Fair queen Kelsea Mongan turns tiara in for demo derby

County fair queens are all about beauty, charm, grace and tiaras.

In Bureau County, they are now also about demo derbys.

Newly crowned Bureau County fair queen Kelsea Mongan, 17, a senior at Princeton High School, turned her tiara in for a car to ride in Saturday’s demo derby at the fairgrounds.

Not only did she run in the derby, she won it.

Kelsea, who had run in two powder-puff divisions before, surprised herself to be driving the last car standing.

“I had no clue I was going to win or any idea I was going to get close,” she said.

She said she was inspired to run the derby by watching her brother, Kody, 20, a veteran derby driver.

“My brother, he’s been doing it since he was like 15. The past couple times I’ve done the powder-puff classes and knew eventually I wanted to do a big class,” she said. “And I had a couple people come up to me and said they’d never seen a queen do it before, so me and my dad talked about it, and said, ‘Might as well give it a try at least.’

“I’ve definitely had some people asking me about it and what made me do it. A lot of people thought it was cool.”

She said some drivers knew who she was, but not all of them.

“The couple of the not-local guys probably had no clue,” she said.

The queen had a crown painted on her car No. 44, a 2006 Impala, but she left her tiara behind. It was too shiny to get muddy, she said.

Kodi Cade rode shot gun as the passenger in her car, providing a second set of eyes and helping her steer away from trouble.

“He was helping me out what to do, where to go. A second set of eyes for people coming,” she said. “We ran more strategic than anything. We weren’t really just going out hitting to hit. We were trying to think what we did and the hits we made, trying to keep the car running nice. It was a pretty solid car.”

Kody Mongan, who also drove in the derby, was pretty ecstatic to see his sister win, pumping his fists from his car.

“He ran up to me when we got done driving, he wouldn’t even let me get out of the car to give me a hug. He gave me a big hug through the window,” she said. “He was so excited. Last hits, he was out of the car cheering for me.”

And what would happen should a derby come down to the Mongan siblings?

“Well, that depends if we got down to the final two, there’d definitely be some competition,” she said. “But he knows a little more about it than I do. He’s been running for quite awhile. The last few shows we’ve been to, he’s placed if not won. He’s getting pretty good.”

Kelsea said her mom, Michelle, was a little nervous at first watching her take the track.

“I think she felt better I had a passenger with me and we knew a couple of the guys there. She was definitely excited at the end,” she said.

Michelle said she did feel much better having a “good family friend and experienced driver as a co-pilot” like Cade with her. She said with a large field, she knew the hits wouldn’t be as hard.

“It’s always a worry, though, no matter what,” she said.

Kelsea plans to run in a powder puff class in Mendota coming up soon, possibly in the same car.

“It was still running good. I drove it off the track. That was a good sign,” she said.

Kelsea was not the only member of the royal court to excel in the fair activities. Junior Miss MacKenzie Sherman of Tonica won the youth horse showmanship class.

Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com