My host had informed my that contrary to my expectations, Nacogdoches was a fairly large and liberal town, a fact helped by the local university. Nevertheless when I reached the convention centre, I was stuck in a queue made up full-blown hicks, country gals and folks in full cowboy get-up, and stood directly behind a man with a swastika tattooed on the back of his red, red neck.
The centre itself was a rodeo pit with college football style raised benches on two sides, and slowly filled up to what must have been a 2000 head capacity.
Before the event started I had been wondering what sort of person it would attract, and I was interested to see groups of men, families with children and even couples on dates making up the audience.
The event finally got underway with all 24 competing cars lining the outside ring of the arena, each driver then climbing out to stand on their cars, ranging from unrecognisably scratched chassis to immaculately painted show vehicles. The cars then emptied from the pit, save for the last 8, which began circling the actual arena, 'Nascar style', before a whistle blew and they immediately turned on each other.
The strategy appeared to be to reverse into your opponents, and keep yourself and particularly your engine out of the paths of any opponent able to get up enough momentum to do any damage.
The process of watching a car line up and then accelerate towards someone never failed to catch the crowd's attention, their volume rising as the vehicles neared one another and then exploding when they collided or letting a big 'aww' if they missed.
The match ended when only 4 cars were still in a position to move, the others having either been totalled or pushed far enough into the sand bank to be immobilized, and then everyone (even the loosers) was given time to make as many repairs to their car as possible before the next round.
The crowd didnt appear to have any loyalty to any one car, cheering no matter who rammed who, though my personal favourite was this little beauty:
As you can just about see, both of his rear wheels have come off, which on any rear wheel drive car might have caused a problem, but this guy just kept on going, managing not only survive the round, but take out another vehicle whilst severely crippled.
Meanwhile, the half time show consisted of hicks racing round on tricycles.
I'm probably taking most of the fun out the sport by explaining it in great detail, so I'll just leave up a videos and photos that help sum up the evening.
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