09/07/2026
The St. Helens, Oregon River City Speedway Full Size V-8 Destruction Derby "Eyewitness Report" from Sunday, September 6, 2026 is ready for review right here. Note that I was not able to get any PNW Demo exclusive pix at this event. I do want to give a huge shoutout to River City Speedway announcer Thunder Jones for his invaluable assistance in the preparation of this report. (Image courtesy of Bill Hampton / Committed Motorsports.)
Well, the track was too wet again but this time it was most definitely NOT the fault of the water truck, which actually put a very reasonable amount of water on the hard packed grassy surface of the infield at River City Speedway well before the Destruction Derby Finale was scheduled to take place.
Unfortunately, Almighty God Himself decided to cut short the evening race program by opening the windows of Heaven and raining down upon the people not fire and brimstone but just some of that famous Oregon "Liquid Sunshine". Literally seconds after the completion of the last of 4 Dwarf Car Heat Races the first misty droplets began to drift down to the Earth.
Sadly, the Feature Races for ALL the race classes ended up being cancelled. And I was especially looking forward to the Modified, Street Stock, 4 Cylinder Compact and Dwarf Car Features because all of those classes had very healthy car counts, especially the Dwarf Cars who represented with 28. (Not quite as many as last year at this same event but very impressive nonetheless.)
Only 5 cars were entered in the Destruction Derby Finale but all were piloted by top calibur drivers and they did their best to put on the quality show the fans had come to see once the rain finally let up.
Nathan Conant, driving his number 08 "metric" Chevrolet Wagon got off to a bit of a rough start when his multicolored Chevrolet Wagon went sliding out of bounds and directly toward the track safety vehicles at a pretty good clip but he eventually got things back under control and back into action.
Then Conant and Tyson Linth, driving his well worn number 1776 '73 Cadillac came together for the first noteworthy collision of the event. Shortly after this Bill Hampton, driving his '76 Plymouth Fury Coupe blasted Johnathan Huber's '63 Ford, effectively taking it out of competition. (Which was a pretty impressive feat considering this was the same fully built '63 Ford that completely junked a Hammerhead Imperial at the Outlaw Class event at Tygh Valley last year!)
For a short time it looked like Conant might be out of commission but he got his car going again well within time.
Then Conant and Hampton came together in a massive hit that completely folded the back of Conant's Chevy Wagon. This was followed by Conant and Linth coming together in a tooth rattling impact.
After this, Conant and Jeff Huber, number 107, driving a fresh '66 - '68 Caddy painted in his signature black and white paint scheme, went head on with considerable force.
Conant followed this up by really letting Hampton have it, pretty much ending Hampton's evening as after this he was only able to rock a few feet in each direction at full throttle. It was around this time that the elder Huber also dropped out of the competition, appearing to be stuck.
Then Conant clobbered Linth again. For a moment it looked as though Linth might be done for the night but after a few moments of lighting up the night with a very nice display of flames from his stacks, he got going again. Linth then gave Conant a bit of his own medicine with a good whack to his Chevy wagon.
Conant was having none of this though. He came right back and clobbered Linth and then again. Then both cars died. After a little more stack flame action Linth once again came back to life to claim the victory.
Event Statistics (Events presented in order run)
Track Conditions: Wet Grass, Muddy but Hard Packed, Very Slick
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain, Breezy, Temperature in Low 60s.
V-8 Destruction Derby Finale:
1st 1776 Tyson Linth, Aberdeen, Wa. '73 Cadillac 4 Door Hardtop
2nd 08 Nathan Conant, Newberg, Or. '77 - '90 Chevrolet Impala / Caprice Wagon
3rd 88 Bill Hampton, Tillamook, Or. '75 Plymouth Fury 2 Door Coupe
Did Not Place (In Numerical Order)
M-16 Johnathan Huber, Battle Ground, Wa. '63 Ford Galaxie 4 Door Sedan
107 Jeff Huber Portland, Or. '66 - '68 Cadillac 4 Door Hardtop
(While I did my best to present accurate information herein, it is quite possible that there may be errors or omissions contained in this report. Please feel free to correct any erroneous or inaccurate information. I am solely responsible for any errors or omissions herein.)
