Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Wheeling, WV 2016

Event Information

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: WesBanco Arena
Location: Wheeling, West Virginia
Date: February 19th, 2016
Photographer: Paul M. Harry

Truck Lineup

Aftershock (Bob Robbins), Bad News Travels Fast (Brandon Derrow), Black Stallion (Matt Cody), Carolina Crusher (Gary Porter), Grave Digger (Jon Zimmer), Higher Education (Jimmy Tracey), Krazy Train (Lloyd Twitchell), Saigon Shaker (Ryan Disharoon) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Cincinnati, OH 2014

Event Information

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: US Bank Arena
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Date: April 5th-6th, 2014
Photographer: Paul Harry

Truck Lineup

Bad News Travels Fast (Damon Bradshaw), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Monster Energy (Damon Bradshaw), Monster Mutt (Whit Tarlton), Zombie (Sean Duhon) [Read more…]

The Allen Report: 3rd Annual IMTM Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony & Reunion – Auburn, IN 2013

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “The Allen Report” we again look back to 2013, when we caught a plane to northern Indiana to make the 3rd Annual International Monster Truck Museum Hall of Fame Ceremony and Reunion in Auburn, Indiana, just outside Fort Wayne in the northeastern part of the state. Nearly 300 people came from many different places to see the following monster truck personalities get inducted:

• Allen Pezo of Predator
• Dan Patrick of Samson
• Gary Porter of Carolina Crusher & Grave Digger
• Scott Stephens of King Krunch
• Army Armstrong – announcer for both live events and television

During the weekend’s festivities, four monster trucks and one special monster vehicle were on display for one and all to examine up close. These included:

• Past Hall of Fame inductee Bob Chandler’s BIGFOOT 1
• Current inductee Allen Pezo’s Predator 1
• Alan Tura’s Goliath
• IMTM President and event co-emcee Jeff Cook’s Shotgun Harry
• Tommy Borders’ three-wheeled “Total Xtreme” super trike, complete with monster truck sixty-six inch tires

The afternoon of the big induction ceremony, the annual IMTM History Discussion was held with the inductees reminiscing about both monster truck history and personal careers. Some stories provoked laughs, others sympathy. Later that evening, a gourmet dinner was served, accompanied by induction videos from the first two Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Following dinner the induction ceremony commenced and each new inductee into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame was rewarded with a standing ovation both preceding and following his induction and Question and Answer session hosted by TMB’s Ross Z. Bonar.

We at “The Allen Report” were honored to be part of the ceremonies and urge everyone who loves Monster Trucks and Monster Truck history to make the Hall of Fame ceremony a must this year – the date has just been announced and it will be going down on Saturday, November 1st, 2014. Visit www.MonsterMuseum.org for more information and watch for tickets to go on sale.

Now that we’ve caught up with 2013, be looking for our huge recap of the 2014 Monster Jam World Finals coming very soon. So, thanks for reading, a gracious thank you to the International Monster Truck Museum and Hall of Fame for hosting this great event, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

Photo Gallery

All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2013.

The Insider: TMB Leaderboard Update – March 2012

(Article By Ross Z. Bonar) – The second edition of the TMB Leaderboard for 2012 is out following the last weekend of competition in first quarter! Based on all of the information gathered through the TMB Results Tracker, we are able to statistically see who the top performing drivers have been so far in 2012. A total of 201 drivers have competed in monster truck events this year with an incredible 137 different drivers scoring a competition win.

The Grave Digger team celebrated their 30th Anniversary in style during 1st Quarter as Dennis Anderson, Pablo Huffaker and Gary Porter combined to lead 6 of our 9 statistical categories on the TMB Leaderboard.

See below for the top 10 drivers in each of our statistical categories:

[column size=”1-3″]

Total Racing Wins

1) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 20
2) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 16
3) Larry Swim – Bigfoot Bad Boy #16 – 13
4) Dan Runte – Summit Bigfoot #18 – 12
5) Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 11
6) Norm Miller – Batman – 10
7) Bari Musawwir – Spiderman – 9
— Alex Blackwell – Wolverine – 9
— BJ Johnson – California Kid – 9
— Kyle Doyle – Firestone Bigfoot #14 – 9

Total Freestyle Wins

1) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 25
2) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 24
3) Randy Brown – Grave Digger – 22
4) Bill Payne – Rock Star – 16
5) Jerry Perry – Brute Force – 13.5
6) Chad Tingler – Grave Digger – 12
— Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 12
— Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger – 12
— Joe Miller – Monster Mutt – 12
— Charlie Pauken – Grave Digger – 12

Total Combined Racing/Freestyle Wins

1) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 44
2) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 41
3) Randy Brown – Grave Digger – 29
4) Larry Swim – Bigfoot Bad Boy #16 – 23.5
5) Bill Payne – Rock Star – 23
6) Chad Tingler – Grave Digger – 20
7) Dan Runte – Summit Bigfoot #18 – 19
— Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger – 19
— Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 19
10) Joe Miller – Monster Mutt – 18

Total Wheelie Competition Wins

1) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 16
2) Greg Winchenbach – Crushstation – 15
— Jerry Perry – Brute Force – 15
4) Bill Payne – Rock Star – 14
5) Larry Swim – Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 – 13
6) Dan Runte – Summit Bigfoot #18 – 12.5
7) Joe Miller – Monster Mutt – 12
— Cam McQueen – Northern Nightmare – 12
9) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 11
10) Larry Quick – Ghost Ryder – 10

Total Donut Competition Wins

1) Jocelyn Perrin – High Maintenance – 15
2) Randy Brown – Grave Digger – 10
— Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 10
4) Joe Miller – Monster Mutt – 6
5) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 5
— Chris Ryan – Ground Pounder – 5
— Bobby Holman – Lucas Oil Stabilizer – 5
8) Jerry Perry – Brute Force – 4
— Dave Radzierez – Star Marshal – 4
10) Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 3
— Marc MacDonald – El Toro Loco – 3
[/column] [column size=”2-3″ last=”1″]

Best Racing Win Percentage

1) Kyle Doyle – Firestone Bigfoot #10 – 64%
2) Dan Runte – Summit Bigfoot #18 – 63%
3) Larry Swim – Bigfoot Bad Boy #16 – 59%
4) Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 58%
5) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 57%
6) Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 50%
7) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 48%
8) Neil Elliott – Maximum Destruction – 44%
9) Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 39%
10) BJ Johnson – California Kid – 38%

(A driver must have competed in 15 racing competitions to be listed in this category)

Best Freestyle Win Percentage

1) Jerry Perry – Brute Force – 90%
2) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 76%
3) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 69%
4) Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 67%
— Randy Brown – Grave Digger – 67%
6) Bill Payne – Rock Star – 64%
7) Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger – 63%
8) Bobby Holman – Lucas Oil Stabilizer – 60%
9) Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 56%
10) Larry Quick – Ghost Ryder – 52%
— Charlie Pauken – Grave Digger – 52%

(A driver must have competed in 15 freestyle competitions to be listed in this category)

Best Combined Racing/Freestyle Win Percentage

1) Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 63%
2) Pablo Huffaker – Grave Digger – 62%
3) Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 53%
— Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 53%
— Larry Swim – Bigfoot Bad Boy #16 – 53%
6) Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger – 50%
— Dan Runte – Summit Bigfoot #18 – 50%
8) Bill Payne – Rock Star – 44%
— Randy Brown – Grave Digger – 44%
10) Bobby Holman – Lucas Oil Stabilizer – 43%

(A driver must have competed in a combination of 30 racing and/or freestyle competitions to be listed in this category)

Most Wins In Fields of 10+ Trucks

1) Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 12
2) Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 8
— Neil Elliott – Maximum Destruction – 8
4) Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger – 7
5) Charlie Pauken – Grave Digger – 6
6) Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 5
7) Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 4
8) Jim Koehler – Avenger – 3
— Alex Blackwell – Wolverine – 3
— Linsey Weenk – Lucas Oil Crusader – 3
— Damon Bradshaw – Monster Energy – 3
— Jimmy Creten – Bounty Hunter – 3
[/column]

Great job to all of the drivers on their outstanding performances thus far in 2012. Stay tuned to the TMB Results Tracker to find out what went down at events all around the country and watch for another Leaderboard update later this season!

(Photo By Chris Parrish)

TMB TV: MT Unlimited Episode 2.7 – Wildwood, NJ 2011

Event: Thunder on the Beach
Venue: The Wildwood Beach
Location: Wildwood, New Jersey
Date: September 30th-October 2nd, 2011
Videographer: Colby Marshall

Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Brutus (Rich Hilgendorf), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), Mopar Magic (Morgan Kane/Brian Wright), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Wilkes-Barre, PA 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Wachovia Center
Location: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Date: March 12th, 2011
Photographer: Jason Miller

Lineup: Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Grinder (Frank Krmel), Iron Man (Lee O’Donnell), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton) [Read more…]

TMB’s “Road to the World Finals” Returns for 5th Season

One of our most popular features each year on TheMonsterBlog.com is back for 2011, as we once again rank drivers week to week in our “Road to the World Finals” Unofficial Point Standings. Fans always wonder exactly how USHRA selects its 24 competitors for the annual Monster Jam World Finals, and so do we. We also often wonder just how all the drivers stack up against each other throughout, and at the end of the year. Without a national points system for the Monster Jam series, it is awfully hard to do so as they often run events in up to 10-15 different venues in a single weekend. So for the 5th year in a row, TMB will be operating our “Road to the World Finals” unofficial point standings for the Monster Jam series based straight from results available at MonsterJam.com. This is our way of ranking the drivers based on their performance throughout the season and gives us a good idea of which drivers have earned a spot in the World Finals, whether they ultimately end up being selected or not.

If you didn’t follow along last year, we’re sure that you have many questions about how we put this together: How does it work? Which events are we including? How are the points awarded? etc. At the bottom of each week’s update, you’ll see the detailed rationale and explanation that should answer most of these questions. Last year, Tom Meents edged out Dennis Anderson in one of the closest point battles we’ve ever seen, eclipsing Dennis by less than 5 points. Who will be tops in 2011? Follow along and let’s find out together!

So far in the 2011 season, the battle for the #1 spot is shaping up to once again be the Dennis and Tom show, with Anderson having the edge after Week 1. Anderson’s huge double down in Houston has him out front over Meents, who picked up a freestyle win in Detroit but was eliminated in the semi-finals of racing. Big performances from Gary Porter and Carl Van Horn in Columbus and Trenton, each winning 5 of a possible 6 competitions has them in the mix as well, tied for third overall with Linsey Weenk in the new Lucas Oil Crusader stemming from his strong performance in Houston.

The legendary Dennis Anderson has the #1 spot after a Double Down performance in Houston.

The battle for the last spot has yet to take shape after only one week of competition as thirteen drivers are currently tied for the 21st overall position. Once a couple weeks of the season are in the books, we’ll have a better picture of who is earning a shot at the World Finals in 2011.

Check out the Road to the World Finals unofficial rankings after Week 1 below:

Here is how points were scored in this week’s Elite Level events:

1/8 – Detroit, Michigan

Racing Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Lee O’Donnell – Iron Man – 20
2nd – Frank Krmel – AAP Grinder – 15
Semi-Finals – Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 7.5
Semi-Finals – Marc MacDonald – El Toro Loco – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 20
2nd – Charlie Pauken – Grave Digger – 15
3rd – Marc MacDonald – El Toro Loco – 10
4th – Frank Krmel – AAP Grinder – 5

1/8 – Houston, Texas

Racing Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 20
2nd – Linsey Weenk – Lucas Oil Crusader – 15
Semi-Finals – Cam McQueen – Nitro Circus – 7.5
Semi-Finals – Damon Bradshaw – Air Force Afterburner – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 20
2nd – Lupe Soza – AAP Grinder – 15
3rd – Linsey Weenk – Lucas Oil Crusader – 10
4th – Chris Bergeron – Brutus – 5

For results from Normal Level events, check out the 2011 Results Tracker January 7th-9th Weekend Results page (drivers earn 5 points for a racing or freestyle win).

Keep following TMB’s “Road to the World Finals” for all the results and current standings each week. Keep in mind this is all unofficial and is just for fun and enjoy as we track the Monster Jam series all the way to the World Finals in March!

About TMB’s Road to the World Finals:

For some time, fans across the country have wondered why the USHRA does not run a public points system of some kind for their Monster Jam series. We are included in the group that would love to be able to follow the standings of such a series each week. We are of the belief that a berth in the Monster Jam World Finals should be earned based on performance throughout the year in both racing and freestyle. Regardless of what portion of the monster truck industry you favor, there is no denying that the Monster Jam World Finals is the biggest and highest profile event our sport has to offer. A chance to compete at this event is a big deal for many drivers out there, and it is our opinion that they should be able to earn their way in. We’re not saying that Feld Motorsports doesn’t pick the World Finalists based on performance currently–we’re simply saying that we don’t know how they make up the field because the process isn’t made public.

So with that in mind, we have created an UNOFFICIAL points system that is simple (although it may seem complicated) and that rewards performance in all Monster Jam events across the country leading up to the World Finals. In our Standings, we will show the cut-off after the 24th truck, indicating that IF entry to the World Finals was based SOLELY on performance, these are the drivers that would be headed to Las Vegas. Keep in mind that this is just for fun and has no actual bearing on the selection of World Finals participants. See below for a breakdown of our points system and our rationale for the decisions we made in creating it.

Elite Level Events

What is an Elite Level event? We define an Elite Monster Jam event as any with a field of 12 of more trucks. We have chosen to award these events the highest amount of points, because these are the highest profile Monster Jam events. These events are the ones held in the major stadiums in front of the biggest crowds, some of which are even televised on SPEED. It is our belief that performance in the highest profile shows should be weighted most heavily toward a World Finals berth because these events are most similar to the World Finals itself. The most points any one driver can score in an Elite Level event (and thus in any event) is 40. If an event meeting all of this criteria holds 3 or more shows over the course of a single weekend, the points for each show are worth half of what is listed below.

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
Semi-Finals – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
3rd – 10
4th – 5

Normal Level Events

What is a Normal Level show? The majority of Monster Jam events held around the country are Normal Level shows. These events are typically held in smaller arenas around the country, consisting of multiple shows held over the course of the weekend (anywhere from 2-5), with fields of anywhere from 5-8 trucks. Looking at the points awarded for these shows, you will notice they are much less than the upper levels. We equate the significance level of an entire 4 show weekend of Normal Level events with the significance of one Elite Level show–thus, the maximum points a driver can earn in a weekend at a Normal Level event is 40 (this based on the usual maximum # of shows being 4 (Tacoma being the exception with 5), and an available 10 points per show (10×4=40)).

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

Monster Photos – Monster Jam – Columbus, OH 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Nationwide Arena
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date: January 7th, 2011
Photographer: Paul M. Harry

Lineup: Aftershock (Bob Robbins), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Krazy Train (Mark Noto), Mechanical Mischief (Jim Burns), Samson (Dan Patrick), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton) [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: 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…]

Thunder on the Beach – Wildwood, NJ – 10/02-03/10

Event:  Thunder on the Beach
Venue:  The Wildwood Beach
Location:  Wildwood, New Jersey
Date:  October 2nd-3rd, 2010
Photographer:  Stephanie Cotnoir

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…]