Deere he named and decorated. He won second place for best decorated combine last year and was third in his heat during the derby.
This year, Mad Goose returned, complete with the goose decoy atop the combine like last year’s, but not on the same combine. This year’s combine was a bigger and badder Massey Fergussen 750.
Ted advanced to the feature heat of the derby, which is the finals round, but was hit from behind early on by “Mastitis Massey” a.k.a. Nick Decker of Waverly.
“He surprised the heck out of me, sneaking up from behind like that – and he’s supposed to be my friend,” Ted laughed.
In fact, Ted was hit so hard – the back of the combine lifted up in the air so much – Ted even thought his combine was going to tip over.
That hit tied the two combines together because Ted’s rear wheel went up and over the top of Decker’s corn head. The two combines tried to dislodge from each other, but couldn’t. A timeout was called and a loader was called in to assist in the separation.
After the successful separation, Ted was left with a broken pin in his combine’s axle, and was left to sit and watch the others battle, including his daughter Alisha.
Alisha has competed in car demolition derbies a few times, but had only driven her combine one other time before the derby.
“I drove it up and down the road, and almost took out a mailbox,” Alisha laughed.
When Ted asked Alisha if she’d like to try the combine demo derby, she said, “Why not? It’s another thing to put on my list of crazy things I’ve done.”
Alisha’s combine was a John Deere she decorated and titled “In My Red High Wheels” after the country song “In My Red High Heels,” by Kelly Pickler.
The wheels of the combine were painted read, big pink lips complete with glitter was painted on the bean head, and the combine even sported big, gold, hoop earrings made from painted hula hoops.
Alisha won the consolation heat, which advanced her to the finals. She was in the thick of things during the finals, literally, and after she was left inoperable, she and her combine was still in the middle of all the action.
A combine that was still in working order was hung up on Alisha’s combine. That combine kept going forward and reverse to dislodge the two, but just ended up smashing Alisha’s combine into a twisted mess.
All the while another combine was smashing into the combine that was lodged on Alisha’s in efforts to take him out of the game.
Since she couldn’t move, she had no choice but to sit in the middle of several combines doing battle while smashing her.
One of the big overhead fans got pushed into the Alisha’s cab, which made her a little nervous, according to Ted.
“Her combine was in pretty good shape before that happened. Now, there’s nothing left of it. We’ll get her a bigger one for next year,” Ted explained.
“She did a nice job out there,” Ted said of his daughter. “She had a lot of fun. She was all smiles when she got out. She’s excited for next year.”
Ted is friends with George Karels of Waverly who supplies him with combines for the demolition derby. Karels is actually the one who approached Ted last year to see if he would like to compete.
Karels recycles the combines and finds new ones for his family and friends to use for the derby.
“These old combines are just sitting around and not being used. We have a good use for them now,” Ted laughed. “We smash them, recycle them, and have fun.”
Ted’s son Adam has been into car demolition derbies for the past four years. This is his first year competing in a truck demolition derby at the Wright County Fair.
“It’s a lot of work,” Adam said as he described the full roll cage he installed in the truck for safety reasons.
Adam is currently attending school to be an auto mechanic, which is something that will come in handy for his family.
Although Adam said he hasn’t placed high in the ranks yet in the demo derbies, he said he does it for the fun of it.
“We’re not in it to win – we’re in it for fun,” Ted said.
“It’s a total adrenaline rush,” Alisha added.
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