For twisted metal fans, car soccer tournament was a total ball

A Hall Bros. team vehicle leads a ferocious charge up the middle during Saturday's car soccer game against Dan Gill Auto Salvage. The tourney, a Rochester Fair Association fund-raiser, was hailed as a huge success. (Rochester Voice photos)

ROCHESTER - A crowd of some 1,400 turned out to watch New Hampshire's first ever car soccer game at Rochester Fairgrounds on Saturday, and it's safe to say not a one went home disappointed.

"This was just fantastic," said Bill Jones of Hall Bros. Roofing, a major sponsor of the event. "To have that large a crowd was just great."

A Dan Gill Auto Salvage team car, left is met by a Hall Bros. defender as the 'Zebra,' or ref car watches the play unfold.

The inaugural Twisted Metal Summer Showdown, a fund-raiser for The Rochester Fair, also included an Enduro Race and a Demolition Derby, but the marquee event was the car soccer tournament.

With bumpers being ripped off, tires wobbling on their rims and radiators hissing away, it often resembled a Demolition Derby as the players went for the win, dare we say, full throttle.

"It was a huge learning experience," Jones said after the race. "It's going to be even better next year."

Some 1,400 packed the Fairgrounds grandstand on Saturday to watch New Hampshire's first ever car soccer tournament.

The car soccer tourney comprised four teams with the win going to Team Hammer, but the most entertaining was the first game between Hall Bros. and Dan Gill Auto Salvage in which Dan Gill, riding in a subcompact, scored a hat trick.

The second game between Team Hammer and Team Bruckmans was more of a slowdown game with the cars often clogging up as they played defense.

The final between Dan Gill Auto Salvage and Team Hammer was deadlocked at zero until Team Hammer barely squeezed one past the goal line in the final minute of play.

The play was overseen by a zebra-painted ref car which put several cars in the penalty box during the tourney for either hitting another vehicle too hard or any other maneuver deemed unsafe.

An Enduro racer spins out on a curve in front of the grandstand during the opening moments of Saturday's Enduro race held at the Rochester Fairgrounds.

Despite the zebra handing out several yellow cards and putting other cars in the penalty box, the play was pretty chippy.

Jones, who reported there were no injuries during any of the events, said he expects car soccer will be back next year and they'll be working on rules to make it an even better show.

"I'm so glad everyone enjoyed it," he said.

Aiden Masterson, 5, of Salisbury, edges out Gracie Hansen, 2, of Sanford, Maine and Daniel Reynolds Jr., 4, Arundel, Maine, in Saturday's Powerwheels Race.

The Enduro race, which had more than 50 cars entered, was won by Terry Gaudette of Lebanon, Maine, a former Enduro racer racing for the first time in 17 years.

The winner of the Demolition Derby was not immediately available today.

A Powerwheels race held prior to the car soccer was won by Aiden Masterson, 5, of Salisbury, N.H., followed by Gracie Hansen, 2, of Sanford, Maine and Daniel Reynolds Jr., 4, Arundel, Maine.

The excavators used as goalies were furnished by Southern Maine Tool & Rental of Lebanon, Maine.

The Rochester Voice was a media partner for the event.