Ready, Set, Crash? Flat Rock Speedway’s Night of School Bus Destruction
CultureShift took a field trip to meet the bus drivers whose job it is to take a beating.
Shiraz Ahmed
Chants fill the night air and the crowd is energized as they await Flat Rock Speedway’s Night of Destruction, where school buses take a whip around the race track.
The annual event, also known as the school bus figure-eight race, features big, colorful buses literally crashing into each other, flipping over and giving the audience one heck of a show. It’s adrenaline-pumping and exciting. Dangerous? Well, that depends on whom you ask.
“Most people would think it’s dangerous,” says Jack Franzel, a regular racer at Flat Rock. “But if you’ve been doing this your whole life, compared to what we used to do, this is like slow motion to us.”
Click the player above to hear CultureShift’s Amanda LeClaire trip down river and see photographer Shiraz Ahmed’s images below.
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed / WDET
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed
Shiraz Ahmed
