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With $1,500 on the line, there is no reason to be Mr. Nice Guy in a demolition derby ring. And Tuesday night in front of the capacity crowd at the state fair grandstand, Ryan Knutson from Bottineau did his best to portray Dr. Evil, as he took no prisoners on his way to the 2009 North Dakota State Fair Demolition Derby championship.

It took a while for the first radiator hose to blow in heat No. 1, but after that golden moment finally happened, the destruction hit high gear. Lignite's Karson Dixon ran into trouble early when both of his rear tires became flat, causing him to become disabled enough to pull his flag and retire from the event. Chase Wrangler and Derrick Azure, from Rugby and Dunseith

respectfully, also succumbed to the heat of battle and threw in the towel as well. Steve Borreson from Williston, Justin Bernstein out of Bottineau, and Jason Hiatt from Bismarck advanced to the event's Grand Slam by being the last survivors.

In the second heat, three more cars were slated to survive and make their way to the Grand Slam, while three were destined to head for the Crash Back Consolation.

Minot's David Gay came into the bull ring with a traditional demo derby car for the second heat, which is a sight that you do not see in today's derby world. Most of the drivers today will do a lot of modifications to the car's body, including added stress bars for extra frame support, along with re-enforced bumpers on the front and the back of their cars. But Gay brought out the old school demo car, and lasted only one hit before he became disabled.

Joseph Pederson and Curt Rudland, both from Minot, also succumbed to the top three cars of Randy Landsverk (Crosby), Brandon Jensen (Minot) and Ryan Knutson from Bottineau, sending them to the Crash Back with David Gay.

The consolation crash back was slated to send two cars to the Grand Slam, and after about 10 minutes of battle, Derrik Azure and Chase Wrangler advanced through the back door to the Grand Slam.

In the Grand Slam, Williston's Steve Borreson, a previous event winner in Minot, became disabled first, handing him the eighth place finish. Chase Wrangler was knocked out next, followed by Randy Landsverk, Derrik Azure, and Turk Ackerman.

Ackerman, another past champion of a Minot derby, took over the steering wheel from Minot's Brandon Jensen after Jensen got something in his eye during the heat that qualified him for the final.

Knutson relentlessly kept on hammering the final two cars of Bernstein and Hiatt, coming up with many full-ring, full-speed collisions with the final two cars. At that point, most of the capacity crowd realized that Knutson was full of evil as he pursued the top prize.

Then, at the 23-minute mark of the Slam, Knutson took one more full-speed run and pounded Hiatt into submission with a huge hit that literally shook the grandstand's press box.

Knutson was handed a check for $1,500 and a trophy to go with it.

"Well, I guess I will have to take the wife out now to a nice dinner, but first it is celebration time tonight," said Knutson.

Hiatt finished second and took home $1,000, and was amazed at the hard hit that took him out of the event.

"That is the hardest hitting derby that I have ever been in during the 10 years that I have been competing," said Hiatt.

Bernstein took home $750 for third, and Ackerman driving for Jensen nabbed $500 for fourth.

The Demo Derby was also the last motorized event in front of the old grandstand on the fairgrounds, after it hosted auto racing and demo derbies for 50 years. The remainder of the Nodak Speedway season will be staged in front of the north bleachers only for the remainder of the year, and next year the brand new grandstand will be available after July.