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A vehicle that has seen better days at Buck Motorsports on Saturday, August 6.

Farm combines facing off for battle at The Buck on Saturday, August 6.

A lineup of contestants will drive into a demolition derby, but only one will drive out at The Buck.

A vehicle that has seen better days at Buck Motorsports on Saturday, August 6.

Farm combines facing off for battle at The Buck on Saturday, August 6.

A lineup of contestants will drive into a demolition derby, but only one will drive out at The Buck.

The catharsis of watching hunks of twisted metal collide repeatedly cannot be overstated.

And if you want to see this happen nearby, obviously, you go to The Buck, the gem of Quarryville since it opened in 1974. During the summer and fall seasons, going to The Buck on a Saturday night is a way of life for generations of Lancastrians. However, on a recent Saturday night, when announcer Andy Keiser asked if there were any newcomers to Buck Motorsports Park, dozens of hands shot up from the bleachers.

My hand was one of them, and after spending five hours on the grounds of the venue commonly referred to as The Buck, this first-timer has some tips for my fellow first-timers out there. 

Although events at The Buck begin at 7 p.m. sharp, it’s well worth it to get in the gates not long after they open at 4:30. Perhaps I was moseying too much before leaving and arriving at 5:15, but a hearty percentage of the wide parking lot was full by the time I got there.

Even though the temperature was in the high 80s and a threat of inclement weather loomed overhead, there were already people in the stands guarding their seats. Getting there early not only gives you a lay of the land, but also a chance to get some fresh lemonade or a burger from the snack bar.

And, hey, if you’re into memorabilia, their new gift shop T-shirt references a certain famous Mechanicsburg native (Brett Michaels of the rock group Poison) — “Talk Derby to Me.”

While walking in the gates to The Buck, I saw people carrying nearly every version of a stadium seat cushion that I had ever seen before.

I would later learn that these sages were professional Buck-ers, as the wooden bleachers can be unforgiving, depending on your level of back pain. Even more next level were the fans who brought camping chairs, perfect for getting as close as possible to the action. Guests are not permitted to stand near or lean on the main track fence for obvious safety reasons.

However, bringing and sitting in a camping chair will get you a scant few feet back, a perfect ground level view for watching cars made prior to 2000 crash, bang and boom.

Other than the aforementioned fresh lemonade, there is probably no better way to kill time while you’re waiting for an event to begin than to get in the pit.

For an extra $7, you can wander around the large pit area and check out the vehicles before they get mangled beyond recognition. Some used the space for photo ops – I was thrilled to help take a phone camera picture of a grandfather, father and son in front of a “Smurf”-themed combine while I was there. I loved getting close and seeing the history contained within some of these machines. The “Back in Black” combine provided by Keiter’s Farm Machinery in Halifax boasts “12 kills, 11 wins” in paint on the side, and by the end of the night, it would be declared the “winningest combine in Buck history.”

It was incredible to run my hands over some of the dents, scratches and mangled metal, and imagine the type of hits that the vehicle has taken year after year and envision the hits still to come.

OK, a lot of these tips are about getting a good spot, but at a place like The Buck, that is most of the battle.

The event I attended was a combine demolition derby, interspersed with various smaller car demolition showcases. It sounds silly, but it’s smart to pick your location based on the event. For example, the farm combines are quite large, which meant that there weren’t any “bad” seats, but the folks at the top of the bleachers got to see them in all their glory, not obscured partially by fencing. Personally, I tend to fidget if I’m sitting in one spot for too long, so that meant first finding a spot on the bleachers, and then walking around on foot to find other good vantage points.

The vehicles all arrive from the same location (from the left if you’re looking at the track from the entrance), so the standing zone to the immediate left of the closest bleachers was great for cheering on the combatants. For demolition derbies, most of the action happens in the very middle, which explains why those seats were claimed hours in advance.

If the vehicles are the gladiators, fighting it out to the “death” (or at least until the cars can’t run anymore), then what should that make us? A roaring audience, of course.

It makes no sense at all to calmly watch cars drive into each other repeatedly, so why do that? Every collision lit a fire under the crowd, which in turn fueled the drivers to give it their all.

Credit should be paid to announcer Andy Keiser, who knew exactly how to pump up the crowd. During the “Youth Full-size” competition – which, it should be noted, featured kids as young as 12 and as old as 16 competing with their parents in the driver’s side seat – Keiser announced to the crowd that the final two competitors were from Lancaster and Lebanon, respectively. After Keiser asked the crowd where they were from, my portion of the audience tried in vain to start a “Lancaster!” chant, but it did ultimately get everyone pumped up.

As with many things in life, it’s perhaps best to take a page out of the kids in the crowd’s book – cheering during a crash, waiting respectfully to make sure the driver of a destroyed car is all right and then leaping to their feet at the finale.

After all, it’s cars crashing – don't overthink it, and you’ll have a good time.

Buck Motorsports Park hosts events every Saturday through October 15. This weekend’s event is the “Buck Championship Truck & Tractor Pulling Series.” Tickets are $15 for adults and teenagers, and children under 5 are free. Visit buckmotorsports.com for more information.

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