(Menifee, California – Obsession Racing PR – By Jill Swanson) – Obsession Racing has been extremely busy the past couple of months. This spring season started out in Fresno, California for Monster Jam. This was a single truck event with Rick piloting Eric’s truck Obsessed. Rick had a great time as usual being with his dedicated fans and coworkers. At Friday’s show Rick won his first round of racing but unfortunately the ring & pinion broke and this ended his night of racing. On Saturday night during his wheelie competition effort, he broke a spindle but he got it back up and running and put on a great freestyle show. On Sunday morning Rick fell and severely bruised his ribs and kidneys. We were fortunate enough that Jimmy Lehnertz was available and willing to drive for Rick on Sunday. This was Jimmy’s first time driving Obsessed and he accustomed to it very well and did a great job of racing and freestyle. We want to give a big thanks to Jimmy, Tom, and Michael Lehnertz for everything they did to help out Obsession Racing in troubled times.

Obsession Racing had a great spring and is looking forward to a big summer!

Mother’s Day weekend was once again spent at the track for Outlaw Monster Trucks in San Bernardino, California. Both Rick and Eric did this event. It was a four truck show that included our two and the 2Xtreme Racing trucks. This was a freestyle show only. Out of three competitions of freestyle, Rick and Eric each won a round and Bounty won one round. This was a nice Mother’s Day gift to me in seeing how well our son handles and performs professionally in his monster truck. It was a nice weekend in all.

Our next event was held in Salinas, California for Monster Jam. They started off with displaying the trucks on Wednesday through Saturday and the freestyle and racing show is on Sunday. On Sunday it just wasn’t Rick’s day for racing but he made up for it in freestyle. He set the bar higher than the first five trucks that competed and made the following trucks work for their points! Rick did great even though he was still feeling sore from his injury a month before.

Our next event Obsession Racing is headed to Mexico for the Monster Truck Showdown. We will be leaving California for the rest of this spring season, stay tuned for updates at www.ObessionRacing.com!

(Menifee, California – Obsession Racing PR – By Jill Swanson) – The first week of November was a busy week for Obsession Racing. We attended the SEMA show in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday and then headed down to Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday morning as we had an event with the monster trucks starting on that night with WGAS Motorsports.

The success of the SEMA show has always been beneficial to us each year. Rick was able see our current sponsors and also meet with a couple of new ones. We are looking forward to our continuing support of our current sponsors, and the support of our new sponsors. We are truly thankful for all of our sponsors, because in this sport you can not do it solely.

Rick in Obsession gets after it at the Maricopa County Fairgrounds.

The Phoenix, Arizona Show was four shows that started on Thursday through Sunday with one show a day. Thursday night was a quick exhibition run where each truck performed for two minutes. The next three nights they added more jumps and obstacles. For these nights they had judging. Friday night Rick tied for first place and Eric took second place. On Saturday night Eric took second place and Rick took third. Sunday night’s event Rick took second place and Eric took third. Obsession Racing had an extremely good weekend. Both trucks ran strong. The crowd was pleased with their runs and it showed as we were able to converse with the fans as they let them into the pits after the show for autographs. One lady even told Eric that she is now an Obsessed fan and she is switching from a Grave Digger fan to an Obsessed fan! He is really growing a strong fan base and it makes us very proud of how successful he is becoming!

Eric in Obsessed catching some air in Phoenix, Arizona.

AmeriGas has a large plant that is in the Phoenix area and we were so very fortunate to have the help of Frank and some of his employees and family that helped us out immensely!! We also want to thank the Allen family (Jim, Carol and Christopher) for the excellent dinner Carol prepared and brought to us and their dedication as great fans and friends to our Obsession Racing family business!

We will be on display this weekend at Gold’s Gym for the AmeriGas’s Temecula store. After this display, it will be tear down time for the Obsession and Obsessed trucks to get ready and fired up for the upcoming 2012 season! For more up to the minute updates, check us out on Facebook, and for more information on the team check out www.ObsessionRacing.com!

(Photos by Jim Allen)

(Menifee, California – Obsession Racing PR – By Jill Swanson) – The Obsession Racing team has spent the last two weekends on the road doing shows for WGAS Motorsports. The audience got to see our Father & Son Team race and freestyle. The first weekend’s event was held in Turlock, California. We had one show per day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Rick did very well in racing for all three days. Eric was also at the top of his game in Obsessed making it to the semi-finals in racing. Rick and Eric put on another great freestyle. The fans are so impressed with Eric’s driving abilities and skills for the amount of time he has been driving.

Our latest show was held next to our hometown in Perris, California at the Southern California State Fair. This was four shows in three days. This was a freestyle only show. This was the first year ever that Perris had double stacked car jumps and even a boat to jump on Sunday! The event featured a field of 10 very competitive well known trucks. Both trucks scored in the top half in all four shows and Eric placed second for two of the shows against Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter, and in one of the shows he was only a point off from Jimmy!

Eric Swanson freestyles Obsessed in Perris, California.

In between the shows at Perris, Eric filmed for a new show call Stunt Busters on Speed TV. Eric showed the host how he pilots the truck and then the host wanted to give it a whirl! She did really well for her first time driving the truck and she also jumped some cars. She wasn’t afraid about the impact of landings as she is a professional stunt car driver and crushes and crashes things for a living which makes her a great host for the show. We hoping it will be airing around the end of the year! So please check out our new rising star!

A Speed TV film crew works with Eric Swanson and Obsessed.

Next week we will be heading to SEMA and we look forward to seeing our sponsors there. For more information on the Obsession and Obsessed monster trucks, visit us online at www.ObsessionRacing.com.

(Menifee, California – Obsession Racing PR – By Jill Swanson) – What a busy month it’s been! It all started out in Santa Rosa, California on August 7th where Eric and Rick did an exhibition run for WGAS Motorsports during their tractor pull show. They each did a minute long freestyle at the beginning of the show and then closed the show with a team father-son freestyle. It was very impressive and it showed in the cheers from the crowd, they really seemed to enjoy seeing two trucks freestyle together. This was a first time seeing this in the town of Santa Rosa. We were very fortunate to be able to stay with Charlie Jarrett. He wide-loaded our trucks to both displays and the show and he also made room to accompany our home on wheels. We really appreciated all of his help!

The following weekend Rick recruited Charlie because of the drive he had to make from Grass Valley to Salinas after Saturday night’s event. They made it to Fischer’s Towing with enough time to jump in a pickup truck and head to the airport to pick up (“Super Star”/fly-in driver) Eric Swanson. That is his privilege since he still is in High School. The show was a Friday and Saturday evening show. Friday night Eric went out for his freestyle and stood the truck straight up and down on top of the van stack! When the truck landed on the ground, the spindle broke and he lost a tire. Thanks to our safety regulations his wheel tether kept the tire from rolling away. With limited time they dove in and fixed Eric’s truck in time for the second round of freestyle. Rick and Eric ended the night with the crowd on their feet in excitement! On Saturday they spent the day getting ready for their drive to Salinas. They had to leave immediately after the show because the gates opened in Salinas at 11:00 a.m. for the Sunday show. The trucks ran great on Saturday night and they were able to pack up and leave on time for Salinas. We want to give a HUGE thanks to Ron and Debbie Fischer, Fischer Towing, James Lester and his Parents for the hospitality and help!

Obsessed catches some big air over the van stack in freestyle.

On Sunday morning Eric and Charlie tired the trucks up after a rough night’s sleep. The guys were all ready to do autographs by noon for the fans of Salinas. This show had racing and freestyle. We thought we were going to see Rick and Eric race each other in the semi finals, but in Eric’s quarter final race, he was ahead but unfortunately spun out in the last turn. Rick made it to the semi finals. All in all we had a good day in racing and for freestyle Eric hit the biggest jumps out there and brought the crowd to their feet. Rick was second to last out and put on another great freestyle for the Salinas Crowd! We wanted to thank Charlie, Tom Tom, Justin, Bob, Elaine, Derrick and the Churchill Family for all of their help, love and support! It is really great to see the promoters using Rick and Eric for interviews during the show to show off our family business!

Another great freestyle effort from Obsession in Salinas.

From Salinas, Rick was driving solo up to Lynden, Washington. For those who have Obsession Racing on their Facebook, he was also updating his travels as he progressed. This was Jeff Jones first time back in the seat of Obsession since the Oakland show in February. He also flew into Washington and met Rick there (he can’t use High School for a fly-in driver excuse, but we love him anyways). This event was for WHR Motorsports and it was also a racing and freestyle show. The event was only for Saturday night. In racing, Jeff made it to the semi finals and Rick won the finals! For freestyle everyone put on a fantastic show, you would have never known Jeff hadn’t been driving in 6 months! Jeff you did an awesome job and thanks for all of your help and support! Rick also won first place in freestyle! It was an awesome night for Obsession Racing. After the show Rick and Jeff drove back to Gary Basl’s and left the truck in Oregon and then flew home on Monday. Rick and I will be returning to Oregon in September for the Harvest Festival in Sublimity. We really appreciate all of Gary’s help and hospitality and we are looking forward to spending time with our Basl family!

If you go on to Facebook under ObsessionRacing, you can view Rick’s updates and comments for an on the road update and experience!

For more information on the Obsession Racing team and drivers Rick Swanson, Eric Swanson and Jeff Jones, please visit us online at www.ObsessionRacing.com.

(Menifee, California – Obsession Racing PR – By Jill Swanson) – On June 8th, Rick Swanson started his 1,200 mile journey to Missoula, Montana for the first of two weekends for WHR Motorsports. Rick made it to Montana on Thursday, just in time to tire up both trucks before he picked up Eric and his friend Kaya from the airport. Eric’s last day of school was on Thursday and he had finals to take. Eric liked flying in much better than the long haul that Dad had to make!

On Friday morning, Rick and Eric did the Missoula Channel 8 news media. The media was used to promote the Friday and Saturday night show. You can view this interview on You Tube under World’s Youngest Monster Truck Driver Eric Swanson. It was a really nice interview and we encourage everyone to check it out. Friday night went very well. Rick won racing and Eric set the bar high as he was sent out first in the freestyle competition. Eric launched over the stack of vans with ease and Dad whipped his usual killer donuts and you could tell by the crowd’s response, they loved it!  On Saturday night Eric made it to the semi-finals against his Dad, but Rick took the win for his second night in a row. They also put on another great freestyle and the crowd commented on how great of a driver Eric is for his age.

Young monster truck driver Eric Swanson is interviewed by the local media in Montana.

The following weekend event for WHR Motorsports was in Roseburg, Oregon. This event was also a Friday and Saturday night show. Friday night was a repeat of the previous Friday as Rick was on a winning streak in racing. The lucky streak continued as we didn’t have any mechanical issues with the monster trucks! It was nice to be able to park and enjoy the rest of the evening.

On Saturday morning we gave the chance to Freestyle Motocross rider Keith Sayers to pilot the Obsession monster truck. Keith is filming some highlight reels that will be airing on ESPN really soon. He commented that is was a lot of fun to drive and an experience he will never forget. For the Saturday evening show Rick’s winning streak was broken by our son Eric in the semi-finals. Even though Rick was bummed he lost, he was proud of Eric’s win. Double Trouble took the win against Eric in the finals. In freestyle the boys put on another great show that brought the crowd to their feet! We would like to thank Kaya Gladu, Big Joe in Missoula, and everybody who helped to make this trip a success.

Our next show will be held at the San Diego State Fair for WGAS Motorsports July 1, 2, & 3rd with Eric and Rick driving Obsessed and Obsession. We look forward to seeing you there, be sure to check us out at www.ObsessionRacing.com for more information on the team and trucks!