Heitman turns hobby into smashin', crashin' business

LAKE CITY -- Steve Heitman can't think of many things he'd rather do than climb behind the wheel of his old Imperial and charge onto a field, trying his best to destroy all the other cars in a demolition derby.

He likes it so much that he turned what was a hobby into a business, Impact Motorsports Promotions. "Crashin' and Smashin' Is Our Passion" is the motto for the company, which organizes and stages demolition derbies in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"I've just had a love for cars since the day I was born," Heitman said. "I love to drive anything."

He was 15 years old when he entered his first demo derby at the Goodhue County Fairgrounds in Zumbrota.

"I literally got my butt kicked the first time," Heitman said. "I got annihilated. I didn't have a clue what I was doing."

The car he'd spent three months preparing for the derby didn't last long. "I destroyed it in 3 minutes."

Heitman started watching others, and learning -- the hard way. In the early years he helped inspect cars at the Zumbrota derby, working for Jim Miller. Because he had skills as a mechanic and welder, he began exploring ways to make his cars better.

"I started perfecting the derby car," he said, by coming up with solutions when parts fell off or came apart.

The stuffed tire, for example. A flat tire can take a driver out of the derby, so some people put tubes in their tires or use tractor and skid loader tires. Heitman came up with a method of putting one tire inside another tire. "It doesn't go flat," he said.

Several years ago, Heitman started noticing that the sport he loves was declining. A derby in Wabasha drew only 12 cars.

The problem, he decided, was that county fairs and other venues were trying to do derbies themselves; local clubs that put on derbies had no driving experience.

"Safety was a huge issue," he said. "Safety is priority one."

The growing use of newer cars -- from the 1980s, as opposed to the '60s and '70s cars that once ruled the arena -- caused some of those safety concerns. The newer cars have high-pressure fuel systems, Heitman explained. "It's dangerous."

The obvious solution: Do it himself. He ran a derby at the Wabasha County Fair in 2002. Four years ago he created Impact Motorsports, and he put on derbies in Wabasha and Zumbrota.

"In a snap I had 12 county fairs," Heitman said. Last year he put on 19 shows; this year he'll do 15 shows in 12 counties. "I have one weekend off" this summer. "Even when I don't have a derby, I'm getting ready for the next one," he said.

"I chalked it up to treating all the drivers fair," Heitman said. "I can't be successful without them -- the drivers."

The camaraderie among drivers is of the reason he loves the sport. To him, they're the greatest.

These drivers, Heitman said, are the kind of people who bring their derby cars to a charity event for a little girl who's sick, then when they win the prize money, they turn around and hand it back.

Heitman, who also has a fulltime job in maintenance at Valley Craft Inc. in Lake City, considers the demolition derby a family event -- for audiences as well as for his family.

"This business is a family business," he explained. "My wife Jodi does all the paperwork" with help from sister-in-law Kathi Holst. His mother, Mary Jane Heitman, and mother-in-law, Jeanette Hoops, sell the I.M.P. t-shirts.

Daughters Laura, 10, and Elizabeth, 13, plus niece Tiffany, 14, are in charge of trophies, plus Elizabeth sells tickets at the gate and Tiffany helps with inspections. Daughter Emily, at 2, isn't quite bit enough to join the team.

The tough thing about being the derby organizer is that Heitman can't compete in any of his own events. Luckily, there are still a few derbies he doesn't present.

"I drove the Imperial special at the Cannon Valley Fair," he said. "I won that. And the next day I won again" in another city. "It gets in your blood," Heitman explained.

He is, in fact, considered the king of the Zumbrota derby with more consecutive victories than any other driver. "I won five times -- four in a row," he said.

How does he do it? Heitman's secret is revealed in words painted on the side of his battered Imperial: "Mr. Overkill."