Action Sports Superstar Travis Pastrana to Compete in Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam in Baltimore

(Aurora, Illinois – Feld Motor Sports PR) – Feld Motor Sports® announced today that action sports icon Travis Pastrana, of Annapolis, Md., will compete in the inaugural Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam® at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on July 9, bringing “Havoc to the Harbor.” Pastrana, a fifth-place finisher in freestyle at the 2009 Monster Jam World Finals®, looks forward to wrestling with his 2000-horsepower monster truck.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Monster Jam and have enjoyed driving the trucks whenever I can,” said Pastrana. “Monster trucks are the most explosive and hard-to-control vehicles that I’ve ever had the privilege to drive. Throw precision and calculation out the window. With close to 2000 horsepower, Monster Jam is sheer excitement.”

Pastrana will pilot the Feld Motor Sports owned Nitro Circus truck at the Baltimore event.

With a guy-next-door personality, Pastrana is a fan favorite regardless what he is riding or racing. When he straps himself into his Nitro Circus® monster truck for the first time ever at M&T Bank Stadium, Pastrana will further diversify his motorsports portfolio as he competes in his inaugural Monster Jam racing competition.

The Nitro Circus truck is normally driven by Pastrana’s good friend a seasoned Monster Jam competitor Cam McQueen.

“My long time friend Cam McQueen has been doing really well in the Nitro Circus truck, but whenever I have a chance to throw him out and drive it myself, I make him watch!”

“It scares me,” said McQueen. “People think I’m hard on equipment – just wait ‘till he gets behind the wheel! It’s going be a blast! Travis is extremely gifted at what he does. However, I’ve managed to beat him at one thing in my life, and I plan to keep it that way. Travis brings something to the table that nobody else can. Without question, this will be the most amazing, entertaining Monster Jam event they will ever witness. And no matter what venue he attends, Travis never leaves a single fan unhappy.”

Pastrana is a big fan of monster trucks, seen here posing with Bobby Holman's monster truck at the 2010 Eldora Speedway Prelude to the Dream.

While McQueen made history when he successfully landed a backflip last year at the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas, Pastrana has no problem in “one-upping” his buddy.

“I am not as good as Cam, but there is always a chance I could get lucky on any given day and do something that will one-up him,” said Pastrana. “Honestly, though, I just want to get as much experience as I can and try to do my best every time I am in the truck.”

Pastrana, 27, is the most successful competitor in the history of the X-Games. Before turning pro, Pastrana enjoyed an illustrious amateur motocross career, where he captured five national titles. Highlighting his professional career are the 2000 125cc AMA Motocross championship and the 2001 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Lites class championship. He transferred his two-wheel experience to four wheels and captured multiple Rally Car championship and is now running a limited schedule on NASCAR’s Nationwide Series. He even finished eighth in the Big Buck Hunter Pro World Championships.

The Party in the Pits at M&T Bank Stadium takes place from 2:30-5:30 p.m., Saturday, July 9, where fans can meet and greet some of the world’s top Monster Jam drivers, including Pastrana. The gates open at 5:30 and the show begins at 7:30. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, the M&T Bank stadium box office or online at www.MonsterJam.com. Total Access passes are $75; Gold Circle tickets are $35; SuperValue tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for kids. Total Access Passes can only be purchased by calling 410-261-7283

Truck Line-Up

Grave Digger ®
Maximum Destruction®
AAP Grinder™
Monster Mutt® Dalmatian
Air Force Afterburner®
Lucas Oil Crusader™
El Toro Loco®
Grave Digger the Legend™
Nitro Circus
Avenger
Brutus
Backdraft
Son UVA Digger®
Superman™
Captain’s Curse®
Ironman

About Feld Motor Sports®

Feld Motor Sports, Inc. is the world leader in specialized arena and stadium-based motor sports entertainment. Feld Motor Sports, Inc. productions include Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam®, Monster Energy Supercross, AMA Arenacross Series, Nuclear Cowboyz®, and IHRA® Nitro Jam®. Feld Motor Sports, Inc. is a division of Feld Entertainment, the world’s largest producer of live family entertainment. For more information on Feld Entertainment, visit www.feldentertainment.com.

(Photos by Chris Parrish, Paul Harry)

The Allen Report: Monster Jam – Anaheim, CA 2011

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

The Monster Jam superstars lowered the curtain on a triad of shows in the home of the Anaheim Angels Saturday, February 12th, 2011. The stacked 16 truck field featured the following top names in monster trucks: Charlie Pauken in Grave Digger, Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction, Adam Anderson in Grave Digger The Legend, Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter, Cam McQueen in Nitro Circus, Candace Jolly in the Monster Mutt Dalmatian, Becky McDonough in Dragon’s Breath, Scott Buetow driving Iron Man, Pat Gerber in Shocker, Don Frankish with Maniac, Scott Anderson in Jurassic Attack, Kelvin Ramer in Time Flys, Nick Owens driving Iron Outlaw, Mark Schroeder in The Felon, Dan Rodoni and The Patriot and Mike Pappas in Tropical Thunder.

The track of choice was an appropriate one for the locale and venue, the very popular so-cal style. That means they fall off a tabletop jump, turn away from each other, fly down a straightaway and race back the way they came. Early racing highlights saw Bounty Hunter advance with a bye after Jurassic Attack suffered fatal engine trouble during intros and Time Flys upset new World Finals qualifier Nitro Circus in the opening race, free of qualifying. In one of the semis, the blue and gray Digger and Max D crossed the finish line side-by-side with Grave Digger The Legend winning by an inch or two, if that much. The other Digger outraced Bounty Hunter to setup a history making Digger vs. Digger final. In the end, Adam proved himself more than just a freestyler by taking the huge racing win.

Freestyle started off a little slow, with most of the first half the field slowly strutting their way around the track with little air. Nick Owens in Iron Outlaw would hold the lead for the longest time with a score of 22. Even the young Anderson and Owen’s boss Jimmy Creten could not outscore him. But then, there were two. Tom Meents has four World Freestyle championships to his credit and showed why, finishing his run with an upside-down cyclone on the tabletop. With a score of 29, Meents looked to see a trophy for the first time at the Big A in a few years. To close the show, the reigning freestyle champion of the world Charlie Pauken gave the fans a potential winning freestyle in Grave Digger, but he only impressed the judges enough for second place, giving Meents the victory.

Although the Anaheim Monster Jam season was over, two weeks later Monster Jam would make its debut at the Los Angeles Dodger Stadium. With Monster Jam, a great show is always guaranteed. On that note, thank you for reading, enjoy Jim Allen’s great photos and cheer on, we’ll see you down the road!

All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2011.