The Insider: TMB Leaderboard – January 2011

The first edition of the TMB Leaderboard for 2011 is out following the completion of the first month of the new year. Based on all of the information gathered through the Results Tracker, we are able to statistically see who some of the top performing drivers have been in 2011. A total of 174 drivers have competed in monster truck events in the month of January with an incredible 102 different drivers scoring a competition win. See below for the top 5 drivers in each category:

Total Wheelie/Donut/Long Jump Wins

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 14
2)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 11
3)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 9
—-Eric Tack – Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 – 9
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 9

Total Racing Wins

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 10
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 8
—-Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 8
4)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 7
—-Derrick Anson – Heavy Hitter – 7

Racing Win Percentage

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 91%
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 80%
3)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 78%
4)  Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 73%
5)  Donald Epidendio – Titan – 67%
—-Marc MacDonald – El Toro Loco – 67%

Total Freestyle Wins

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 9
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 9
3)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 8
—-Jimmy Creten – Bounty Hunter – 8
—-Bill Payne – Rock Star – 8
—-Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 8

Freestyle Win Percentage

1)  Rob French – Twisted Dragon – 100%
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 90%
3)  Larry Quick – Ghost Ryder – 83%
4)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 80%
—-Chad Tingler – Grave Digger – 80%

Combined Racing/Freestyle Wins

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 18
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 17
3)  Jimmy Creten – Bounty Hunter – 13
4)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 12
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 12
—-Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 12

Combined Racing/Freestyle Win Percentage

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 85%
2)  Rob French – Twisted Dragon – 83%
3)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 82%
4)  Eric Tack – Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 – 69%
5)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 61%

Several driver names pop up continuously on the above list, including Gary Porter who is once again dominating the Freestyle Mania tour for Monster Jam. Carl Van Horn and Adam Anderson have been nearly unstoppable in their respective events so far this year as well. The only non-Feld driver running Monster Jam full time to appear on this list is none other than Jimmy Creten in his amazing new Bounty Hunter machine, as he has been dominating in freestyle so far in 2011.

Branching out to the rest of the industry, Bigfoot drivers Rodney Tweedy, Rick Long and Eric Tack also appear several times on the above list. Tweedy and Long have been on fire in racing as Tweedy has spent time on the Monster X Tour and the AMP Tour while Long is defending his Monster Nationals Racing Championship. Tack has simply decimated the competition on the CFP tour but will now step out of the seat as 2-time champion Larry Swim returns to begin February.

Mac Plecker with Ballistic has once again had an incredible start to the season on the TBO tour but rookie driver Derrick Anson in Heavy Hitter has given him a run for his money and made the list with an impressive 7 racing victories. Rob French is the only driver running a full schedule to be unbeaten in freestyle as he has won all 7 events in which he and the Twisted Dragon have competed, running primarily for Outlaw Monster Trucks and the Road 2 Destruction Tour.

Championship Updates

Monster Nation – The championship battle for 2011 is wide open as the tour only has Beaumont, Texas left in the middle of this month. Devin Jones in Barbarian and Doug Noelke in Tail Gator have the most wins but with Barbarian not attending the finale Beaumont, Noelke would seem to have a slightest of edges over Mike Hawkins, Isaiah Morales and JR McNeal. Essentially it will come down to whichever driver has the best overall performance in the three show Beaumont weekend as they enter neck and neck.

Monster Nationals -2011 is all Rick Long versus Bobby Holman for both Monster Nationals titles. Long has taken a nearly insurmountable lead in the racing category with 6 wins to Bobby’s 1 so far. Freestyle however will be a tight battle as Holman has taken 4 wins in the Lucas Oil Stabilizer to 3 wins for Long and Bigfoot.

Checkered Flag Productions – Have yet to see any point standings posted out of the CFP camp, but that doesn’t much matter as Eric Tack has won nearly every competition he has run in Bigfoot Bad Boy #14. With points going to the truck rather than the driver this year, it’s all but a certainty that Eric Tack/Larry Swim will combine to give Bigfoot Bad Boy the best point total by a massive margin going into the finals in Pocatello.

AMP Tour – In the past couple years, AMP has awarded championships for both racing and freestyle. We have yet to hear their plans for this year, but if they do so once again, there will be quite the battle for those titles as the Monster Truck Thunder Drags has been very competitive this year. In racing, Rodney Tweedy in Bigfoot #10, Travis Sturges in Unnamed & Untamed and rookie driver Travis Petri in Toxic each have 2 wins a piece to lead that category. In freestyle, Larry Quick and Ghost Ryder and rookie driver Darron Schnell in Bigfoot #10 are tied with 3 wins each.

Rookie of the Year Update

After no surprise that Ryan Anderson ran away with Rookie of the Year honors in 2010, this season is different in that it is completely wide open. Monster Jam has many candidates for Rookie of the Year including:  off-road champion Todd Leduc, former rockcrawler Nicole Johnson, and long time crew chief Becky McDonough, along with Bari Mussawir, Joey Parnell and Scott Buetow. In addition to the new Monster Jam drivers, established teams are bringing new blood into the spot including: Darron Schnell with Bigfoot, Jaff Hatten with Team Beast, Morgan Kane for Steve Sims and Jimmy Tracey for Mike Vaters. Several new independent owner/drivers are in the race as well, including: Travis Petri in Toxic, JR McNeal in Razin Kane, Jeff Murphy in Fatal Attraction and Derrick Anson in Heavy Hitter. Take a look at some of each drivers’ accomplishments thus far in 2011:

– Todd Leduc, Blue Thunder – first ever major stadium racing win in Phoenix, Arizona this past weekend.
– Nicole Johnson, Tasmanian Devil – three arena racing victories
– Darron Schnell, Firestone Bigfoot #11 – three wheelie wins, 1 racing win and 3 freestyle wins along with being a candidate for save of the year after an incredible save in Fayetteville
– Derrick Anson, Heavy Hitter – seven racing victories on the TBO Tour
– Becky McDonough, Dragon’s Breath; Travis Petri, Toxic; Jimmy Tracey, Black Stallion; Morgan Kane, Mopar Magic; and JR McNeal, Razin Kane – each of these drivers have also found victory lane in at least one racing/freestyle competiton.

The new season is very young but the early leaders have to be Leduc, Schnell, Johnson and Anson as they are finding victory lane with regularity in just the first month of their first full season in monster trucks.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look around the monster truck industry with January completed, stay tuned to the TMB Results Tracker to see what drivers are putting wins on the board each week. Watch for an updated TMB Leaderboard article following the completion of each month as we bring recognition to outstanding performance all throughout 2011!

Monster Photos – Monster Jam – Phoenix, AZ 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Chase Field
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Date: January 29th, 2011
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Batman (Norm Miller), Blue Thunder (Todd Leduc), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Captain’s Curse (Alex Blackwell), Grave Digger (Chad Tingler), Madusa (Debra Miceli), Maximum Destruction (Kreg Christensen), McGruff (Rod Wood), Spike (Rich Hilgendorf), The Felon (Mark Schroeder), Wrecking Crew (Steve Koehler) [Read more…]

Monster Photos – Monster Nation – Bossier City, LA 2011

Event: Monster Nation
Venue: CenturyTel Center
Location: Bossier City, Louisiana
Date: January 14th-15th, 2011
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup: Barbarian (Devin Jones), Big Dawg (Dale Gerding), Equalizer (Mike Hawkins), Hot Tamale (Isaiah Morales), Razin Kane (JR McNeal), Tail Gator (Doug Noelke) [Read more…]

Monster Photos – Monster X Tour – Cincinnati, OH 2011

Event: Monster X Tour
Venue: US Bank Arena
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Date: January 7th-8th, 2011
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup: Bearfoot (Chris Guzman), Black Knight (“Hillbilly”), Bounty Hunter (Ben Winslow), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), El Bandito (Brian Kiehne), Ghost Ryder (Larry Quick) [Read more…]

The Insider: Team Beast Expanding for 2011

With the calendars now turned to 2011, the start of the new season is less than a week away and work is progressing feverishly at the Team Beast shop in Ohio. One of the big stories of the off season is the major expansion of veteran monster truck competitor Bobby Holman’s Team Beast as they add two brand new trucks in preparation for the 2011 Monster Nationals indoor season.

Team Beast took delivery of two brand new Patrick Enterprises chassis right around Thanksgiving and work has been going on 24/7 to complete the build of the new trucks which will be ran as Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck. The new Patrick chassis trucks are an addition to the custom Holman built chassis ran on Lucas Oil Stabilizer and Ironman.

Two beautiful new Patrick Enterprises chassis ready for delivery to Team Beast (photo courtesy Samson4x4.com).

“We’ve had plans to expand the team for some time, but we weren’t planning on doing it quite this soon,” explained team owner Bobby Holman. “But when Family Events called and wanted us to do the Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck trucks, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. It’s created a lot more work during the offseason but we’ve been adding on to the shop and we’ll be working on getting a system down for maintaining the trucks as we start first quarter. It’ll likely be  a bit rough to handle at first, but we’ll be ready for it. Most of all, we’re really excited to debut the trucks, we think the fans are really going to enjoy them.”

The concept for the new Star Marshall truck is themed around a fun, kid-friendly sheriff character. “He’s a good guy with a bad attitude, a real Clint Eastwood type,” said Holman. Bobby’s brother Ralph Holman will be the pilot for the new truck.

Much anticipation surrounds the debut of the new concept truck, Chalkboard Chuck. Family Events and Team Beast have been working with a company that produces a special “chalkboard” textured paint. The top of the fiberglass body will be vinyl wrapped with the Chalkboard Chuck design, while the bottom will feature the chalkboard paint, allowing fans to write on the side of the truck during the Pit Party and see their designs as the truck competes in the show. The designs can then be erased, leaving a blank slate for the next group of fans to decorate for the next show. Dave Radzierez will be the driver of Chalkboard Chuck for the Monster Nationals season as he follows the tour displaying his Airdog Diesel monster truck.

The 2011 season will also see a new rookie driver for the team as newcomer Jeff Hatten replaces former Team Beast driver Shane Smith behind the wheel of Ironman.

In addition to the expansion of the team, Holman is very proud to welcome back Lucas Oil for 2011 as he and the Stabilizer will once again run for the 2011 Monster Nationals championship. “We’ve got a lot of big things in the works with Lucas Oil including a new wrap design they’ve been working on with us that we should have ready for the Madison, Wisconsin event,” said Holman. “We’re really going after the championship this year, we’ve been working on some different things to make the truck hook up harder on the concrete so we can give Rick and Bigfoot a run for their money.”

Bobby Holman will be back in the Lucas Oil Stabilizer, gunning for the 2011 Monster Nationals championship.

The team will wrap up first quarter in a big way as all four trucks will head down to Phoenix for the big Monster Nationals event at University of Phoenix Stadium. Holman is looking forward to returning to the beautiful stadium that was featured in a SPEED TV Monster Jam episode this past season. “We were there for the opening of that place at the big AMP show a few years back, put on a wild freestyle and rolled her over. It’s always exciting to do a stadium show and we’re real excited that Monster Nationals is stepping it up to that level and that we’re a big part of that, taking all four trucks.”

Holman finishes a wild freestyle by putting the Beast on its lid at the 2006 AMP event at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The entire team has also been invited to participate on the entire 4 Wheel Jamboree Nationals tour in 2011 taking on the likes of Hall Brothers Racing, Team Scream and the Crushstation “Monstah Lobstah”. After running a couple of the Jamborees in 2010, Holman will also be gunning to try and be the one to finally break the stranglehold that Hall Brothers Racing has has on the Monster Truck Thunder Drags title for the last 10 years or so.

See below for Team Beast’s First Quarter Event Schedule:

1/7-8:  Huntington, West Virginia – Big Sandy Superstore Arena
1/20-21: Highland Heights, Kentucky – Bank of Kentucky Center
1/28-29: Madison, Wisconsin – Alliant Energy Center Memorial Coliseum
2/4-5: Corbin, Kentucky – The Arena
2/11-12: Cedar Rapids, Iowa – US Cellular Center
2/18-19: Sioux City, Iowa – Tyson Events Center
2/25-26: Du Quoin, Illinois – Southern Illinois Center
3/12-13: Hoffman Estates, Illinois – Sears Centre Arena
3/26: Glendale, Arizona – University of Phoenix Stadium

TMB thanks Bobby Holman for taking a few moments out of Team Beast’s first quarter preparation to share some details on all they’ve got going on. Stay tuned for the unveiling of Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck and also be watching for an all new website for Team Beast that is currently in development and expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Monster Truck Fall Shootout – Pontiac, MI – 11/13/10

Event: Monster Truck Fall Shootout
Venue: Pontiac Silverdome
Location: Pontiac, Michigan
Date:  November 13th, 2010
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup:  Airborne Ranger (Joe Cypher), Bar’s Leaks Eliminator (Greg Adams), Big Dawg (Dale Gerding), Bounty Hunter (Ben Winslow), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Rislone Defender (Zach Adams), Shell Camino (Shelley Kujat), Tail Gator (Doug Noelke), Virginia Giant (Diehl Wilson), War Wagon (Andy Hoffman) [Read more…]

Domination In The Dome – Pontiac, MI – 04/17/10

Event:  Domination In The Dome
Venue:  Pontiac Silverdome
Location:  Pontiac, Michigan
Date:  April 17th, 2010
Photographer:  Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup:  American Guardian (Rick Raab), Anger Management (Aaron Cromer), Bigfoot #11 (Eric Tack), Brute Force (Jerry Perry), Crashmaster (Jeremy Perry), Excaliber (Jon Zimmer), Ghost Ryder (Larry Quick), Ground Pounder (Ben Winslow), High Maintenance (Jocelyn Perrin), Ice (Jordan Austin), Lone Eagle (Dale Mitchell), Lucas Oil Stabilizer (Bobby Holman), Michigan Ice Monster (Chris Ryan), Pouncer (Dave Pezo), Predator (Allen Pezo), Prowler (Lenny Kuilder), Sudden Impact (Sean Duhon) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: O’Reilly Outlaw Nationals – Miami, OK 2013

Event Information

Event: O’Reilly Outlaw Nationals
Venue: Ottawa County Fairgrounds
Location: Miami, Oklahoma
Date: May 21st-22nd, 2010
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Truck Lineup

Bad News Travels Fast (Bruce Haney), Barbarian (Devin Jones), Bearfoot (Mac Plecker), Cult Energy Activator (Sean Duhon), Equalizer (Mike Hawkins), Ground Pounder (Ben Winslow), Hot Tamale (Isaiah Morales)
[Read more…]

Monster Photos: Monsters on the Beach – Virginia Beach, VA 2010

Event Information

Event: Monsters on the Beach
Venue: Virginia Beach Boardwalk
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Date: May 7th-9th, 2010
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Truck Lineup

Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Grave Digger (Randy Brown), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), Mopar Magic (Chris Baker), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims), Virginia Giant (Diehl Wilson)
[Read more…]

Monster Photos: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals – Springfield, MO 2010

Event Information

Event: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals
Venue: Missouri Events & Entertainment Center
Location: Springfield, Missouri
Date: May 1st-2nd, 2013
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Truck Lineup

Avenger (Jim Koehler), General Tire (Chris Bergeron), Ms. Bigfoot #11 (Amber Walker), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Geremie Dishman), Retro Bigfoot #16 (Dan Runte)
[Read more…]

Monster Photos: MEGA Monster Truck Tour – Sedalia, MO 2008

Event Information

Event: MEGA Monster Truck Tour
Venue: Missouri State Fairgrounds
Location: Sedalia, Missouri
Date: June 28th, 2008
Photographer: Ross Z. Bonar

Truck Lineup

Bearfoot (Doug Charles), Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), El Matador (Daron Basl), King Krunch (David Smith), Viper (Rich Blackburne) [Read more…]