Perkasie officer feels safest on a path to demolition
3HUNDVLH SROLFH 2IfiFHU David Mantz says he feels safer participating in a demolition derby than he does driving down the road.
“You’re anticipating what’s coming — I mean, look what I do for a living. I feel safest on the track,” he said.
Now 30, Mantz has been a part of the Perkasie police force for seven years and has participated in derbies for three.
“I used to think the sport was crazy and dangerous,” Mantz said.
And it is somewhat dangerous. Drivers have broken bones before in derbies, and FDUV KDYH FDuJKW RQ fiUH, EuW Mantz said no one has been killed.
Though the derby dictates that drivers wear seat belts, the drivers don’t use air bags. Mantz brushes this off by saying, “They’d just get in your way.”
To prepare cars for derbies, drivers take out the extra seats, carpeting, glass, headlights and backlights and then put a gas tank on WKH flRRU wKHUH WKH EDFN VHDW would be.
Mantz gets some help preparing his cars from his neighbor, Mike Harker; his brothers; and his father, 3DuO 0DQWz. HLV fiDQFHH, Steph Eddinger, helps take apart his cars and paint them.
“She says she doesn’t get nervous,” he said of Eddinger during a race. “She says she yells and cheers.”
Once the car is complete, the drivers paint the car and put a number on the side, so they can be recognized during the derby.
Then, imagine this: It’s spring or summer at a county fair. Cars line up with their back ends pointed toward HDFK RWKHU LQ D PuGGy fiHOG, which slows the cars down DQG SUHYHQWV WKHP IURP flLSping over. The drivers wait earnestly in their cars that they may have spent months working on. The crowd counts down from 10, and DQ RIfiFLDO wDYHV D flDJ. Chaos ensues. Mantz said his style is aggressive, but there’s some people who take the opposite approach: sandbaggers.
“Sandbagging is when they drive around the outside and don’t hit anybody,” he explained.
There’s one in every derby, Mantz said, and the ones known for sandbagging get booed from the crowd.
Other derby drivers cheat a little by putting extra metal in the car’s frames — this makes the car more sustainable to hits.
Though derby drivers are competitive, there’s some feeling of community within the sport.
“Everybody’s against each other on the track, but it’s one sport where everybody shakes each others’ hands,” he said. “You can share a beer with someone in the tent afterward. It is a hobby — most people are out there to have fun.”
0DQWz fiQGV FDUV IRU GHUbies in people’s backyards and asks if he can buy them. He also borrowed one car from Jerry Fish at Jerry’s Auto Body in Souderton that was going to be made into scrap metal. Fish let Mantz take the car, use it in a derby and bring it back.
Mantz’s last derby was the Allentown Fair on Labor DDy. ,Q fiYH PLQuWHV, KH wDV out.
“I think I get overly aggressive,” he said. “I need to learn to take my time and not just destroy my car right away.”
Before the Allentown derby, Mantz participated in the Reading Fair Derby, wKHUH KH wRQ KLV fiUVW GHUby.
Mantz said there was only one other driver who showed up for his heat in the smaller car division. (The small car division is any car with a 150-inch wheel base or less, like Sunbirds or Cavaliers.) Mantz knew the other man participating, and they were excited about the race since they knew they would both get a trophy and some prize money.
He recently brought his trailer and one of his deVWURyHG FDUV WR KLV RIfiFH WR VKRw KLV IHOORw RIfiFHUV.
“They laughed at it and said, ‘That thing still drives?’ They give me a hard time for winning when I only beat one guy. I said, ‘It’s a win — it doesn’t matter,’” Mantz said.
Some of the guys on the force go to the derbies to support Mantz or, as Mantz jokes, to laugh at him. But KLV IHOORw RIfiFHUV KDYH D good time at the derbies, Mantz said, and he thinks they understand why he does them.
“They say it’s a part of who I am,” he says.
But Mantz wasn’t always interested in demolition derbies.
Growing up, Mantz said he dreamt of being a hockey player. He took an interest to police work, though, because of the possibility of career growth and the ability to be outside.
His nighttime schedule — working 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.— allows him to work on cars during the day.
“When I’m away from here, I can work on cars and cast away my mind from things,” he said.
His interest in demolition derbies grew because of a family friend, Dennis Keener, who participated in numerous derbies himself. He helped Mantz build KLV fiUVW FDU LQ 2007. $IWHU Keener passed away earlier this year, Mantz has kept Keener’s memory alive with a dedication to Keener painted on every one of his cars and Keener’s number, 28.
Mantz said Keener’s daughter was at his most recent demolition derby in Allentown.
“She was excited — we were all happy. We all kinda said he’s up in heaven having a beer, looking down upon us.”
While Keener may not be able to help Mantz build cars anymore, Mantz will continue to participate in his hobby.
“It’s gonna be hard to give up.”