Monster Photos: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals – Lima, OH 2011

Event: 4-Wheel Jamboree
Venue: Allen County Fairgrounds
Location: Lima, Ohio
Date: May 20th-22nd, 2011
Photographer: Paul M. Harry

Lineup: Airdog Diesel (Michelle Simpson), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Chalkboard Chuck (Dave Rife), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #16 (Dan Runte), General Tire (Chris Bergeron), Lucas Oil Stabilizer (Bobby Holman), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Samson (Dan Patrick), Star Marshal (Dave Radzierez) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals – Lima, OH 2011

Event: 4-Wheel Jamboree
Venue: Allen County Fairgrounds
Location: Lima, Ohio
Date: May 20th-22nd, 2011
Photographer: Michael Harry

Lineup: Airdog Diesel (Michelle Simpson), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Chalkboard Chuck (Dave Rife), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #16 (Dan Runte), General Tire (Chris Bergeron), Lucas Oil Stabilizer (Bobby Holman), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Samson (Dan Patrick), Star Marshal (Dave Radzierez) [Read more…]

TMB TV: ActionTracks Episode 2.6 – Lima, OH 2011 Part 1

Event: 4-Wheel Jamboree
Venue: Allen County Fairgrounds
Location: Lima, Ohio
Date: May 20th-22nd, 2011
Videographer: Chris Parrish, Randy Barton

Lineup: Airdog Diesel (Michelle Simpson), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Chalkboard Chuck (Dave Rife), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #16 (Dan Runte), General Tire (Chris Bergeron), Lucas Oil Stabilizer (Bobby Holman), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Samson (Dan Patrick), Star Marshal (Dave Radzierez) [Read more…]

Monster Photos: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals – Springfield, MO 2011

Event: 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals
Venue: Missouri Entertainment & Events Center
Location: Springfield, Missouri
Date: May 14th-15th, 2011
Photographer: Rajeana Bonar

Lineup: Airdog Diesel (Michelle Simpson), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Chalkboard Chuck (Jeff Bursey), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #16 (Dan Runte), General Tire (Chris Bergeron), Lucas Oil Stabilizer (Bobby Holman), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Star Marshal (Dave Radzierez) [Read more…]

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 Truck Radio 03/21/11 – Jimmy Creten & Jim Koehler

Monster Truck Radio With Host Jeff Richards
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2011
Guest #1: Jimmy Creten, driver of Bounty Hunter
Guest #2: Jim Koehler, driver of Avenger [Read more…]

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 – St. Louis, MO 2011

Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Edward Jones Dome
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: February 19th, 2011
Photographer: Chris Parrish

Lineup: Air Force Afterburner (Damon Bradshaw), Avenger (Jim Koehler), El Toro Loco (Chuck Werner), Grave Digger (Dennis Anderson), Grinder (Lupe Soza), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), High Maintenance (Jocelyn Perrin), Lucas Oil Crusader (Linsey Weenk), Maximum Destruction (Neil Elliott), Mohawk Warrior (George Balhan), Superman (Chad Fortune), Wrecking Crew (Steve Koehler) [Read more…]

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…]

Juggle Partners With Avenger for St. Louis Monster Jam

(Belleville, Illinois) Metro East technology company Juggle announces it will sponsor USHRA Monster Truck Avenger, driven by veteran Monster Jam driver Jim Koelher, at the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam event in St. Louis, to be held February 19th at the Edward Jones Dome in downtown. Avenger, a monster truck fan favorite, has been in every Monster Jam World Final since the series began in 1999.

Avenger arrived on the monster truck scene in 1997. This unique monster truck was created in the style of an old-fashioned hot rod, using the body of a 1957 muscle car and a blown 575 Chevy Block engine sitting on top of sixty-six inch Terra Tires. Because of the truck’s unique design, the driver had to be someone who could handle its violent nature. Only one person on the Monster Truck circuit was ready for the challenge: Jim Koehler.

Former Monster Jam World Finals Freestyle Champion Jim Koehler will carry the Juggle.com logos in this weekend's St. Louis Monster Jam.

“Juggle has sponsored other events in the past,” said Juggle CEO Stephanie Leffler. “We’re fans of the Monster Jam and love helping drivers put on a better show for the local audience. Plus, by sponsoring a fan favorite monster truck, we can gain exposure for the Juggle brand.”

The members Juggle staff are Monster Jam fans, and driver Jim Koehler started out that way too.

“I was a fan to start with,” said Koehler. “I went to a lot of shows and my buddies and I looked at the monster trucks and were in awe of how cool they were. We thought to ourselves, ‘we could build something like that’. Then we started tinkering around, only under the idea that it would be something we could play around with—never thinking we’d be on Monster Jam.”

The St. Louis Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam event will also feature other well-known Monster Trucks, including Grave Digger® driven by Dennis Anderson, Superman driven by Chad Fortune, Maximum Destruction® driven by Neil Elliott, and many more. For more information, visit MonsterJam.com.

About Juggle.com:

Based in Belleville, Illinois, Juggle builds and curates websites with the sole intention of refining what the internet was built for: quality, quantity and accessibility of information to the public. Juggle’s mission is simple, to create compelling websites like BedSheets.com or CosmeticConcealers.com that engage users with quality content and features. For more information on Juggle and other topics, visit Juggle.com.

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…]

MTRA Weekend In St. Louis

TheMonsterBlog.com Staff was in attendance this weekend for the 24th Annual Monster Truck Racing Association Tech School, Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet.  Members from around the country visited the Sheraton Westport Hotel & Conference Center in St. Louis, Missouri to participate in productive discussion on rule changes and on the future direction of the organization as it prepares for its 25th year of working to improve safety in the monster truck industry.  TMB is thankful for all those members who shared their thoughts, ideas and opinions this weekend and for all those members who participate throughout the year in doing the work of the organization.

To finish up the weekend, members gathered for the MTRA Awards Banquet where the membership honors outstanding achievements by those in the organization. Nominations by the membership were accepted and ballots mailed out, with all members having the opportunity to vote on who they found most deserving for each award. With all the votes tabulated, the winners in each category were announced and presented at last night’s banquet.

The first of the MTRA Awards presented was the Safety Award which is given to the individual who the membership believed did the most to advance safety during the preceding year. The winner was Dan Patrick for all his great work as the MTRA’s Technical Director, a very well deserved honor for a man who has done an incredible amount for the industry over the years.

The Sportsman of the Year Award followed, awarded to the member whose peers believed was the best example of sportsmanship in 2010. The award went to Team Scream who can always be counted on to help out a fellow competitor. A big congratulations on another well deserved award for the team consisting of great guys like new owner/driver members Jim Koehler and Chris Bergeron and the rest of their great crew. The MTRA was very appreciative of Jim and Chris joining the organization in 2010.

Each year the MTRA membership honors their fellow member they feel has done the best job wrenching on and setting up trucks over the long season with the Mechanic of the Year Award. Tim Hall was the winner for 2010 as he helped guide the Hall Brothers Racing team to another Monster Truck Thunder Drags title and to many big wins throughout the year.

Tim Hall, 2010 MTRA Mechanic of the Year

Team who have stepped up their programs with new trucks, better quality equipment and stronger performance are nominated by the membership for the Most Improved Team of the Year Award. The big winner this year was Tim Mente’s Team Natural Disaster with the Storm Damage and Hurricane Force monster trucks. The team expanded to two trucks for 2010, each with great looking graphics and ran strong all season, a big congratulations on a well deserved victory.

Steven Thompson, driver of Hurricane Force, accepts the Most Improved Team Award for Tim Mente's Storm Damage team.

The MTRA’s Jr. Associate program gets kids involved with the organization at an early age as a way for them to learn about monster truck safety. As a fun privilege, the members choose their favorite Driver of the Year each season and this year the winner was Doug Noelke and the great looking Tail Gator truck.

During the middle of the Awards Banquet, MTRA welcomed Promoter Members Family Events and Checkered Flag Productions as they honored their champions from the 2010 season. Family Events honored Mark Hall, their Monster Truck Thunder Drags Champion, Rick Long, the Monster Nationals Racing Champion and Jocelyn Perrin, the Monster Nationals Wheelie and Freestyle Champion. Checkered Flag Productions paid tribute to their 2010 points champion Larry Swim with a great video presentation.

Rick Long, driver of Bigfoot #15, is honored as the 2010 Monster Nationals Racing Champion.

Mark Hall receives his 2010 Monster Truck Thunder Drags Championship Award from Family Events.

Larry Swim gives his acceptance speech after being honored as the 2010 CFP Champion.

The 2010 season saw many great new drivers enter their first full season of monster truck competition. From young guys like Steven Thompson and Mat Dishman to Ryan Rice and even a veteran of the sport who completed his first full season of racing a truck this year, Greg Winchenbach, the MTRA membership had a really great group of rookies to choose from. Coming off a huge win at the Pontiac Silverdome a few weeks back, Mat Dishman was named the MTRA’s Rookie of the Year Award winner. Congratulations to Mat on a great honor from his fellow members.

Mat Dishman, driver of Rammunition, winner of the 2010 MTRA Rookie of the Year Award.

Each year the membership chooses the Promoter Member that they feel put on the best quality events, excelled in the area of event safety and who best supported the MTRA. As the only promoter in 2010 to require MTRA Membership from teams running their events and for operating a series that featured great shows all year with some of the top trucks in the industry, we congratulate Vaters Monster Motorsports on a very well deserved win in this category.

2010 Promoter of the Year, Mike Vaters, Vaters Monster Motorsports.

Every MTRA Certified Truck is up for the Truck of the Year Award which allows the membership to pick the truck they felt was the highest quality, best looking, best performing that season. After some great video clips from Colby Marshall and BMPS Video of all the MTRA Certified Trucks, the announcement came that Tail Gator from the Big Dawg 4×4 team was the big winner. Congratulations to Doug & Brenda Noelke and their great team on this honor from their peers.

Big Dawg 4x4 with their Truck of the Year and Jr. Associate Driver of the Year Awards.

Finally the night ended with one of the longest-running and most prestigious awards in monster trucks, the MTRA Driver of the Year Award. Every driver of an MTRA Certified Truck is nominated for this award and MTRA drivers had great seasons in 2010, many even winning championships in series they ran. On the strength of another Monster Truck Thunder Drags points championship and a great season overall, Mark Hall is your 2010 MTRA Driver of the Year. A big congratulations from all of us at TMB to Mark on this great honor.

Mark Hall accepts the MTRA Driver of the Year Award.

A big thanks from all of us at TheMonsterBlog.com to the MTRA for allowing us to assist in recognizing the accomplishments of this great group of teams in 2010. We always have a great time visiting with all of our friends in the monster truck industry and working with them to support our industry’s only safety organization.

TMB's Colby Marshall, Ross Bonar and Kaedon Berry at the 2010 MTRA Awards Banquet.

We would also like to our good friends “Roller” Jeff Richards and Tyson McKenzie from Monster Truck Radio for being on hand to broadcast live from the MTRA Weekend and for bringing the Banquet to fans live online. Monster Truck Radio is also joining the MTRA as a Sponsor Member in 2011 and we thank them for that support of the organization. Check out their MTRA Weekend Coverage on www.MonsterTruckRadio.com and you can see the full Awards Banquet presentation by clicking the link below.

We encourage everyone who visits TMB to consider joining the MTRA. MTRA is a member ran organization and can only make progress and advancements through the work, input and support of its members – whether you are a promoter, a driver, a sponsor, a fan, it doesn’t matter – everyone can play a part in improving your industry. Visit www.MTRA.us for more information on how you can become a member and roll your sleeves up – there is always work that can be done!

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…]