ALTAMONT — Jay Milligan, 55, has been working with cars and trucks for the last 40 years; but his work is a little different from sales or mechanical work.

When Milligan was 16, he announced and ran his first monster-truck derby for the family business, JM Motorsports, which presents events that include monster-truck events, demolition derbies, and children’s power-wheel competitions.

After years of hosting a demolition derby, the Altamont Fair discontinued the popular event. But this year a freestyle monster-truck event and a children’s power-wheels demolition derby will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 14.

“Power wheels” refer to battery-powered, ride-on toy cars and trucks for young children. The plastic vehicles range from replicas of a Ford F-150 to a bright pink Jeep in the style of Barbie.

Milligan says it is about 60/40 split of boys to girls competing in most of these events. Videos on the company website show children — some initially relaxed, some wary — going bumper to bumper in their vehicles. Milligan says children should wear helmets and long sleeves; those from age 4 through 9 can sign up for the event ahead online or the day of at the fair.

As of Monday, Aug. 6, there were already over 40 children signed up for the event, said Milligan.

“It’s our biggest registration so far,” he said, surmising that it may possibly have to be split into groups should many more sign up; there is no limit to how many can enter.

“We never had there be so many where we had over 40-something,” he said.

The freestyle event will feature two monster trucks: Overkill Evolution, whose driver has won two monster-truck events while competing in Las Vegas this year, says Milligan; and Higher Education, the only “monster school bus” in competition — a yellow school bus with a flat nose and an oversized chassis and wheels sending it upwards into the air.

In a derby, unlike a race, the monster trucks go out on their own, performing stunts such as jumping off dirt ramps over piles of cars and vans, says Milligan.

JM Motorsports was started in 1962 by Milligan’s father, Jay Milligan Sr., who owned a speedway in Lancaster, a town near Buffalo in Erie County. He ran a demolition derby there, and fairs began to approach him about bringing the derby on the road, said his son. The circuit now runs as far west as Ohio and Pennsylvania, as far south as North Carolina, and as far east as New England — a total of 80 shows from May to October.

The elder Milligan eventually added monster trucks, “tuff trucks” — which are regular trucks and SUVs making jumps — and compact car stunts. He also was a self-taught stunt driver.

“The fair circuit is always looking for new entertainment,” explained his son. “He needed a new show.”

In his “All-American Thrill Show,” which he toured throughout the country in the 1960s into the early 1970s, the elder Milligan would feature his “astro-spiral” stunt, which in 1974 was featured in the James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun.” Milligan also served as Roger Moore’s stunt driver in the film where his car breaks through a showroom window.

In the “astro-spiral” stunt, a cherry red AMC Hornet jumps a bridge, barrel-rolling as it does so. The car had been mechanically altered, and the jump tested via projections on a computer before the stunt was done.

On Monday, Jay Milligan was preparing for another of circuit of shows in the Northeast, where he remains the announcer, a job he enjoys.

“Everybody likes smashing and crashing … ,” he said. “To be there and run the show and be a part of it and have call-by-call destruction in front of thousands of people, it’s a lot of fun … ,” he said. “But it’s a lot of hard work too.”