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Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Nationwide Arena
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date: January 6th-7th, 2012
Photographer: Paul M. Harry
Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Batman (Norm Miller), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Grave Digger (Carl Van Horn), Grinder (Nicole Johnson), Monster Mutt (Joe Miller), Samson (Dan Patrick), Superman (Sean Duhon), Tasmanian Devil (Taryn Laskey)
[Read more…]
(Aurora, Illinois – Feld Motorsports PR) – Feld Motor Sports® is honoring the 30th anniversary of Grave Digger® in 2012 with a year-long celebration that Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam® fans will not want to miss. The entire Grave Digger race team, including creator Dennis Anderson, will be commemorating the 30 year history as the most celebrated Monster Jam monster truck of all time. Grave Digger has entertained millions of fans worldwide and has hundreds of racing and freestyle wins – including four Monster Jam World Finals℠ championships.
The black and green 30th Anniversary Grave Digger paint scheme.
Highlighting the Grave Digger 30th Anniversary celebration, which starts in January, will be three specially designed Grave Digger monster trucks, a traveling fan experience, limited edition merchandise, and interactive promotions. Monster Jam fans can get up close to the newly designed versions of Grave Digger and participate in the traveling Grave Digger 30th Anniversary Experience, as part of the Monster Jam pre-show Party in the Pits. The Grave Digger 30th Anniversary Experience, which will tour to all Monster Jam events in which Grave Digger will be performing, features a historical timeline from Grave Digger’s humble beginning to its rise in popularity, exclusive vintage attractions, limited edition merchandise like the Grave Digger 30th Anniversary DVD, broadcasts of thrilling moments from Monster Jam events spanning three decades, and more!
Also part of the celebration is a full line of exclusive limited edition Grave Digger 30th Anniversary merchandise available at mass retail outlets where Monster Jam products are sold.
“It is such an honor and a privilege to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Grave Digger in 2012 with the millions of Monster Jam fans around the globe,” said Dennis Anderson, Grave Digger creator and driver. “The Grave Digger racing team has been bad to the bone for 30 years, and we are excited to show off these special edition 30th Anniversary monster trucks and celebrate with the fans at the Grave Digger 30th Anniversary Experience inside the Monster Jam Party in the Pits.”
The purple Grave Digger 30th Anniversary paint scheme.
Monster Jam partners like K’NEX construction toys also are paying homage to Grave Digger’s 30th anniversary by completing a massive top-secret project with a group of talented builders at Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) based in the United Kingdom. The project dubbed BIG BUILD will be revealed in early 2012. BIG BUILD took the team at RBLI more than 300 hours over the course of three months to construct by hand and used more than 700,000 K’NEX pieces. This week the BIG BUILD began its trans-Atlantic pilgrimage from RBLI headquarters in Kent, on England’s southeastern coast, to the United States in preparation for its official unveiling at the beginning of January.
“Grave Digger has spent 30 year entertaining Monster Jam fans, and we will pay special tribute to its place in the history books by honoring the legendary monster truck throughout the 2012 season,” said Charlie Mancuso, president, Feld Motor Sports. “It’s not only a celebration of Grave Digger, but it’s more importantly a celebration of the millions of Monster Jam fans around the world who have supported Grave Digger through the years.”
The green 30th Anniversary Grave Digger paint scheme.
No stone has been left unturned for fans to join in the celebration and all of the fun and excitement of the 30-year history of Grave Digger. Monster Jam fans can get their first sneak peak of the Grave Digger 30th Anniversary celebration on December 24th with the Monster Jam television special airing on CBS, which will provide highlights of 2011 Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam season along with exclusive Grave Digger 30th Anniversary features. Interactive promotions for Grave Digger fans also can be found on MonsterJam.com and Monster Jam’s Facebook Fan page.
Tickets are available today at www.MonsterJam.com. Stay tuned for upcoming Grave Digger 30th Anniversary announcements at www.facebook.com/mjonline, and www.twitter.com/monsterjam.
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.
Founded in 1992, K’NEX Brands, the world’s most innovative construction toy company, was established to make and sell what has become one of the world’s leading integrated construction systems for children. Winner of over 200 international awards and recognitions, K’NEX is America’s building toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love, and encourages youngsters to “imagine, build and play.” Since 1992, The Rodon Group, a subsidiary of K’NEX Brands, L.P., has manufactured over 30 billion parts for the K’NEX building toy system. For more information, please visit www.knex.com or www.rodongroup.com.
Monster Truck Radio With Host Ross Z. Bonar & Co-Host Chris Parrish
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2011
Guest #1: Pablo Huffaker, driver of Grave Digger #16 / owner of Racesource Inc.
Guest #2: N/A [Read more…]
Event: Thunder on the Beach
Venue: The Wildwood Beach
Location: Wildwood, New Jersey
Date: September 30th-October 2nd, 2011
Videographer: Colby Marshall
Lineup: Avenger (Jim Koehler), Brutus (Rich Hilgendorf), Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Gun Slinger (Scott Hartsock), Mopar Magic (Morgan Kane/Brian Wright), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims) [Read more…]
Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Paul Brown Stadium
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Date: July 23rd, 2011
Photographer: Paul M. Harry
Lineup: Air Force Afterburner (Damon Bradshaw), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Backdraft (Jeremy Slifko), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Captain’s Curse (Alex Blackwell), El Toro Loco (Marc MacDonald), Grave Digger (Dennis Anderson), Grinder (Lupe Soza), Lucas Oil Crusader (Linsey Weenk), Maximum Destruction (Tom Meents), Monster Mutt (Rod Schmidt), Son Uva Digger (Ryan Anderson) [Read more…]
Week Ending: July 16th, 2011
Truck(s) Featured: Grave Digger (Randy Brown)
Video Type: Fan Video
Courtesy: www.YouTube.com
Description: Randy Brown in Grave Digger races the incredible Shockwave Jet Truck during a Nitro Jam event at Grand Bend Motorplex.
Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Lincoln Financial Field
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Date: June 4th, 2011
Photographer: Jason Miller
Lineup: Air Force Afterburner (Damon Bradshaw), Avenger (Jim Koehler), Backdraft (Jeremy Slifko), Brutus (Chris Bergeron), Captain’s Curse (Alex Blackwell), El Toro Loco (Marc MacDonald), Grave Digger (Charlie Pauken), Grave Digger The Legend (Adam Anderson), Grinder (Lupe Soza), Lucas Oil Crusader (Linsey Weenk), Maximum Destruction (Tom Meents), Monster Mutt (Carl Van Horn) [Read more…]
Monster Truck Radio With Host Jeff Richards
Date: Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Guest #1: Dustin Brown, Crew Chief for Dennis Anderson’s Grave Digger and Feld Motorsports Driver
Guest #2: Coty Saucier, Crew Chief for Damon Bradshaw’s Air Force Afterburner [Read more…]
(New York, New York – History Channel PR) – Robert “Boston Rob” Mariano (Survivor, The Amazing Race) and Dennis Anderson (creator of the monster truck Grave Digger) will host the upcoming new series “Around the World In 80 Ways”, it was announced today by Dirk Hoogstra, Senior Vice President of Development and Programming for HISTORY. In HISTORY’s 10-part series slated to premiere later this year, they will take on an epic challenge: to circumnavigate the globe using 80 different modes of travel without repeating any vehicle.
“This series captures HISTORY’s commitment to highly compelling entertainment within a historical framework,” said Hoogstra. “The dynamic between our two hosts will make for great television, while viewers can journey around the world with them to explore the ingenuity of travel in every era, throughout all stages of technological advances.”
Legendary monster truck driver Dennis Anderson is set to star in the upcoming History Channel reality series "Around the World In 80 Ways".
Rob and Dennis will have to employ every conceivable means of transportation – blimp and fighter jet, ostrich and canoe, chariot and hitchhiking – and will even have to build their own vehicles. Sometimes they will work together and other times they’ll race. But the hosts are notorious for their vicious competitive streaks and have been known to cheat, torment, boast and battle their way to the top. In this extreme expedition, nothing is off limits.
“Boston Rob” Mariano made his first television appearance on Survivor: Marquesas in 2002. Mariano is a four-time Survivor contestant and a two-time competitor, along with his wife Amber Brkich, on The Amazing Race. He has hosted several television events and shows and starred in a regular segment for the CBS Early Show. An avid sportsman, Mariano is Boston-born and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston University.
Four-time Monster Jam world champion Dennis Anderson is the creator and driver of Grave Digger, the world’s most recognized monster truck brand in the history of the sport. Anderson has won more than 3,000 races and 500 trophies over a three decade career and has appeared on numerous television series such as America’s Toughest Jobs, Conan O’Brien and Monster Jam. Anderson also continues to expand the Grave Digger brand through his Muddy Motor Sports Park and restaurant outside Kill Devil Hills, NC.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WAYS is produced for HISTORY by Original Productions, a FremantleMedia Company. Thom Beers and Philip D. Segal are Executive Producers and Jeff Conroy is Co-Executive Producer for Original Productions. Julian P. Hobbs is Executive Producer for HISTORY.
HISTORY(R) and HISTORY HD(R) are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network’s program offerings are hit series such as American Pickers, Ax Men, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded, Ice Road Truckers, Top Gear, Pawn Stars and Top Shot, as well as acclaimed specials including America the Story of Us, WWII in HD, 102 Minutes That Changed America, The President’s Book of Secrets and Life After People. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, seven Primetime Emmy(R) Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and received the prestigious Governor’s Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network’s Save Our History(R) campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network’s signature initiative connecting America’s schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY website, located at www.history.com, is the leading online resource for all things history, featuring over 20,000 videos, images, audio clips, articles and interactive features that allow visitors to dig deeper into a broad range of thousands of historical topics.
Event: Monster Jam
Venue: EJ Nutter Center
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Date: March 19th, 2011
Photographer: Paul M. Harry
Lineup: Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), El Toro Loco (Joey Parnell), Full Boar (Ed Eckert), Grave Digger (Randy Brown), High Maintenance (Jocelyn Perrin), Rap Attack (Dave Rappach), Virginia Giant (Diehl Wilson) [Read more…]
Event: Monster Jam
Venue: EJ Nutter Center
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Date: March 19th, 2011
Photographer: Michael Harry
Lineup: Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), El Toro Loco (Joey Parnell), Full Boar (Ed Eckert), Grave Digger (Randy Brown), High Maintenance (Jocelyn Perrin), Rap Attack (Dave Rappach), Virginia Giant (Diehl Wilson) [Read more…]
Event: Monster Jam
Venue: Wachovia Center
Location: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Date: March 12th, 2011
Photographer: Jason Miller
Lineup: Grave Digger (Gary Porter), Grinder (Frank Krmel), Iron Man (Lee O’Donnell), Raminator (Mark Hall), Rammunition (Mat Dishman), Spiderman (Whit Tarlton) [Read more…]
(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.
(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.
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…]
