Best way to smash a pumpkin

October 16, 4:20 PMDenver People ExaminerErnie Tucker

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Darren Droge as the VP during Jack-O-Lauch (Photo: Droge)

A 39-year-old former Casa Bonita cliffdiver who performed as "Dick Cheney's Wild Safari" took first place Saturday in the Compressed Air Cannon division of Aurora's Jack-O-Launch gala -- an annual competition to see how far pumpkins can travel through the air.

Darren Droge's machine launched its veggie projectile 975 feet. The winner, who moved to Colorado in 1993 to enjoy the outdoors, says he took up the art of pumpkin launching five years ago with his mentor, Mike Boyd. Aurora hosts the flying gourd event as benefit for Denver Urban Gardens, and year after year, crowds migrate to DeLaney Farms to watch the orange orbs sail into the air. And in a duel with his former guide (who sold him the cannon), Droge proved that persistence pays.

"Finally, after 4 years of finishing second place (to Boyd), I took first place this year. The Pumpkin Launching contest involves three catagories. One is distance and accuracy. Not just the farthest but closest to your own center line. I was able to go 975 feet and only 21 feet off my center line." He concedes the second catagory,  engineering, to Boyd. But it was his theme which put him over the top. "Just before we launch, we perform a quick skit. My theme 'Dick Cheney's Wild Safari' was quite favored by the crowd."

The combo of the scores allowed Droge to win. But this isn't all. "I've competed in many various 'crazy' events all around Colorado. The extinct Cardboard Derby, The extinct Kinetics, next week is Red Bull Soap Box Derby at Red Rocks and always skiing opening day and closing day," he says. His job, as a janitor at Purina Dog Food Factory only 3 days a week, gives him more time to enjoy all that Colorado has to offer.

As inspiration, he cites Kinetics-founder Hobart Brown: "I want to show kids that it's okay to become adults and still have fun."

Greg Wolfe and his wife Dianne ready to rumble
(Photo: Wolfe)

Meanwhile, Greg Wolfe, a self-taught engineer who runs a small business fabricating aluminum siding for campers, crafted the winning maching in the catapult division. Wolfe's Team TMC and the Chumpkin Puckers unleashed their pumpkin pitcher with a winning shot of 510 feet. He praises his wife and their five kids for learning to weld, cut, grind in his shop.

"Last year was our was first year at Jack-O-launch and we are totally hooked. The forces involved to send a pumkin 500 feet or more is awsome!" he exclaims. He and his team discovered last year that no matter how much weight you add to a treb there is a point that it wont go further, so we beat gravity this year by replacing the counter weight with two pneumatic cylinders and compressed air."

Of course, Wolfe doesn't spend all his time thinking about orange streaks in the sky. He's develeped many other vehicles, including a two-wheeled car design. Still, he has dreams about going to the nationals, and envisions a mechanism which will fire the oval a world-record mile.
Furthermore, his wisdom is being passed on. His son Matthew built a catapult in the youth division and took second.

The seed doesn't splatter far from the smashed pumpkin,it seems.
 

Team TMC and the Chumpkin Puckers (Photo: Wolfe)

2008 Winners 

Trebuchet: 1 – Highlanders (Dwayne Beuthel) 414 ft 

2 - Forcibly Centripetal, Colorado School of Mines

3 - U.S.S. Nuclear Pumpkins 

4 - King of Flings 

Compressed Air Canon:1 - Dick Cheney's Wild Safari (Darren Droge) 975 ft.  

2 - Drac O Launch 

Human Powered:1 - Pillage People                       

2 - Whirly Birds 

Catapult:1 - Team TMC and the Chumpkin Puckers (Greg Wolfe)              510 ft. 

2 - Plod V

3 - Great Pumpkin Launcher 

Youth Division:1 - Flingy Thingy, East High School   (Joel Noble)                100 ft.

2 - Wolfgang 

3 - Trailbuchets, Overland High School

4 - Trick or Treaters, Gypsum Creek Middle School