Drivers protest forces ASMK’s Demolition Derby postponement

The Assocjazzjoni Sport Muturi and Karozzi (ASMK) was forced to postpone this year’s Demolition Derby following a protest from a group of drivers after one of the participants was ruled out of the race as he failed to pass the Scrutineering test, the Times of Malta can confirm.

The Demolition Derby is one of the most popular events organised by ASMK where drivers are aboard their cars for one final trip before they head to the scrapyard.

Participating cars were split by the drivers into one of two teams, the Black and the Green.

For this year’s race, a total of 38 participants registered to take part in the event but only 34 cars underwent the scrutineering test.

The scrutineering test is an exercise by the organisers to check all participating cars to make sure they are safe to drive, for themselves and for the other drivers on race day.

During the scrutineering test held on Saturday, two cars failed the test after the officials found that they were not safe enough or did not comply with the rules to take part in Sunday’s event.

One of the drivers whose car failed the scrutineering test, thus omitted from the race did not accept the decision and the other members of his team decided not to take part in Sunday race in protest of this ruling, just a few minutes before the Start signal.

Contacted by the Times of Malta, the ASMK said that the officials had no other option than to omit the said car from the race since it could have put the health of other driver’s at risk.

“Safety for us is of paramount importance and we firmly support with the decision of the scrutineering officials to ban the cars who failed the test from competing,” the ASMK said.

“Despite all the protests from the drivers, the ASMK Executive Committee stood by its decision. We respected the drivers’ right to protest and since they had no intention to compete we had no other option but to call off the race.

“It’s disappointing and the ASMK is planning to take legal action against the teams that forced this postponement as we have suffered financial loss from the event. To organise such a race there is a financial cost attached to it which also includes an insurance cover and we feel that we should be refunded.”