Monster Truck Radio 11/08/10 – Bill Payne & Garrett Ladelle

Monster Truck Radio With Host Jeff Richards
Date: Monday, November 8th, 2010
Guest #1:  Bill Payne, driver of Rock Star
Guest #2:  Garrett Ladelle, driver of California Kid [Read more…]

Montreal Monster Spectacular – The Doug De Nance Report

(Recap By Doug De Nance) “X marks the spot! While that might be a line out of pirate legends, the legend of monster trucks in Canada, Chris Arel made a new high water mark with a monstrous X in Montreal’s Monster Spectacular show that brought out top media reporters like Ross Bonar of TheMonsterBlog.com to report first hand on this incredible event.

The X in question was in the middle of the most unique monster truck racing course ever seen on this continent. The giant floor of the Olympic Stadium was laid out in a huge dirt oval with an X made of up two distinct school bus jumps criss-crossing through the center. To top it off, the trucks would have to race this challenging course side by side.

And what a slate of trucks there were to take on this incredible track. Fourteen of the top trucks on the planet had been assembled for one night in front of 45,000 fans. Just listen to the names: Bounty Hunter, Avenger, Black Stallion, Miss Bigfoot, Bad Habit, Rock Star, Brutus, Aftershock, plus the newest star in monster trucks, the Chris Arel The Red Baron truck and many more all came with guns a blazin’ and engines roaring.

The night began with all 14 trucks pitted in a wheelie contest, hitting the car stacks on either side of the oval portion of the track. It was such rapid fire action that the Big O looked like a Saturday afternoon traffic jam at the local mall – except every vehicle was a monster truck. Like a three ring circus, there was so much air-born action it was hard to keep track as truck after truck soared vertical. Despite many incredible wheelies, Jay Snyder and Illuminator lit up the judge’s scorecards for the win with a 12 o’clock tail stand on the cars that sent him crashing to the concrete like a giant redwood under the lumberjack’s axe.

Racing was exactly what was predicted by the incredible track – wild and crazy. The tacky clay dirt caused many trucks to hook up extra hard. Bad Habit found that out the hard way in the very first round of bracket racing, tumbling the truck over and tearing the body completely off and sending Trey Myers and Iron Warrior to the quarter finals. The driver of The Red Baron was a masked mystery coming into the race, but the respect was fast coming as he made Aftershock his first kill of the night. Black Stallion had an easy time of his race as Chris Bergeron took Brutus over an unintended obstacle, one of the Super 4 racing cars that had been abandoned on the side of the track.

The wildest and craziest race of the first bracket series saw the wild man from Washington, Bill Payne and Rock Star matched up against the pretty petite Amber Walker in Miss Bigfoot. Payne had said that this was the final night for the original Rock Star truck as he is busy designing a brand new version from the ground up. That should have been the tip off to Amber Walker that Payne would do what he does the very best – destroy everything in his path. The two trucks were bumper to bumper as they launched off the start line and over the first bus stack through the center X of the track. When they came to the first turn something had to give. So Payne gave it a little extra and ran up the rear tire of Miss Bigfoot, sending Payne up onto his back wheelie bar and Amber Walker wobbling from side to side. Somehow she kept the rubber side down but stalled out. Payne managed to get Rock Star back down to earth upright and finished the lap to move on to the quarter finals.

The story of the Red Baron is the stuff of legend from World War I. But a new legacy to that legend was been written during the subsequent rounds of racing by the unknown driver of the new Red Baron truck. Former world champions like Bounty Hunter and Avenger were expected to be able to adapt to the full contact that this new track created. A racing legend like Mike Vaters in Black Stallion would have been a good bet to make to the finals, but lost out to Jimmy Creten. However, it was the Red Baron astounded all who watched the masked driver win again and again to eventually face Bounty Hunter in the final race.

From a truck perspective, it was a draw. Both trucks were Ford Expeditions with 572 cubic inch engines kicking out more than 1800 horsepower. That wasn’t a surprise since Chris Arel had commissioned Jimmy’s 2Extreme Racing Team to design the new Red Baron truck. So the wild card was unknown track record of the driver of the new truck versus the legendarycompetiveness of Jimmy Creten.

Time seemed to slow down to slow motion as the trucks took off from the starting line. Side by side they launched off the bus stack and into the first turn. The only advantage seemed to be the inside lane as it gave the Red Baron a bumper width lead. It was the thinnest of margins but they say racing is a game of inches. The Red Baron only needed an inch to defeat Bounty Hunter for the racing win.

The Red Baron driver kept the mask on to keep the mystery intact as the trucks headed into freestyle. There was even a red plane as an obstacle that looked tailor made for the racing winner. But Joe Sylvester lived up to his trucks name as the Bad Habit driver tore up everything on the track. Sylvester has set the new world record for the monster truck longest jump in September of this year, sailing the Cadillac 208 feet and besting the 202 foot record held by Bigfoot for many years. Well, Sylvester looked like he was trying to beat his own record as he flew through the air off every obstacle he could hit. While the Red Baron and trucks like Black Stallion, Bounty Hunter and Avenger all had spectacular runs; it was Bad Habit making a habit of rocking freestyle – just like he had done at the Monster Spectacular finals in June.

The mystery of the Red Baron was solved at the conclusion of freestyle as the driver wearing the Mexican wrestler mask took to the mic. The southern charm and soothing accent of Ben “Bobo” Winslow didn’t require the driver to be unmasked to be recognized. The former driver from the Sudden Impact team, who had dazzled fans on the Monster Spectacular tour during the summer, had continued to wow the crowd behind the wheel of the new Red Baron. Winslow looks to fly high in his new ride.

As is always the case with Monster Spectacular, Chris Arel treated fans to much more motorsports entertainment, ranging from autocross with Baja styled racers culminating in a champagne soaked trophy presentation to a street style Super 4 series with supped up 4 cylinder customs to a full contact tough truck battle to welcoming back Kamikaze the jet quad and Felix Famlard and his incredible sport bike freestyle team. Perhaps the biggest treat was the introduction of Arel’s newest venture with Vic Theriault, The Legends of the Fighting Arts. Many stars from the fight game, including Jean-Yves Theriault witnessed the kickoff of the program with awards going to such famous fight names as Michel Jette, JF Bergeron, Regis Levesque and Jacques Rougeau. There will be much more to come next year with Legends of the Fight Arts.

It’s always a sad moment when the crowd has left the building in Montreal in October because it means the last Monster Spectacularshow of the year is over. But the good news is that a new season of Monster Spectacular is just around the corner in 2011. Watch for the biggest monster truck show in Canada to rumble into your area soon.”

A huge thanks to Monster Spectacular Tour Announcer Doug De Nance for another great season of keeping TMB posted on all the happenings with the Monster Spectacular tour!

Monster Spectacular – Montreal, Quebec – 10/23/10

Event:  Monster Spectacular
Venue:  Olympic Stadium
Location:  Montreal, Quebec
Date:  October 23rd, 2010
Photographer: Stephanie Cotnoir

Lineup:  Aftershock (Bob Robbins), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), California Kid (Garrett Ladelle), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Illuminator (Jay Snyder), Iron Warrior (Trey Meyers), Krazy Train (Roger Cardot), Ms. Bigfoot #11 (Amber Walker), Red Baron (Ben Winslow), Rock Star (Bill Payne) [Read more…]

Red Baron, Bad Habit Big Winners In Montreal

The TMB crew headed north of the border this weekend for the huge fall Monster Spectacular in Montreal, Quebec as Chris Arel Motorsports put on one of the biggest events Canada has ever seen at Olympic Stadium!! The event featured 14 of the top trucks from the U.S. and a wild new race course design that was sure to create excitement and controversy. The event kicked off with a wheelie contest as all 14 trucks took one hit on the cars. Despite great efforts from Brutus, Bounty Hunter, and Red Baron, it was Jay Snyder in the Illuminator taking the win as he stood absolutely straight up and down before rolling hard onto the roof.

The unique race course would not only see the trucks running side by side over school buses, but would also see the trucks racing off road style after the first jump with no lanes, anything goes, “rubbin’s racing”. The concept wouldn’t take long to provide the controversy as wildman Bill Payne in Rock Star drove hard into the corner following Amber Walker in Ms. Bigfoot, making contact with her truck and nearly sending her over as she made a great save to keep the truck on all fours. Payne ended up on his tailgate before backing down onto all fours and continuing on for the win.

The rest of the racing brackets would be much tamer as the truck on the inside lane at the start usually held the advantage. Bounty Hunter, Black Stallion, Brutus and Red Baron would be the final four and like so many other times in Montreal, it would eventually come down to an all 2Xtreme Racing final round as “Bobo” Ben Winslow would take on Jimmy Creten for the big win. The officials deemed Red Baron the fastest truck in the semi-finals giving him lane choice and that was all it would take for Winslow to hold off the boss for the biggest win of his career.

Freestyle would see all the trucks taking on a tough and treacherous course that provided plenty of big air and wow moments through the competition. Avenger, Bounty Hunter, Black Stallion and Red Baron all turned in stellar runs but it was Joe Sylvester in Bad Habit who rocked Olympic Stadium with an epic performance to take the victory.

TMB’s Ross Z. Bonar and Colby Marshall had a great time once again attending Montreal and both filmed for what should be an amazing episode of TMB TV, which will premiere Wednesday, November 10th at 8PM Eastern. Stephanie Cotnoir handled the photo duties and came up with some amazing shots that you will soon see in a full photo gallery – check out the TMB Facebook and become a fan to see lots more teasers from the show. TMB thanks Chris Arel Motorsports for all their support in helping make this coverage possible and we are already looking forward to the next Monster Spectacular in Montreal!! Stay tuned for great coverage from this major event coming soon.

Monster Spectacular Returns to Montreal w/14 Trucks, Figure 8 Racing

(Montreal, Quebec) The Monster Spectacular is returning to Olympic Stadium this Saturday night for one of the wildest events the Big O has ever seen – a 14 truck lineup and monster truck figure 8 racing!! The racing portion of the event will be unlike any other figure 8 ever seen as trucks will race together on the same course in a unique concept tested earlier this year at Quebec City Speedway. The lineup is stacked as always as Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter returns after sweeping last fall’s event while Team BIGFOOT sends new sensation team driver Amber Walker and Ms. Bigfoot north of the border for the first time to try and take him down. Also returning will be superstars Jim Koehler in Avenger, Chris Bergeron in Brutus and Mike Vaters in Black Stallion.

Making their first trip to Olympic Stadium will be the Straight Up Racing team out of Washington as freestyle juggernaut Bill Payne will make his final appearance in the current Rock Star chassis before scrapping it and debuting a new piece next season. Joining him will be team truck California Kid and rounding out the lineup will be big names including the “monstah lobstah” Crushstation, Bad Habit, Aftershock, Illuminator, Iron Warrior, Siberian Express and the debut of The Red Baron.

As if all that monster truck excitement wasn’t enough, the Monster Spectacular in Montreal never fails to have an amazing support card as this year’s event will feature the North American Autocross Championship and much more.

If you haven’t got your tickets already, head on over to www.MonsterSpectacular.com and get them now as this is one event you just don’t want to miss!!

New Rock Star Chassis Build Underway

The Straight Up Racing team has begun work on an all-new chassis for Bill Payne’s Rock Star!! The new truck is being built completely in house with custom made parts and will sport a brand new Chevrolet Colorado body style. The team has made an incredible amount of progress on the new ride in just five short days of work and Bill Payne has been kind enough to share some pictures of the progress made thus far. Check out the photos and be sure to stay tuned to www.StraightUpRacing.com for more updates.

Monster Spectacular Tour Update – British Columbia

(Chris Arel Motorsports PR – By Doug De Nance) It was the best of times and the worst of times. There were many moments of gladness and some moments of sadness. The yin and the yang of motorsports entertainment were both in play during the far west stop on the 2010 Monster Spectacular tour.

Despite the incredible excitement of Bill Payne and Rockstar living up to his reputation as the Washington Wildman and the exuberance of the California Kid in his ’34 Ford Sedan hot rod monster truck, there was an undercurrent of sadness in the pits. It emanated from the Sudden Impact team. While it was thrilling to see Chris Ryan having the opportunity to drive Ground Pounder to allow Bobo Winslow some time off the road, his team mate was the source of both the pall and the festivities.

Earlier in the week, the Cajun Kid had quietly announced his retirement. Sean Duhon, the fantastic driver of Cult was hanging up his helmet. The Ragin’ Cajun would be ragin’ no more after these final two shows. After 7 years of 50 weeks a year on the road, Duhon was taking an extended leave of an undetermined length – perhaps permanently. While the all the friends in the pits were choked up, it certainly didn’t show in the shows, as every driver seemed to be raising their game to make the Cajun Kid’s swan song sweet for Duhon and extra sweet for the fans.

Abbotsford was first on the tour stop and another first for Bill Payne, rocking Rockstar to a huge Reverser wheelie win in the Monster Spectacular Wheelie Contest. The two pass format for the weekend worked well for Payne as he could rev the decibels up to rock concert volume in what is perhaps the loudest truck on the circuit. The sight of Rockstar flying backwards over the cars sent the fans into a fanatical frenzy that was fueled to fever pitch when each of the drivers took collector edition Monster Spectacular cowboy hats into the crowd after the cheer off.

Payne looked like he was on a Rockstar roll to spoil the party for Duhon with the fastest time in time trials. With a 2:00 flat time over a five car stack, Rockstar had the pick of the brackets. Strangely, Payne chose to race against Ground Pounder who had the third best time – leaving an easy bracket win for Cult against California Kid. Payne had to work hard against the “round mound of renown” as the 260 pound Chris Ryan, better known as “Panda”, is a great young driver. Ryan has raced everything from BMX to quads to RC cars and knows his way around a monster truck drag race. But Payne was very fast on the green light and had the advantage of a front engine mount truck to get a bit better trajectory over the cars.

One had to speculate that Payne’s point was to set up a racing final that the fans would love. How could they not love seeing Rockstar versus Cult as the racing final for the first place tour stop points? While Payne is fast on the draw, he doesn’t have the experience of Duhon. The Ragin’ Cajun parlayed that savvy into a clear cut Cult victory in Monster Spectacular Monster Truck Racing.

When the van stack was set and the crowd whipped into a whirlwind of cheers for Monster Truck Freestyle, Payne again surprised everyone with his next move. He jumped ahead of Cult to run third in freestyle. While one could hypothesize that Payne might have been inspired by the incredible runs of California Kid and Ground Pounder, it was hard to believe that Rockstar would give up his last position and the best chance at the points on the line.

Payne took Rockstar to new heights – literally – catching massive air off of the cars and even bigger air off the van. He suffered the kiss of the remote ignition interrupter radio off of a van stack slap wheelie that saw him heading to the arena wall at full speed. But then it became clear as to the motivation of Payne’s madness. At the end of his run, Payne jammed the brakes on, dropping the nose of Rockstar almost under the bumper of Cult. He was “bowing” to Duhon as a show of respect after setting the bar at the top of the game for the Cajun Kid to do what he does best – drive monster trucks.

Cult roared onto the track and proceeded to shred the last semblance of cars and vans as Duhon literally tore the track to pieces. Hitting the cars in a cross thread, he took the 10,000 pound truck up into a bicycle on the passenger side two wheels and then drove out of what would be roll over for a lesser driver. That was the moment that epitomized what a fantastic driver Duhon is. Anyone can roll a truck – it takes a great driver to run it to the ragged edge and then pull it back rubber side down. The crowd knew it too and screamed their approval when Duhon wrapped up his run.

The drivers had to tire down and load up immediately after the show as they had a long ferry ride to the island for the Victoria Sunday matinee show. Bill Payne arrived in the beautiful city and almost immediately managed to find the most unique pub in Canada – Big Bad John’s, complete with various forms of autographed female undergarments donated by patrons over the years. Payne truly appears to live the Rockstar lifestyle (although he rarely drinks alcohol and was serenely sipping on orange juice during his visit to the legendary establishment).

Rockstar again took the Wheelie Contest win with a Reverser Wheelie. But this time the Washington Wildman got a little too wild. Up onto two wheels and up onto his roof went Payne and Rockstar had rolled over for the 59th time. The crowd ate it up and Payne exited the truck by tossing the steering wheel out onto the track. He explained what many had wondered about over the weekend, that his black eye was caused by him smacking the bridge of his nose through the gap in his helmet onto his steering wheel during his 58th roll over the week before – and he didn’t want to have two black eyes.

Racing took a much different twist in Victoria, as the final was at least 50 per cent unexpected. Due to a broken pin, Garrett Ladelle was unable to run his time trial, so the California Kid dropped to the bottom of the brackets. But the hot rod monster pounded Ground Pounder in the brackets and moved into the final. As happened in the previous show’s racing final, Cult played a power chord on Rockstar and a potential Cinderella story was now waiting to be written.

During the VIP Half Time Pit Party, the California Kid was surrounded by beach babes. Ladelle glowed with the female fans attention and at the thought of winning racing. But while Duhon was choked up at driving in his final show, he certainly wasn’t choked on the starting line, handily beating the rookie for another racing win for Cult.

What looked to be a perfect afternoon almost ended up in tragedy as Freestyle Motocross star Bruce Cook crashed on a his third backflip of the day. What was even more terrifying was that he was leading a two man FMX train with his mentor Kris Garwasiuk riding behind him. Thankfully, the original FMX champion is an incredibly skilled rider and Garwasiuk managed to avoid Cook on his landing. And even more thankfully, Cook suffered only bumps and bruises and was none the worse for wear.

Not surprisingly Duhon was the final truck out for freestyle, thanks again to Bill Payne’s show of respect and giving up his final freestyle position. While Duhon’s run to the red light was nothing short of stellar, it was what went on after the red light that was truly delightful. Duhon knew that the competition was over, but he gave the fans their own exclusive freestyle show, giving the cheering fans twice as much freestyling out of Cult as was required. As Duhon emerged through Cult’s sky roof, the fans leapt to their feet, knowing they would tell their grandchildren that there were there that day – the day that Sean Duhon drove Cult for the final time.

While it may be over for Duhon, the Monster Spectacular tour is not over yet. There is one more stop in the nation’s capital. What could be a more fitting place to crown the 2010 Monster Spectacular champion?

TMB TV Episode 3.1 – Trenton, NJ

Event:  Monster Truck Winter Nationals
Venue:  Sun National Bank Center
Location:  Trenton, New Jersey
Date:  January 8th-9th, 2010
Host:  Ross Z. Bonar
Videographers:  Colby Marshall

Lineup:  Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 (Larry Swim), California Kid (Donald Epidendio), Crushstation (Greg Winchenbach), Rock Star (Bill Payne), Viper (Rich Blackburne), War Eagle (Mike Barnes) [Read more…]

TMB TV Episode 2.5 – Pocatello, ID

Event:  Monster Truck Grand Nationals
Venue:  ISU Holt Arena
Location:  Pocatello, Idaho
Date:  April 4th, 2009
Host:  Ross Z. Bonar
Videographer:  Colby Marshall

Lineup:  Amsoil Shock Therapy (Jon Zimmer), Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 (Larry Swim), Equalizer (Mike Hawkins), Excaliber (Tim Missentzis), Hot Tamale (Isaiah Morales), Miss Behavin (Teri Olson), Rock Star (Bill Payne) [Read more…]

TMB TV Episode 2.2 – Grand Island, NE

Event:  Monster Truck Winter Nationals
Venue:  Heartland Events Center
Location:  Grand Island, NE
Date:  January 16th-17th, 2009
Host: Ross Z. Bonar
Videographer: Colby Marshall

Lineup:  Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 (Larry Swim), Bombshell (Jennifer Campbell), Dream Catcher (Drew Haygood), Miss Behavin (Teri Olson), Public Disturbance (Brad Campbell), Rock Star (Bill Payne) [Read more…]