Video of the Week – 05/07/11

Week Ending: May 7th, 2011
Truck(s) Featured: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bounty Hunter (Darren Migues), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Nasty Boy (Ronnie Sturges), Summit Bigfoot 16 (Dan Runte), Unnamed & Untamed (Travis Sturges)
Video Type: Fan Video
Courtesy: www.YouTube.com

Description: Highlights from this year’s NAPA Monster Truck Nationals & Jet Car Meltdown featuring Robosaurus.

The Allen Report: NAPA Monster Truck Nationals – Chandler, AZ 2011

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Six of the top monster trucks in the world arrived at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona for the annual NAPA Monster Truck Nationals and Night of Fire, held on Saturday, April 30th and Sunday, May 1st, 2011. Participants included current Monster Jam World Finals Freestyle Champion Jim Koehler in Avenger, with last year’s Firebird runner-up Chris Bergeron in Brutus right behind him. Darren Migues would be filling in for perennial Firebird Champ Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter, Dan Runte would be back in Summit Bigfoot 16 and Travis and Ronnie Sturges would be piloting Unnamed & Untamed and Nasty Boy from just down the road in Tucson. Nasty Boy was even sporting the great looking TMB flag for the weekend’s events. The grand finale would be the return of the 40-foot tall, 60,000 pound car-eating, fire-breathing monstrosity Robosaurus.

Opening each show was a wheelie and donut competition with the brothers Sturges giving wheelies that set the stage for what was to come. Brutus not only surprised the Firebird fans with a 45 degree angle wheelie attempt, but gave cyclones that had yours truly thinking back to Wrecking Crew at the 2010 Monster Jam World Finals encore. Even better, Chris put the wreck from last year behind him with a perfect score of 30, followed it up with an outstanding freestyle, taking the Saturday night championship.

Sunday saw the encore performance for the fans that could not make it the first night. At one of his favorite places to perform, Dan and Bigfoot got the crowd pumped up with his shots at the wheelie and donut win. But it was déjà vu for Chris Bergeron, who found himself tied with Bounty Hunter with just freestyle left to go for the weekend. The judging was close, but Darren kept the Bounty Hunter Firebird legacy alive with a score tallied over wheelies and donuts combined with his freestyle number to oust Brutus for the second year in a row.

To close each show, Shawn Pacheco and Robosaurus fascinated the kids in the crowd by eating, breaking and burning a junk car or, in the case of the big show on Saturday, no less than three. In addition, Sam Sturges gave rides to fans young and old in his team’s “Boogie Monster” ride truck. Will Team Scream ever be able to defeat Bounty Hunter at Firebird? Find out next year. Until then, thank you for reading, thanks to everyone with Firebird Raceway for their hospitality, enjoy Jim’s great photos and cheer on!

All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2011.

Monster Spectacular Tour Update – Ottawa: A Battle of Champions

(Ottawa, Ontario – By Doug De Nance) Monster Spectacular always is a “must see” when the big trucks visit the capital of Canada. But this time there was more on the line in Ottawa than ever before. It was to be a showdown between two champions – the defending Monster Spectacular champion, Joe Sylvester in the Readylift Bad Habit truck versus the newly crowned World Freestyle Champion, Jim Koehler and Avenger.

This battle had been fought before in this very same building one year ago. Last year Sylvester triumphed at Scotiabank Place by hitting massive reverser wheelies to defeat Koehler for the coveted Monster Spectacular crown.

This year Koehler’s confidence was boosted by the winning of his second world freestyle title in Las Vegas a few weeks before. But Sylvester had another year under his belt – and that year had the pressure of defending his Monster Spectacular crown at every turn.

One of the coolest stories this spring, Vaters Monster Motorsports debuted their new Higher Education school bus monster truck in Montreal.

Yet it looked like there could be a spoiler or two in this storyline, because some of the greatest names in monster trucks were sitting in the pits. Along with the brand new Higher Education truck, there sat 29 year veteran Mike Vaters and Black Stallion and the big dog Brutus driven by Chris Bergeron.

Bergeron put the first wrinkle into the flow by definitively winning the wheelie contest. Bergeron blasted Brutus skyward on his first pass and landed “pogo” style, landing perfectly vertical by planting his wheelie bar into the final car in the stack. But his second pass was even more spectacular, hitting a massive sky wheelie. But the car stack collapsed sending Brutus sideways. Bergeron somehow pulled the big dog out of a bicycle on the passenger side two wheels and set the truck down on all four tires. Even Koehler preempted the cheeroff to congratulate the obvious winner – his Team Scream team mate, Chris Bergeron.

Chris Bergeron hits a huge wheelie in Brutus to take the opening win in Ottawa.

The next spoiler was Mike Vaters. The Black Stallion driver is known to be an extraordinary racer. He’s also known as the King of Concrete, with endless experience on the slippery surfaces like the track in Ottawa. Plus, he loves to race his way through the brackets. Vaters did just that, winning racing confidently.

So the story of the battle really did come down to the two champions in freestyle. While the other trucks laid down amazing freestyle runs that could easily win any other night, all eyes were on Bad Habit and Avenger.

Sylvester eased onto the course, knowing that the variable time clock would not start until he hit the first obstacle. Bad Habit hit every obstacle hard including not one, but two reversers – with the final one clearing all five cars in the stack.

Jim Koehler may be at his best ever as he takes the freestyle win in Ottawa, his third straight since winning the World Finals Freestyle title for the second time.

During an interview the question was posed to Koehler if he could just lay back now that he was world champion once again. Koehler answered it then with a very loud no. And he answered it again very loudly with the roar of Avenger.

Hitting every obstacle multiple times, Avenger caught the biggest air of the night on each one. But it was Koehler’s final cyclone donut that sealed the deal. Whirling so fast that Avenger seemed like a green blur, Koehler emerged staggeringly dizzy to the loudest roar of all – that of the Monster Spectacular fans!

Those same fans were treated to more excitement in the form of quad racing, freestyle motocross and the Krazy Krew BMX team – who all jumped over the announcer’s head.

Be sure to treat yourself to all the excitement the next time Monster Spectacular comes to your town. Check www.MonsterSpectacular.com for a show near you.

(Photos by Johany Jutras)

The Allen Report: Monster Jam – Phoenix, AZ 2011

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Chase Field in downtown Phoenix once again played host to Monster Jam on Saturday, January 29th and it all kicked off as the most famous on-track rivalry in monster truck racing roared out of the tunnel. The most decorated lineup Phoenix has ever seen included Chad Tingler behind the wheel of Grave Digger, Kreg Christensen returning to Maximum Destruction, Madusa in her Phoenix debut, Norm Miller driving Batman, Alex Blackwell in Captain’s Curse, Todd Leduc in Blue Thunder, the “voice of Monster Jam on SPEED” Mark Schroeder in The Felon, all four members of Team Scream and local favorite Rod Wood driving McGruff. Throughout the night, both Norm Miller and Alex Blackwell were announced as Monster Jam World Finals qualifiers.

The style of course for UTI Racing was Southern California, or, so-cal style. The trucks start by racing each other off a large tabletop before turning away from each other, flying down a straightaway, making a u-turn and racing back the way they came. Max D would take the top spot in qualifying with a time of 25 seconds flat, but it proved useless as he fell to Grave Digger in the quarter finals. Also advancing to the semis were Captain’s Curse, Blue Thunder and Avenger as the fastest loser even after a mid-air collision with Madusa back in Round 1. Grave Digger and Blue Thunder were even through most of the finals, but then the slippery track finally bit Tingler and spun him out in the final turn, giving Todd Leduc his first ever racing victory!

For the third consecutive year, the 30 second bonus time rule was in place. Of the first six of the twelve truck field, Blue Thunder was one of only three drivers who could make it to bonus time with a score of 22. Chris Bergeron in Brutus tried to do a back flip of his own off the side of the tabletop, but the wheelie bar caught the dirt and Brutus went belly-up with a full minute left in the run. Avenger nailed cross threads, big air and did not roll until just moments before his time was up. But after falling short of a racing win, Chad Tingler clearly had blood in his eyes and gave the fans a vintage Grave Digger freestyle, never rolling over and flying long after his time was finished. With a score of 26, Grave Digger saw the Phoenix victory lane for the first time since 2008.

After what happened here in 2011, how can the monsters do better still next year?  They will try and we will be there for all of it. Until next time, check out some of Jim Allen’s great photos from the event and thanks for reading!

All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2011.

Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Cleveland, OH 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Date: February 19th, 2011
Photographer: Paul M. Harry

Lineup: Amsoil Shock Therapy (Jon Zimmer), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Excaliber (Kevin Koszala), Grave Digger (Carl Van Horn), Rap Attack (Dave Rappach), Spike (Rich Hilgendorf), Tasmanian Devil (Nicole Johnson) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Cleveland, OH 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Date: February 19th, 2011
Photographer: Michael Harry

Lineup: Amsoil Shock Therapy (Jon Zimmer), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Excaliber (Kevin Koszala), Grave Digger (Carl Van Horn), Rap Attack (Dave Rappach), Spike (Rich Hilgendorf), Tasmanian Devil (Nicole Johnson) [Read more…]

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 Jam – San Diego, CA 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Qualcomm Stadium
Location: San Diego, California
Date: January 22nd, 2011
Photographer: Susan Clemens Woolley, www.123EventPhotography.com

Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Batman (Norm Miller), Blue Thunder (Todd Leduc), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), El Toro Loco (Marc MacDonald), Grave Digger (Chad Tingler), Lucas Oil Crusader (Linsey Weenk), Maximum Destruction (Kreg Christensen), Monster Mutt (Joe Miller), Obsessed (Rick Swanson), Obsession (Jeff Jones), Shocker (Pat Gerber), Spike (Rich Hilgendorf), Superman (Chad Fortune), Terminator (Gary Schott), The Felon (Mark Schroeder), Time Flys (Kelvin Ramer), Wrecking Crew (Steve Koehler) [Read more…]

TMB TV: ActionTracks Episode 1.8 – Year In Review

Event: 2010 Year In Review
Host: Chris Parrish
Videographer: Chris Parrish

Lineup: All of the best action you’ve seen on ActionTracks in 2010 featuring some of the best trucks in the world! [Read more…]

TMB TV: ActionTracks Episode 1.6 – Wildwood, NJ (Part 2)

Event: Thunder on the Beach
Venue: The Wildwood Beach
Location: Wildwood, New Jersey
Date: October 1st-3rd, 2010
Host: Chris Parrish
Videographer: Chris Parrish

Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton) [Read more…]

TMB TV Episode 3.8 – Montreal, Quebec

Event:  Monster Spectacular
Venue:  Olympic Stadium
Location:  Montreal, Quebec
Date:  October 23rd, 2010
Host:  Ross Z. Bonar
Videographers:  Colby Marshall, Ross Z. Bonar

Lineup:  Aftershock (Bob Robbins), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), California Kid (Garrett Ladelle), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Illuminator (Jay Snyder), Iron Warrior (Trey Meyers), Krazy Train (Roger Cardot), Ms. Bigfoot #11 (Amber Walker), Red Baron (Ben Winslow), Rock Star (Bill Payne) [Read more…]

TMB TV: ActionTracks Episode 1.5 – Wildwood, NJ (Part 1)

Event:  Thunder on the Beach
Venue:  The Wildwood Beach
Location:  Wildwood, New Jersey
Date:  October 1st-3rd, 2010
Host:  Chris Parrish
Videographer:  Chris Parrish

Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton) [Read more…]

Montreal Monster Spectacular – The Doug De Nance Report

(Recap By Doug De Nance) “X marks the spot! While that might be a line out of pirate legends, the legend of monster trucks in Canada, Chris Arel made a new high water mark with a monstrous X in Montreal’s Monster Spectacular show that brought out top media reporters like Ross Bonar of TheMonsterBlog.com to report first hand on this incredible event.

The X in question was in the middle of the most unique monster truck racing course ever seen on this continent. The giant floor of the Olympic Stadium was laid out in a huge dirt oval with an X made of up two distinct school bus jumps criss-crossing through the center. To top it off, the trucks would have to race this challenging course side by side.

And what a slate of trucks there were to take on this incredible track. Fourteen of the top trucks on the planet had been assembled for one night in front of 45,000 fans. Just listen to the names: Bounty Hunter, Avenger, Black Stallion, Miss Bigfoot, Bad Habit, Rock Star, Brutus, Aftershock, plus the newest star in monster trucks, the Chris Arel The Red Baron truck and many more all came with guns a blazin’ and engines roaring.

The night began with all 14 trucks pitted in a wheelie contest, hitting the car stacks on either side of the oval portion of the track. It was such rapid fire action that the Big O looked like a Saturday afternoon traffic jam at the local mall – except every vehicle was a monster truck. Like a three ring circus, there was so much air-born action it was hard to keep track as truck after truck soared vertical. Despite many incredible wheelies, Jay Snyder and Illuminator lit up the judge’s scorecards for the win with a 12 o’clock tail stand on the cars that sent him crashing to the concrete like a giant redwood under the lumberjack’s axe.

Racing was exactly what was predicted by the incredible track – wild and crazy. The tacky clay dirt caused many trucks to hook up extra hard. Bad Habit found that out the hard way in the very first round of bracket racing, tumbling the truck over and tearing the body completely off and sending Trey Myers and Iron Warrior to the quarter finals. The driver of The Red Baron was a masked mystery coming into the race, but the respect was fast coming as he made Aftershock his first kill of the night. Black Stallion had an easy time of his race as Chris Bergeron took Brutus over an unintended obstacle, one of the Super 4 racing cars that had been abandoned on the side of the track.

The wildest and craziest race of the first bracket series saw the wild man from Washington, Bill Payne and Rock Star matched up against the pretty petite Amber Walker in Miss Bigfoot. Payne had said that this was the final night for the original Rock Star truck as he is busy designing a brand new version from the ground up. That should have been the tip off to Amber Walker that Payne would do what he does the very best – destroy everything in his path. The two trucks were bumper to bumper as they launched off the start line and over the first bus stack through the center X of the track. When they came to the first turn something had to give. So Payne gave it a little extra and ran up the rear tire of Miss Bigfoot, sending Payne up onto his back wheelie bar and Amber Walker wobbling from side to side. Somehow she kept the rubber side down but stalled out. Payne managed to get Rock Star back down to earth upright and finished the lap to move on to the quarter finals.

The story of the Red Baron is the stuff of legend from World War I. But a new legacy to that legend was been written during the subsequent rounds of racing by the unknown driver of the new Red Baron truck. Former world champions like Bounty Hunter and Avenger were expected to be able to adapt to the full contact that this new track created. A racing legend like Mike Vaters in Black Stallion would have been a good bet to make to the finals, but lost out to Jimmy Creten. However, it was the Red Baron astounded all who watched the masked driver win again and again to eventually face Bounty Hunter in the final race.

From a truck perspective, it was a draw. Both trucks were Ford Expeditions with 572 cubic inch engines kicking out more than 1800 horsepower. That wasn’t a surprise since Chris Arel had commissioned Jimmy’s 2Extreme Racing Team to design the new Red Baron truck. So the wild card was unknown track record of the driver of the new truck versus the legendarycompetiveness of Jimmy Creten.

Time seemed to slow down to slow motion as the trucks took off from the starting line. Side by side they launched off the bus stack and into the first turn. The only advantage seemed to be the inside lane as it gave the Red Baron a bumper width lead. It was the thinnest of margins but they say racing is a game of inches. The Red Baron only needed an inch to defeat Bounty Hunter for the racing win.

The Red Baron driver kept the mask on to keep the mystery intact as the trucks headed into freestyle. There was even a red plane as an obstacle that looked tailor made for the racing winner. But Joe Sylvester lived up to his trucks name as the Bad Habit driver tore up everything on the track. Sylvester has set the new world record for the monster truck longest jump in September of this year, sailing the Cadillac 208 feet and besting the 202 foot record held by Bigfoot for many years. Well, Sylvester looked like he was trying to beat his own record as he flew through the air off every obstacle he could hit. While the Red Baron and trucks like Black Stallion, Bounty Hunter and Avenger all had spectacular runs; it was Bad Habit making a habit of rocking freestyle – just like he had done at the Monster Spectacular finals in June.

The mystery of the Red Baron was solved at the conclusion of freestyle as the driver wearing the Mexican wrestler mask took to the mic. The southern charm and soothing accent of Ben “Bobo” Winslow didn’t require the driver to be unmasked to be recognized. The former driver from the Sudden Impact team, who had dazzled fans on the Monster Spectacular tour during the summer, had continued to wow the crowd behind the wheel of the new Red Baron. Winslow looks to fly high in his new ride.

As is always the case with Monster Spectacular, Chris Arel treated fans to much more motorsports entertainment, ranging from autocross with Baja styled racers culminating in a champagne soaked trophy presentation to a street style Super 4 series with supped up 4 cylinder customs to a full contact tough truck battle to welcoming back Kamikaze the jet quad and Felix Famlard and his incredible sport bike freestyle team. Perhaps the biggest treat was the introduction of Arel’s newest venture with Vic Theriault, The Legends of the Fighting Arts. Many stars from the fight game, including Jean-Yves Theriault witnessed the kickoff of the program with awards going to such famous fight names as Michel Jette, JF Bergeron, Regis Levesque and Jacques Rougeau. There will be much more to come next year with Legends of the Fight Arts.

It’s always a sad moment when the crowd has left the building in Montreal in October because it means the last Monster Spectacularshow of the year is over. But the good news is that a new season of Monster Spectacular is just around the corner in 2011. Watch for the biggest monster truck show in Canada to rumble into your area soon.”

A huge thanks to Monster Spectacular Tour Announcer Doug De Nance for another great season of keeping TMB posted on all the happenings with the Monster Spectacular tour!

Monster Spectacular – Montreal, Quebec – 10/23/10

Event:  Monster Spectacular
Venue:  Olympic Stadium
Location:  Montreal, Quebec
Date:  October 23rd, 2010
Photographer: Stephanie Cotnoir

Lineup:  Aftershock (Bob Robbins), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), California Kid (Garrett Ladelle), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Illuminator (Jay Snyder), Iron Warrior (Trey Meyers), Krazy Train (Roger Cardot), Ms. Bigfoot #11 (Amber Walker), Red Baron (Ben Winslow), Rock Star (Bill Payne) [Read more…]

Red Baron, Bad Habit Big Winners In Montreal

The TMB crew headed north of the border this weekend for the huge fall Monster Spectacular in Montreal, Quebec as Chris Arel Motorsports put on one of the biggest events Canada has ever seen at Olympic Stadium!! The event featured 14 of the top trucks from the U.S. and a wild new race course design that was sure to create excitement and controversy. The event kicked off with a wheelie contest as all 14 trucks took one hit on the cars. Despite great efforts from Brutus, Bounty Hunter, and Red Baron, it was Jay Snyder in the Illuminator taking the win as he stood absolutely straight up and down before rolling hard onto the roof.

The unique race course would not only see the trucks running side by side over school buses, but would also see the trucks racing off road style after the first jump with no lanes, anything goes, “rubbin’s racing”. The concept wouldn’t take long to provide the controversy as wildman Bill Payne in Rock Star drove hard into the corner following Amber Walker in Ms. Bigfoot, making contact with her truck and nearly sending her over as she made a great save to keep the truck on all fours. Payne ended up on his tailgate before backing down onto all fours and continuing on for the win.

The rest of the racing brackets would be much tamer as the truck on the inside lane at the start usually held the advantage. Bounty Hunter, Black Stallion, Brutus and Red Baron would be the final four and like so many other times in Montreal, it would eventually come down to an all 2Xtreme Racing final round as “Bobo” Ben Winslow would take on Jimmy Creten for the big win. The officials deemed Red Baron the fastest truck in the semi-finals giving him lane choice and that was all it would take for Winslow to hold off the boss for the biggest win of his career.

Freestyle would see all the trucks taking on a tough and treacherous course that provided plenty of big air and wow moments through the competition. Avenger, Bounty Hunter, Black Stallion and Red Baron all turned in stellar runs but it was Joe Sylvester in Bad Habit who rocked Olympic Stadium with an epic performance to take the victory.

TMB’s Ross Z. Bonar and Colby Marshall had a great time once again attending Montreal and both filmed for what should be an amazing episode of TMB TV, which will premiere Wednesday, November 10th at 8PM Eastern. Stephanie Cotnoir handled the photo duties and came up with some amazing shots that you will soon see in a full photo gallery – check out the TMB Facebook and become a fan to see lots more teasers from the show. TMB thanks Chris Arel Motorsports for all their support in helping make this coverage possible and we are already looking forward to the next Monster Spectacular in Montreal!! Stay tuned for great coverage from this major event coming soon.