Inside a musty garage off Carmel Valley Road in Greenfield, a yellow 1973 Ford Pinto prepares for its last brutal waltz. After its remodel is complete, the 4-cylinder, 2.0 liter, 4-speed wonder bucket will go out with a bang – literally – as it makes a gutsy run for glory at the King City Young Farmers and Salinas Valley Fair Destruction Derby on Sunday, Sept. 20.

Bryan Regazzi has been driving in derbies since he was a teen, 16 years all told. King City started running an annual Destruction Derby as part of the Salinas Valley Fair in 1993. It roared for four consecutive years, died in 1997 and was jump started 10 years down the road, in 2007. Regazzi has collided with all six. He’s feeling especially good for this one: Seven is his lucky number.

“King City is my home town and I love this derby,” Regazzi says as he and his one-man pit crew, Jerry Zavala, weld a one-foot-tall steel number 7 to the roof of the ’73 Pinto.

He found the car online and purchased it, non-running, for $50 from a seller in Santa Maria. With help from his sponsor, Chuva’s Garage in King City, he got the engine going.

Regazzi’s garage is now littered with Pinto guts. In order to pass inspection and qualify for the smash-up, anything capable of catching on fire or falling off onto the arena floor must be removed from the vehicle. Further, all modifications are only allowed to make the car safer (as opposed to more militant); normally, roll cages are installed along with steel plating on doors, and the battery is seated on the passenger side floor to better protect it in the certain event of a collision. Stock gas tanks are removed and replaced with a 5-gallon auxiliary tank for the same reason.

In the derby, drivers use the backend of the vehicle to ram opponents’ cars to avoid jeopardizing the engine. Many aim for other wheel wells since tires are easily damaged.

“I PRETTY MUCH DON’T LET OFF THE GAS.”

“I pretty much don’t let off the gas,” Regazzi says. “The faster you’re moving, the harder you are to hit, and the harder you hit.”

The only ramming area that is off limits is the driver-side door. Judges are on hand to make sure all the drivers and crew members abide by the rules set forth.

Head Judge Joe Rusconi is judging the King City Destruction Derby for his third year. “We inspect the cars before to make sure they’re safe to run,” he says. Most derbies enforce a one-run-only rule, which requires drivers to enter cars that have not run in previous events.

Regazzi has entered the Pinto in the Merchant Heat, where cars can have a maximum 102-inch front-to-back wheelbase, which draws mostly imports like Mazda, Fiat and Honda into the fray. Drivers only have one shot at winning the so-called “Mini Derby,” unlike the main event, or “Big Car Derby,” where a single car can run up to three rounds. (The top three from each heat advance straight to the finals, and the runners up are put in a consolation bracket and can still battle for a spot in the final round.) The winners from each event in this year’s King City Destruction Derby win a champion’s belt buckle and upwards of $500 in cash.

At a point in his career, Regazzi ran nine derbies in one year, helping to account for the more than 50 cars he’s smashed in derbies. He usually spends $500-$600 on everything from body work to parts and tools, and estimates that between Zavala and himself they spends up to 60 man-hours on rides like the Pinto.

Two shelves mounted on the back wall of the garage hold dozens of trophies, including four first place totems that come with their share of glorious memories – like when a good strike slapped an opponent’s car onto its side, or a clever reverse allowed him to back right over the top of another driver’s hood and through the windshield.

“I tore up Watsonville [derbies] for a few years,” Regazzi says. “Win or lose, it’s always a blast.”

Over the years, as drivers clash and tempers flare, rivalries ensue: Ragazzi and his crew acknowledge there’s no love lost with Matt and Nick Trebino and their Gonzalez-based crew. “The rules say ‘no teaming up’ but we watch out for our buddies,” Matt says.

Matt has been driving derbies for seven years and is currently working on a 1972 Chevrolet Wagon. The brothers have competed in derbies from Sacramento to Santa Maria.

Both Trebinos will enter their cars in Sunday’s Main Event, where 15 to 20 vehicles take over the arena each heat. Between Main Event heats, each driver is allowed a pit crew to help make quick repairs to the cars.

“We change tires, make sure the fender’s not caught on anything, check the gas, and make sure everything is running.”

Then it’s back to getting wrecked.

THE KING CITY DESTRUCTION DERBY happens at noon Sunday, Sept. 20, at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds, 625 Division St., King City. $10/adult; $5/youth. 385-3243, www.salinasvalleyfair.com