The Allen Report: Kaboom Monster Trucks – Pomona, CA 2016

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “The Allen Report”, we make our way to Pomona, California, a town rich in motorsport history as the home of one of the first professional drag strips and that of the official NHRA museum. But on this day, five giant monster trucks took to the Pomona Fairplex to do battle in head to head racing and motor home munching, high flying freestyle.

Jimmy Creten came to town in his slick looking Yellow Stripe Bounty Hunter with East Coast regular Matt Cody behind the wheel of the pickup Iron Outlaw. Rod Wood, piloting McGruff, made the trip from just outside Tucson, Arizona. Rounding out the field was Vacaville, California’s Tony “Flying Spaniard” Canedo driving Play ‘n 4 Keeps with teammate Jeff Souza in tow, who took the wheel of Enforcer. This is a name that garnered legendary status throughout the West Coast under ownership of Terminator’s Gary Schott in the ‘90s before being retired. However, the name was brought back into the public eye at this venue two years ago as the third member of Tony’s trio of monsters.

WGAS officials constructed an interesting double-semi-oval race course. Both trucks would race down off the giant tabletop in the middle of the floor in opposite directions. Next the monsters would go around a hairpin turn before putting the heel to the steel and jumping past each other over the finish line ramp. With the odd number of monster vehicles in the field, reigning champion Bounty Hunter got a bye to the finals where he would await the winner of a standard four truck bracket.

To open racing, Jeff Souza and Enforcer upended McGruff and Iron Outlaw beat Play ‘n 4 Keeps to advance to the semi-finals. With the right to face Bounty Hunter on the line, both trucks ran a great race, but it was Iron Outlaw who took the win. The championship race was one for the history books. The finish was so close, officials could not agree on who to call as the winner. So it was decided to rerun the championship race. With the title still undecided as the green flags waved again, both drivers pushed even harder, but this time, the race was more decisive, with Bounty Hunter narrowly taking the win and retaining his championship. But freestyle was still to come.

Upset about his racing loss, Jeff Souza went out first. With a good run going, his rear axle got away from him coming down from the big hill and blew the rear tire. McGruff put himself in the hunt with great slap wheelies, smashing one of the two motor homes and having consistent good speed. Play‘n 4 Keeps destroyed the other motor home, carried beautiful wheelies and even performed some dusty donuts to the delight of the crowd. Even a bent champagne couldn’t keep the veteran from having a great run. But Bounty Hunter could not be stopped. Driver Jimmy Creten gave the judges everything they were looking for and so much more. Right as his run ended, the other trucks that were still mechanically good came back on the floor. For the finale, all the monsters came down the side of the big hill and went right into cyclones. That was the cue for the preliminary pyrotechnics. This set the stage for the fireworks, a longstanding tradition at the KaBoom! event. Once more, the display from smiley faces, to all sorts of color combinations, to the usual red, white and blue, the Fourth of July tradition of fireworks had the fans cheering the whole time.

In other action, Chachi “The Rocketman” Valencia loaded himself into a cannon and shot himself one hundred and sixty-three feet through the air and landed perfectly in his safety net. As you can expect, the crowd was going nuts. Another KaBoom! tradition continued with four of the top freestyle motocross riders in the nation delivering a wide variety of death defying tricks, the most notable of which were backflip variations.

Well, we at “The Allen Report” are turning our attention to the month of August and the biggest monster truck event in the state of Utah, the 20th Anniversary Maverik Clash of the Titans. This year is slated to be the biggest of them all with no less than 16 trucks on the card for figure 8 racing, wheelie contest and freestyle. Well monster truck fans, thanks for reading, a sincere thank-you to Chelsea Kessler and all the WGAS officials for another great time on Independence Day, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2016.

The Allen Report: Monster Truck Show – Pomona, CA 2015

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “the Allen Report”, we once more venture to the Fairplex in Pomona, California, a town rich in motorsport history as the birthplace of the modern day drag racing funny car and a host city of one of the first ever stadium off road event produced by the legendary Mickey Thompson. But on Fourth of July, it was all about gear grinding monster trucks. Jim and Dawn Creten made the trip up from Del Mar with Bounty Hunter and Scarlet Bandit ready to thrill the fans, as did Tony Canedo, only this time pulling double duty in Play N’ 4 Keeps and Enforcer. And nineteen year old rising star Eric Swanson was in town ready to perform in his sharp looking off road bodied Obsessed monster. When a huge crowd piled in, all things appeared to point to an action packed night, and all the performers delivered.

To start the action, a new Pomona tradition was born when “the Rocketman” Choche Valencia had fans marveling at his one-hundred and fifty-five foot leap out of a cannon into the safety of a big net. Next were the daredevil freestyle motocross riders, notably the leader of the “Fitz Army”, Metal Mulisha’s own Jimmy Fitzpatrick. The fans cheered on and on as the riders went bigger and bigger with the tricks, ultimately culminating in backflip variations.

The monsters got off to roaring starts too, with roundy-round racing setting the bar for what was to come. Dawn Creten and Eric Swanson faced off for the right to face Bounty Hunter in the super final. A slow start and hitting one the turning tires slowed down Eric, giving Dawn a rematch against her husband from Del Mar. Jim Creten rarely makes the same mistake and he did not here, crossing the finish line just ahead of Scarlet Bandit. Freestyle began with Eric Swanson getting great air off the bread truck and doing some excellent donuts. Tony Canedo and Play N’ 4 Keeps gave great wheelie efforts and were rewarded with the crowd’s cheers. But Jim Creten showcased why he won the Freestyle World Title in 2005, with huge speed, smashing through a motor home and completely vertical wheelstands. To finish off the monster action, the others joined Bounty Hunter on the stadium floor and drove up and over the huge center mound, leading to all the monsters doing side by side donuts to ignite the initial fireworks as a prelude to what was just a few moments away. A spectacular fireworks show, with hearts and happy faces to almost any color conceivable had the crowd gasping and cheering deep into the night.

Well then, we at “The Allen Report” are going to take a little time off, but when we return, you will have access to monster truck figure-8 racing, courtesy of our friends at Rocky Mountain Raceways. Til that day, thank you for reading, a special thank-you to John Borba and WGAS Motorsports for their hospitality, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2015.

The Allen Report: Monster Flip Fest – Pomona, CA 2014

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

This time on “The Allen Report”, we headed to the Fairplex in Pomona, California for the Los Angeles County Fair opening “Flip Fest”. Mark Schroeder arrived to pilot Devastator. For fans of Mark’s Felon, I’m happy to report that he’s bringing it back for first quarter next year. Also in the house was Marana, Arizona’s own Rod Wood driving McGruff. The father and daughter team of Kelvin and Rosalee Ramer came to town with Time Flys and Wild Flower. The incredibly talented seventeen year old was extremely popular with the audience. Crowd favorite Jimmy Creten stepped out of his usual Bounty Hunter and into Iron Outlaw, built especially for a huge, never before seen stunt to round out the night. Finally, making its world performance debut was the Knucklehead monster truck driven by rock band Five Finger Death Punch lead guitarist Zoltan Bathory.

To start the night’s insanity, Jim Fitzpatrick of the famous Metal Mulisha lead the charge in sky high, high danger freestyle motocross. When the initial competition ended in a two way tie, “Taco” Bell and Fitzpatrick were given one more jump each to win the crowd over. A huge Backflip Superman gave Fitzpatrick another mark in the win column.

In monster truck freestyle, vertical wheelies and good momentum put McGruff the Crime Dog in the lead early. Zoltan Bathory, despite having driven Knucklehead only once before, put the crowd on its feet with an exciting run. Rosalee Ramer got the fans pumped up with the biggest air of the night to this point followed by a rollover. The Devastator had some wheelies of his own, a big jump and even better speed to give him tens across the board from the judges. Living up to the event’s name, the epic finale showcased Time Flys and Iron Outlaw backflipping in unison just moments after a pair of FMX riders did the same right between them. The ensuing cheers from the capacity crowd were long and loud!

With another great show from WGAS Motorsports in the books, we at “The Allen Report” shall very soon jump on a plane bound for Indianapolis to attend the final and biggest 4 Wheel Jamboree of the season. Well, thank you for reading, a sincere thank you to our friend John Borba and the WGAS crew for their gracious hospitality, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2014.

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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All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2013.

The Allen Report: Kaboom Monster Truck Show – Pomona, CA 2012

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

Weekend Recap

The annual KaBoom! Event in Pomona, CA, has been sellout every year since its inception in 2002. Its 10th birthday was celebrated side by side with America’s birthday by again being held on the 4th of July. The Monster Trucks performing were Jimmy Creten in bounty Hunter, Geno Kinal in Iron Outlaw, Kelvin Ramer in Time Flys, Rosalee Ramer in Detour and Eric Swanson in Obsessed.

To get the crowd pumped up for the monster trucks, four of the most fearless freestyle motocross riders you could find had the crowd screaming for the favorite – The Backflip, and the riders, including Metal Mulisha representative Jimmy Fitzpatrick, delivered.

But the show soon became a nightmare for Jimmy Creten really fast. Despite a bye all the way to the finals where Iron Outlaw joined him, the former World Champion broke a ring and pinion in the front differential right off the starting line of the Chicago-style, Roundy-round course, causing him to wash out on both turns, and giving up the win to his teammate, Iron Outlaw. The front end mechanical goblins, which had followed him up to Pomona from Del Mar, proved too much for Jimmy to fix in time and the entertainer had to have the curtain come down early.

Similarly, Eric Swanson in Obsessed lost second gear and had difficulty finishing his freestyle run, just barely clearing the big center jump. Iron Outlaw and Kelvin Ramer in Time Flys performed the duet freestyle finale, crashing through the extra long mobile home much to the crowd’s excitement. Iron Outlaw was declared the freestyle winner with Rosalee and Detour finishing a strong second.

The fans forgot all about being sad about Bounty Hunter breaking when the opening fireworks went off, saying “goodbye” and “thank you for coming” with a BANG!

Next for us at “The Allen Report” is one of the biggest monster truck shows of the summer. Every August, some of the biggest players of the monster truck game gather at the Rocky Mountain Raceways in Wet Valley City, Utah for a “Clash of the Titans”. “The Allen Report” will be there to cover the activities. Thank you for reading, a special thanks to John Borba and WGAS Motorsports for their wonderful hospitality, enjoy the photos and cheer on!

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All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2012.

The Allen Report: WGAS Monster Truck Tour – Del Mar/Pomona, CA 2011

(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)

The 4th of July is always an important date on the modern calendar and monster trucks are about as American as they come. That is why six of the best monsters this side of the Mississippi River arrived for the annual show at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California, followed by the KaBoom show at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. The six combatants are Jimmy Creten and Bounty Hunter, Darren Migues in Iron Outlaw and the father and son duo Rick and Eric Swanson in Obsession and Obsessed. Kelvin Ramer drove Time Flys while Hog Wild ride truck owner Bob Johnson and Chris Etchison shared driving duties in Fired Up.

For three days and two shows a day, the monsters made the Chevrolet Del Mar Arena their stomping grounds. The first day saw decent efforts, but Jimmy Creten had his cyclones down pat and took both shows that day. Business picked up tremendously on the second day when Darren announced through amazing runs that he would lay down to no one, his teammate included. With just a few points separating the two halves of 2Xtreme Racing, the final day saw sold out shows in both the afternoon and evening. In the end, the win was awarded to the Bounty Hunter, having a perfect six-for-six record to wrap up the Del Mar shows for another year.

Independence Day was celebrated with exactly those same monsters at the packed Fairplex in Pomona. The show opened with the high-flying, death-defying Freestyle Motocross riders, including Nikki Danielson and Jimmy Fitzpatrick of the famous Metal Mulisha doing what they do best, despite a close encounter with Mother Nature’s fury. Roundy-Round racing saw Eric Swanson in Obsessed take down Fired Up, but the end for him in racing came when Iron Outlaw, who had knocked off Time Flys, defeated him to take on Bounty Hunter in the finals. Jimmy Creten crossed the finish line first, but in the process, he hit a turning pole handing the win to Migues in Iron Outlaw. However, even that could not stop him from literally jumping over his own team truck to finish freestyle. As always, fireworks closed the incredible KaBoom event.

During the weekend, Kelvin Ramer said he is building a yet to be named third truck that, like Time Flys, will be a 1934 Ford Coupe. However, the body will be roofless and the nose will be slanted banana style. Until next time, thank you for reading, enjoy Jim Allen’s great photos, and a big thanks to John Borba and WGAS Motorsports for their hospitality. Cheer on!

All content copyright TheMonsterBlog.com 2011.

Video of the Week – 07/02/11

Week Ending: July 2nd, 2011
Truck(s) Featured: Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Iron Outlaw (Darren Migues)
Video Type: Fan Video
Courtesy: www.YouTube.com

Description: Awesome dual freestyle from Jimmy Creten and Darren Migues at the big Kaboom event in Pomona, California.

Jim & Christopher Allen’s Del Mar / Pomona Coverage

TMB is always proud to bring you great coverage from our friends out west, Jim and Christopher Allen, and this week that means lots of great photos and all the details from the 2010 Del Mar and Pomona, California events. Check the coverage out below and thanks to Jim and Chris for another job well done:

“Once again WGAS Motorsports invited teams of monster trucks to perform at Del Mar California’s San Diego County Fairgrounds and the fan favorite July 4th “KaBoom!” in Pomona. The teams were “Living the Dream Racing’s” own “Time Flys” and “Fired Up” driven by Kelvin Ramer and Justin Cluster, both “Obsession” and “Obsessed” with Rick Swanson and Eric Swanson behind the wheels and representatives of “2Xtreme Racing” in the form of Russell Steeley in “Iron Outlaw” and Jim Creten, as always, driving “Bounty Hunter”.

Shout-outs go to Ron Johnson in his old school monster truck, the T-C Pig Ranch sponsored “Hog Wild”, who had some t-shirts to give away and Jake Blackwell’s awesome ride truck, the Thrasher Racing owned “Extinguisher” , who gave rides to fans young and old all weekend long.

The first monster out was “Fired Up” and his freestyle performance set the stage as each driver tried to top the next. Rick Swanson showed why he was the Undisputed Champion from this event one year ago, doing very nice cyclones and rarely laying off the throttle; so much in fact, that steam was coming from the engine area as “Obsession” left the arena. Russell Steeley put Iron Outlaw through its paces, not stopping until everything on the track was hit. However, during the second show of the day he took the big mountain in the middle of the floor, hard broke the right front wheel off and rolled over slowly. Kelvin Ramer was up next and drove over every obstacle, finishing his final run in the evening show with a cyclone with his hands out the window. But the potential winner possibility goes to the former World Champion in Bounty Hunter, using tons of pure horsepower over every jump, getting great air and continuing long after the 90 second time period. It was a great first day in Del Mar.

For the final day of monster trucks in Del Mar, the first afternoon show was racing only and the second afternoon show was freestyle only. Since only five trucks were competing, this created an interesting race bracket. “Bounty Hunter” would automatically be seeded into the semi-finals. Two winners of the heats would join him along with the fastest loser. From there, two finalists would advance and a racing champion would be crowned succeeding that race.

WGAS officials created a Chicago style race course with the finish lines on top of each trucks’ respective starting jumps. In the opening round, fan favorite Kelvin Ramer in “Time Flys” took out his own teammate, “Fired Up” driven by Justin Cluster to advance to the semi-finals and a shot at Jim Creten and “Bounty Hunter”. In the other quarter-final race, 14 year old Eric Swanson with “Obsessed” was on his way to victory over his own father in the team truck when he aver drove the final turn. Rick swapped trucks and raced “Obsessed” for the remainder of the racing show.

The top half of the semis would see a close race between the former Monster Jam World Champion Jim Creten and the driver of the 1934 Ford, Kelvin Ramer. It was close, but the win goes to “Bounty Hunter” after Ramer spent too much time in the air over the second jump. Fastest loser “Fired Up” was denied a second shot at the championship round after following “Obsessed” across the finish line. The final race was dead even until the final turn when Jim Creten pulled away for the racing trophy.

The final show from Del Mar for the year would be the only time freestyles were scored. Eric Swanson, back in “Obsessed”, got some great air with a sky wheelie and was in the middle of his first donut when he hit one of the racing ramps, breaking the bead on the left rear tire, flattening it. The judges gave him a 14 out of a possible 40. The “Fired Up” driver continued to with the freestyle competition and took the lead with a 28 point score. Next came “Time Flys” and “Obsession”, both of which hit all of the obstacles and took the lead with a score of 38.5. But there was a former Freestyle champion in the house, and he hit everything the track threw at him and got the undisputed big air of the weekend. He missed the perfect score by just one point, but it was enough to get back on the winner’s stage at Del Mar.

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with five of the top monster trucks in the world? But not just monster trucks, also on hand were four high-flying, death defying FMX riders including Jimmy Fitzpatrick as the sole representative of the infamous Metal Mulisha. Finally, the “KaBoom!” tradition continues with a fireworks display as the grand finale.

The five trucks competing in Chicago-style racing and freestyle on some of the biggest obstacles Pomona monster truck fans have ever seen include Kelvin Ramer with “Time Flys” and the teams of “Obsession Racing” with Eric Swanson behind the wheel of “Obsessed” along with his father Rick driving “Obsession” and the “2Xtreme Racing” trucks of Iron Outlaw driven by Nick Owens and Jim Creten, as always, behind the wheel of Bounty Hunter. Before the monsters hit the track, some of the FMX riders performed amazing airborne stunts including back flips.

As “Time Flys” got the bye in the racing bracket and would wait to race until the semi-finals and would take on the winner of the first heat in Round 1. A fast loser would also advance and face the winner of the second heat of Round 1, making a four truck competition in the semi finals. From there, a standard four truck bracket was in place. All hopes of Eric Swanson avenging his loss to his father in Del Mar were dashed as he took the last turn too wide and “Bounty Hunter” showed who was boss in the second heat against his team truck, “Iron Outlaw”. “Obsession” would move to the finals as Kelvin Ramer made the same mistake as Eric during the run of “Time Flys”. The next scheduled race was the rematch Nick Owens wanted with the Bounty Hunter, but it never happened as a problem with the RII prevented Iron Outlaw from making it to the starting line and forfeiting the race. WGAS officials went straight to the finals between “Bounty Hunter” and “Obsession”. “Bounty Hunter” was too fastest and crossed the finish line first and was the racing champion.

Freestyle featured both the small jumps from racing, two additional wheelie obstacles, two sets of motor homes, a large single jump and a HUGE double jump. There was also a “concession stand” on the dirt arena. That’s correct, a concession stand! Iron Outlaw put on an excellent opening freestyle. Eric Swanson emerged next, and got some huge air over the double jump. He earned a 35 out of a possible 40 for his efforts. Rick wanted to keep up the momentum but the transmission had other ideas, breaking an input shaft after just a single jump. “Time Flys” earned a perfect 40 from the judges, but Jim Creten had other ideas about who would be the victor. He hit every obstacle and did some great wheelies and donuts. He then hit the concession stand setting off the first fireworks of the evening. The crowd’s ovation left no doubt as to who was the winner. Scores were never given for “Bounty Hunter”, but Jim didn’t care. No fan was sitting down as Jim had done what he needed to do.

WGAS creator and primary promoter John Borba was on hand, and was told by an anonymous fan that this was the best freestyle motocross and monster truck show the fan had ever seen. Fans were then treated to a great 4th of July fireworks show. Thank you for reading, enjoy the photos, and cheer on.” – Christopher Allen

CLICK HERE TO VIEW JIM ALLEN’S DEL MAR, CA PHOTO GALLERY

CLICK HERE TO VIEW JIM ALLEN’S POMONA, CA PHOTO GALLERY

Kaboom Monster Truck Show – Pomona, CA – 07/04/10

Event:  Kaboom Monster Truck Show
Venue:  L.A. County Fairgrounds
Location:  Pomona, California
Date:  July 4th, 2010
Photographer:  Jim Allen

Lineup: Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Iron Outlaw (Nick Owens), Obsession (Rick Swanson), Obsessed (Jeff Jones), Time Flys (Kelvin Ramer) [Read more…]