Moses Lake Demo Derby welcomes new sponsor
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 months AGO
Cars race around the dirt track at last year’s demo derby in Moses Lake. This year the event will be called the Miner Services Demo Derby after its new sponsor.
FILE PHOTO
A dirt bike barrel racer rounds a barrel at last year’s demo derby. Dirt bike barrel racing will return to this year’s Miner Services Demo Derby Aug. 12-13.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | March 27, 2025 2:05 AM
MOSES LAKE — A popular event in Moses Lake will have a new name this year: The Miner Services Demo Derby.
“We’re really big on getting our name out there and being part of the community,” said Seth Miner, owner of Miner Services and the demo derby’s new sponsor. “We’re big derby-goers. We go to the derby every year.”
Miner said the sponsorship contract is for three years.
The derby, which is Aug. 12-13 this year, will be much the same roaring, dirt-flinging event the crowds have come to love, said Alex Alvarado, a member of the demo derby committee. The races and the final free-for-all are still the same, and the children’s Power Wheel Derby will be as cute as ever.
Last year saw the introduction of dirt bike barrel racing, which was popular with the spectators. However, several riders were disqualified for riding the wrong direction, which organizers hope to correct this year, Alvarado said.
“We'll have it more prepared for the guys to know which barrel to go to and which way to go,” he said.
There’s a new event this year as well, Alvarado said: a lawnmower race among the members of the Demo Derby committee.
“We had one person buy (a lawnmower) with a two-stroke engine, and we came out with the rules, and he was like, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work,’” Alvarado said.
Miner himself has a car ready for the derby, but he’s not sure he’s going to drive it himself, he said. Although injuries are rare in the demo derby, they can happen, and Miner’s dad was badly hurt in a derby when Miner was young, he said.
“I bought a car,” Miner said. “I haven't seen it yet. I bought it six months ago from a friend of a friend, and it's still sitting at his field … So all I have to do is go get it and drive it to the derby and get in it and go. But whether it's me that gets in it and goes, or somebody else gets in it and goes, I don't know yet.”
Miner Services, a welding and fabrication company, has come a long way since its founding six years ago, and Miner said sponsoring the demo derby seemed to him to be a good way to give back to a community that’s supported his business.
“As I've grown more into the community, I'm realizing that a lot of (these events) all these different things that happen throughout the year, don't happen without people's help. They don't just happen.”
Demo Derby raffle
Is driving a demo car on your bucket list? Here’s your chance to race in the Miner Services Demo Derby on Aug. 13. Purchase a ticket for $20 by contacting the Moses Lake Roundup at MLRoundup@gmail.com and be entered in a drawing to drive a car specially prepped for the derby, sponsored by Brandon Douglass, Windermere Real Estate. Drawing will be held July 24.
A dirt bike barrel racer rounds a barrel at last year’s demo derby. Dirt bike barrel racing will return to this year’s Miner Services Demo Derby Aug. 12-13.MORE STORIES
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ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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MOSES LAKE — The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin will be offering breakfast and lunch for children again this summer. And this time, they’re offering it in more places. “We’re doubling our location sites,” said Cecily Hendricks, director of operations for the club. Breakfast and lunch will be served at the McGraw Clubhouse and North and Midway elementary schools, according to an announcement from the club. Lunch only will be served at Lakeview, Maple Grove and Doolittle parks. They’re free to any child 2-18 years old; there’s no need to be a Club member, the announcement said. Parents can pick up meals for their children by filling out a form. Because Moses Lake qualifies as rural, the meals don’t have to be eaten onsite.