The Allen Report: Kaboom – Pomona, CA 2013

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “The Allen Report”, we head up to the annual KaBoom show at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California where the show is sold out for the 11th consecutive year. There, five of the west coast’s meanest monster trucks fight for survival as well as each other in the dirt track course in the infield of the horse racing track. This year’s track warriors are: Roger Stidell in Destroyer, Tony Canedo in the legendary Play N’ 4 Keeps, California’s own Pat Gerber drove Shocker, and Tucson, Arizona’s Rod Wood in El Perro Loco. And finally, perennial Pomona favorite Jimmy Creten and Bounty Hunter, who had made the voyage up from Del Mar earlier that day.

With an odd-numbered field, the racing bracket was changed. Reigning champion Bounty Hunter would get a bye all the way to the final round and race the winner of a standard four-truck bracket. To start racing, Destroyer had a better card than Play N’ 4 Keeps. Then, Shocker put El Perro Loco in the dog pound to face Destroyer. In a photo finish, Shocker won the race. But in the process he broke the four-link bar, surrendering his chance at facing Bounty Hunter. For the money, Bounty Hunter nailed the tight hairpin turn at the far end then was first past the exit ramp of the freestyle mound to take the racing championship over Destroyer.

Shocker would be unable to freestyle as there was more broken than just the four-link bar. El Perro Loco, the wild dog from the high desert set the bar early with wheelies and smashing one of the motor homes. He was rewarded with a score of 34 out of 40. Destroyer would also give an honorable run, but Jimmy Creten was not to be denied. Clearing the huge center mound’s exit ramp, coasting through wheelies and fast, dusty cyclones had the crowd going wild. To finish his run, Bounty smashed a “double wide” motor home. Right on cue, the pyro experts sent off the preview fireworks, which set the stage for the annual grand final, the 4th of July fireworks. A perfect 40 erased all doubt who the winner was.

As well as the monsters and fireworks, four of the most daring freestyle motocross riders in the country warmed up the crowd with gravity-defying tricks like the “Indian-Air” and the “Superman”. But the crowd was calling for the favorite backflip, and the riders didn’t disappoint.

The next stop for us at “The Allen Report” is the world’s best monster truck figure-8 race at multi-purpose racing facility Rocky Mountain Raceways in West Valley City, Utah. That being said, thank you for reading, a special thank you to our great friends at WGAS Motorsports for putting together this fun yearly event, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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The Allen Report: Monster Jam – Phoenix, AZ 2013

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “The Allen Report”, the biggest field in the history of Monster Jam in the “Valley of the Sun” played their game to a sold-out crowd at Chase Field. The field of 16: Charlie Pauken represented Team Grave Digger. Familiar faces Batman with Norm Miller at the helm and Devastator driven by Mark Schroeder were also in the house. West Coaster Daron Basl drove King Krunch while sharing the seat of team truck Nitro Hornet with former Bigfoot and FELD driver Sky Hartley. Rookie Shane England rounded out the camp in Big Kahuna. Todd Leduc was back driving Metal Mulisha. Scott Buetow came piloting Team Hot Wheels Firestorm. Steven Hill took the wheel of Ground Pounder. Right behind him in the teammate Amsoil Shock Therapy was Dave Radzierez. Damon Bradshaw was present in Monster Energy. Hometown driver Rod Wood was there as always in McGruff. Mitch Tulachka and Shane Phreed returned in Jus’ Geter Done and Robo Machine. Pat Gerber and Shocker appeared and rounding out the field was first year driver J.P. Ruggiero in El Diablo.

From the first green light of the So-Cal style of racing, the monster from the Mulisha compound and the black and green wrecking machine were on a collision course with each other. Just four-tenths of a second separated them in qualifications. From there, the two bulldozed down the opposition. However, as Grave Digger came back to the pits after defeating Monster Energy in the semi-finals, there was smoke pouring from GD’s motor area. Unable to get fixed in time, Monster Energy took Digger’s place at the starting line where Metal Mulisha was there waiting. Halfway home at the “jammer” obstacle, Todd, a former short course off road racer, drifted a little too far out. From there, the win was Monster Energy’s. But the night’s action was far from over.

Nitro Hornet stung the field early with a score of 23. The Oregon native would remain the “hot seat” for a large part of the night. Then came the truck conceived by “the General” Brian Deegan and the other straight from the top secret Hot Wheels test facility. They both scored a 27 with the “coolest” monster truck around having a hair-thin edge of a single bonus point. Then on came the “Bad to the Bone” music. With the crowd roaring and the engine running on only seven cylinders, the 2010 Freestyle World Champion nailed huge air and had incredible speed followed by dizzying three-wheeled cyclones to take the winning score of 31, twenty-seven in regulation and no less than four bonus points for the win.

In other action, Team USA defeated Team Mexico in fast and furious quad war action. In addition, Tom Cunningham won the “off road truck-cross” main. From here, we at “The Allen Report” head out to Firebird Raceway for the last ever two day monster truck marathon on the merciless drag strip in Chandler, AZ. Till then, thank you for reading, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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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.

Monster Photos: Monster Jam – Anaheim, CA #2 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Angel Stadium of Anaheim
Location: Anaheim, California
Date: January 29th, 2011
Photographer: Susan Clemens Woolley, www.123EventPhotography.com

Lineup: Backwards Bob (Rick Swanson), Captain USA (Jeff Bainter), El Matador (Daron Basl), Grave Digger (Pablo Huffaker), Grave Digger The Legend (Tony Farrell), Jurassic Attack (Scott Anderson), King Krunch (David Smith), Maniac (Don Frankish), Monster Mutt Rottweiler (Charles Benns), Obsession (Jeff Jones), Shocker (Pat Gerber), The Patriot (Dan Rodoni), Time Flys (Kelvin Ramer), TMNT (Ryan Huffaker), Tropical Thunder (Andrew Peckhum) [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…]

Video of the Week – 09/04/10

Week Ending:  September 4th, 2010
Truck(s) Featured:  Shocker (Pat Gerber)
Video Type:  TV Commercial
Courtesy:  www.YouTube.com

Description:  This week’s video is a great new television commercial for the new Dodge Journey featuring an appearance by Pat Gerber’s Shocker monster truck.