Video: Iowa House speaker goes airborne in demolition derby

Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen is known for his low-key manner, his lawyerly precision, his military bearing. He's a man of few words, direct and unflappable.

He's also, apparently, a hell of a demolition derby driver.

Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, set down his gavel and put two hands on the steering wheel of a big, yellow guided missile of a school bus last Saturday night, entering the Jackson County Fair's Night of Destruction demolition derby in Maquoketa.

He finished the 10-lap race in second place.

Video provided by the Republican Party of Iowa shows Paulsen-piloted Bus No. 9 zipping around a mud track at the fairground amid a cluster of competitors and, on one lap, grabbing big air off a ramp.

"It was a blast, an absolute blast, and I came in second," he said in an interview, adding cautiously, "at least that's what they told me."

The whole thing happened by chance, Paulsen said. He was chatting with fair organizers Saturday evening when someone brought up the Night of Destruction and Paulsen offered, on a whim, "Sure, I'll do that."

Next thing he knew, he was behind the wheel of a bus in the gloaming of a summer night in eastern Iowa. It took a couple laps to get used to racing an old school bus around a mud track at a county fair, Paulsen said, but then, "My bus decided to go." He never knew how fast he was going because there were no lights on his instrument panel.

Paulsen went over the ramp because all the other drivers were doing it. The airborne moment of the jump seemed to last five minutes. "It was quite an experience, I guess," he said.

Unassuming as ever, Paulsen insisted that a reporter share his appreciation to the Jackson County Fair for inviting him, and to a guy named Owen, who put him behind the wheel of Bus No. 9.