Drivers showed their mettle at the Kosciukso County Community Fair’s demolition derby Friday night. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — Friday’s Kosciusko County Community Fair featured a hot dog-eating contest that left contestants hungry for more. Sandwiched around those dogs was a demolition derby that set record numbers.

Jason Mast had already won the Kos County Fair’s hot-dog eating contest in its very first two go-rounds but had since hung up his bib. The promise of $100 in prize money brought him out of retirement, and he beat out last year’s champion Josh Dull in a head-to-head tiebreaker Friday.

Jason Mast, right, and Josh Dull go head-to-head in a sudden death-style tiebreaker in the men’s hot dog-eating contest.

Both Mast and Dull had finished 10 hot dogs at the end of the five-minute regulation period, prompting a sudden death-style tiebreak where each was given a single hot dog, and the first to finish and show his mouth was empty would be declared the winner. Mast edged out Dull in a photo finish for the prize.

“It was really close. He might have been one second behind me, so it was down to the wire,” said Mast.

Despite having horked down 11 dogs, Mast said he felt fine afterward. He was even considering having something else to eat.

“I might go eat something after this; I don’t know,” he said. “It’s not that filling, actually. It’s the taste that gets to you. You don’t get any toppings or anything.”

Shy Oberg claimed top honors in the women’s hot dog-eating contest. She finished nearly four dogs in the five-minute span, beating out a field of mostly Kosicusko County Court queens for the $100. Like Mast, she felt like she might like something to eat afterward. Anything, that is, except hot dogs.

“(I feel) like I could probably have some potatoes just now,” she said with a laugh.

The demolition derby itself packed the stands of the Warsaw Motorsports Complex and featured seven heats, including three “Gut ’n Go” sessions, a truck class and even school buses formerly owned and used by the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. A record total of 27 cars turned out for the “Gut ’n Go” heats, including 14 in the night’s first session. Austin Sexton and Scott Breeding claimed the two first-place finishes in the class, worth $600 apiece. Jason Koch won the truck heat, worth $750, and Greg Miller took the night’s top prize in the full-size class, worth a hefty $1,000.