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 [email protected] 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.