INUVIK - Kelly Donovan knew his buddy wanted to venture north of 60 to Inuvik for a visit, so what better time to come, he thought, then on demolition derby weekend.

"He wanted to come up to see the North, so there's no better time to come up and do a derby at the same time," said the Inuvik resident.

Kelly Donovan and his buddy Todd Thordarson pose beside their derby car on Saturday afternoon. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photos

It didn't take much to convince his Calgary friend Todd Thordarson, a heavy equipment mechanic, to make the trek and sign up for the Saturday afternoon event.

So for a week leading up to it Donovan, who's a mechanic at Weitzel's Construction Ltd, transformed a badly rusted written-off Nissan Maxima car into a derby-worthy vehicle. Not to mention the other three cars he had a hand in preparing for the weekend spectacle. By the time Thordarson arrived in Inuvik on Friday, the car was ready.

Donovan meanwhile took a break from driving this time around to join the pit crew, who are given the daunting task of getting the cars ready from one punishing round to another.

Fast forward to Saturday. Thordarson had already competed in two of five rounds at the annual event and couldn't keep a smile off his face.

"It's been a lot of fun, really," said the Calgarian. "I've never done anything like this before. It's such a rush. When you're driving you don't feel anything because your adrenalin is pumping. I'm surprised how much punishment the cars will take."

His buddy was pretty impressed too.

"He's done pretty good for the car he's got," said Donovan with a laugh.

That's not to say Thordarson wasn't feeling any pain as he made some last minute repairs to the car's radiator.

"You get rattled around pretty good. It's definitely going to take some time to recuperate. My lower back probably hurts the most," he said.

Apart from the radiator issues and going without reverse, remarkably his car was working alright even if it looked a little battered going into the late stages of the derby.

"There's always something that goes wrong after your hit. We pulled the rad and trimmed some panels, but that's about it."

Not one to complain, Thordarson said he had a great time at the event, citing all the friends he made as the highlight. He's already made up his mind on whether he'll compete next year.

"I'll definitely do it again," he said. "Why not?"