MONROE — This summer, the Green County Fair will have a new showrunner for its demolition derby: Hollywood Motorsports Entertainment.

With Tory Schutte of Derby Icons stepping away and fears of the derby’s future, Monroe driver Jake Trickel reached out to Rick Harrington, the owner of Hollywood Motorsports, about stepping in as a replacement.

“Tory decided to step down and retire,” Harrington said. “It was getting gruesome.”

Harrington, of the Fox Valley area, has over a decade worth of experience and is the promoter for 14 derbies. 

“I felt that we needed to get Monroe,” Harrington said. 

Trickle said that he “just wanted to do whatever it took to keep the hometown derby alive.”

“Everyone was skeptical at first,” Trickel said.

In an interview with the Times in 2018, longtime Monroe driver Caleb Riese said of the Fair’s demo derby, “Drawing is getting harder these days unless you have money to compete. You don’t get the ‘Crazy Catz’ or ‘Demo Dogs’ (former local demo teams) to show up anymore because they are outclassed.”

Harrington is looking to change that image and rekindle the Green County derby back to its former glory. 

“It’s almost like stock car racing — it’s getting too competitive. Demo derbies are getting more expensive, and we need to get back to the grassroots,” Harrington said. “We’ve got to bring the fun back. We’ve got to get the crowd back into it, the sponsors, the local businesses.” 

And he’s not doing it alone.

One addition this year is that Trickel built a ready-to-go semi stock full-size derby car which will be raffled off prior to the main event. Raffle tickets will be available throughout the fair at the derby tent.

“You can jump into this car and it’s ready to go. You can have clean clothes on, get in the car and compete, and when you get out, you’ll still have clean clothes,” Harrington said. “And all the proceeds (of the raffle) will go to making the derby bigger and better.”

Harrington is also changing up the classes a bit. The Green County Fair will have classes of semi stock full-size, semi stock mid-size, bone stock compact and half-ton stock trucks.

Trickel, who has been driving since 2010, said he is expecting 40 full-size cars alone. Trickel will have two cars in the derby — one for him and one for his father, who has been competing since Jake’s childhood. 

Jake Trickel said he used to do 5-8 derbies a year, but that number has dropped to 3-4 because of work and life. Last year in 2018 Jake won the bone stock at the Green County Fair. He said he has been working sun up to sun down every weekend since the beginning of May making sure his cars are ready to go for this year’s competition.

Harrington, meanwhile, said that he has seen the interest in this year’s event grow, and hopes are high for a great crowd and great competition.

“I’m expecting a good show. Quite a few people I’ve talked to are excited,” Harrington said. “Every show we’ve ever taken over we’ve doubled or tripled. We want to treat people like humans. Hopefully people have fun.”