.: 2006 ARCHIVE  :.

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.: Tales of the Tour -  12/12/06  :.

     It's been a while since the last update, so let's take a look at where all we have been since we last updated you!!

10/27-28/06 - EVERETT, WA

     With Kevin Weenk behind the wheel of Maniac for the weekend, Nathan and Kevin headed out to Everett, WA. for the AMP Tour Monster Mash. A full report will follow from Nathan soon.

     The reason Don was taking the weekend off was to attend the Lethbridge BMX Awards Night. Kaspar Frankish was receiving awards for First place in his class and a perfect attendance award. Another suprise for the night was when he won Coach's Choice for Most Improved Rider. This was the first time for this award and it will be passed on to a new recipient each year. The indoor season starts in mid December.

11/11/06 - BILLINGS, MT

     Our next stop was a one night show in Billings, MT for the Checkered Flag Productions Monster Truck Fall Nationals. The trucks were Jurassic Attack, Maniac, Hot Stuff, High Voltage, Public Disturbance, Monster Moose, and Bigfoot.

     At the end of racing it was Bigfoot defeating Maniac in the Final. Good freestyles were put on by all the trucks, with Hot Stuff ending up on his roof on the second hit. Bigfoot would take the freestyle win as well.

11/18/06 - MONTREAL, QUEBEC

     From Billings, we were off to the Valvoline Motorsports Spectacular in Montreal, Quebec at Olympic Stadium. This event was our first event for Chris Arel Motorsports, and it was an incredible show with 12 monster trucks, tractor pulls, snowmobile events, a demo derby and more.
     The track was a very long course with two turns. Maniac lost to Bounty Hunter and Jurassic lost to Hot Tamale in a very close First Round. In the Finals Iron Outlaw would take on Bigfoot and they both went up on two wheels in the first turn--Bigfoot would end up on his roof and Iron Outlaw would take the win.
     In Freestyle most trucks put on awesome performances. with Jurassic Attack having a good run that included hitting the bus stacks several times. Maniac had a very short run with the second hit destroying the rear end in the truck when a four-link bar broke, causing the rear housing to bend and tear up some shock parts, as well as the tie rod. I'm not sure who won Freestyle as there were times when there was more than one truck on the floor at a time, but I would have gave the win to Jim Kohler in Avenger--He must have did 25 donuts with amazing speed.

     The plan from there was to catch a flight home before the Denver event comg up two weeks later, but we decided to pick up a rear housing at Dan Patrick's and then install it at the Bounty Hunter shop. We spent Thanksgiving in the Camp Creten shop and got the job of swapping the rear diff finished in one day. A special thanks goes out to Dawn and Jimmy Creten for bringing us a Thanksgiving turkey dinner to the shop and for all the help and use of their shop.
     We then thought we would fly home from there but getting a flight to Canada on the U.S. Thanksgiving (Canada's was in October) is easy and cheap, but getting back three days later became very expensive and would not be worth it for only 3 days at home. We decided that because we could not make it home for the weekend off we would go right to Denver and take the extra time to get the truck ready for the following weekend. We got there in time to enjoy a very impressive car show, while the rest of the week was spent getting the trucks ready for the weekend.

     This is where the real "Tales of the Tour" comes in. We decided mid-week to treat ourselves to a good supper and maybe a movie when a blizzard hit. We decided a taxi was the way to go, rather than traveling in the Kenworth and fish-tailing in a storm. We were off to the local mall with several restaurants and a theater. Getting there was easy and supper was good. We decided to pass on the movie as there was not much to chose from. We called for a cab again and about 2 1/2 hours later he showed up.
     Turns out he was the worst driver in Denver, it would seem. He detoured off the highway, as he figured it would be a mess, and he took to the regular streets. We got to the top of a hill and a cop was detouring everyone a block over, as the hill was too icy. Now one block over on the same icy hill, everyone was spinning out and having to turn around--Not our cabbie, he was going to back down, and he did--Right into and across the other lane and into the opposite ditch!!

     It gets even better, as it turns out the more we went the steeper the ditch got until we were almost on our side, hung up over a culvert. Nathan could hardly stay on his side of the car. The driver then called a tow truck, lit a smoke and let a fart!  Normally I would be going wild by now, but we had nowhere to be and could not even open the doors anyway. Besides, this was better entertainment than a movie could have been!

     An hour of dragging the car out, and we're back on the hill again. This time he chooses to run the stop sign where the cops were sitting and we're at the top of the hill and headed down the other icy side. We get going sorta quick so buddy throws it into low gear and the back of the car decides to pass the front while sending us down the hill 90 degrees to the road into on-coming traffic--Lucky for us there was no other traffic!
     Finally we made it back to our hotel, four hours later, having traveled about a total of 5 miles. Let's just say that driver did not get a tip!!

12/01-03/06 - DENVER, CO

     The rest of the week went by and we were ready for the Extreme Monster Truck Nationals in Denver, CO. We're having our part-time crew guy Darron Schnell ( A.K.A. Q -Tip ) do the report from Denver. He does however, forget to mention that between our trucks we had several wins in the all Freestyle, Donut and Wheelie contest shows. Here is his story:

     "Hello everyone, my name is Darron Schnell (crew guy) and I get the honor of writing this update. My weekend started out with the fun of driving through a blizzard in Montana. The worst part of the whole deal is that it slowed me down enough that I hit Denver at 5 p.m. (Strike One). About the time I hit city limits, I realized I only had directions for the building that closed at 5 (Strike Two). After trading several phone calls with Nathan in really nasty traffic, the big shock came that I was sitting about seven cars behind Don and Nathan on their return from the building. Yea folks, I missed a big purple semi directly in front of me. (Strike Three-What a way to start the weekend!!).

     The rest of the weekend went fairly smooth for us. Don put the new rear housing that was just installed at Camp Creten to the test when the lead car for the van stack folded funny and he landed hard on the left rear tire. This resulted in the only damage of the weekend in a broken heim on the tie-rod and a busted steering ram. Both Don and Nathan had some killer runs and both trucks drove in the trailer. Weekends like this make my job feel like play time.
     The other trucks at the show would not be so lucky as us. Kreg Christensen had a string of bad luck that would result in missing Friday’s show due to a string of hauler issues. Between Saturday and Sunday, his bad luck would continue. He found out Saturday that a barrel of methanol rubbed a hole in the side and leaked its content on the floor of his trailer. The final tally on his weekend was a shock, sway-bar arm, spindle, and two big fireballs on his truck that were all in separate incidents.
     Larry Quick would not fare much better, when he put a brand new body upside down during the Sunday show and some kids tried to walk off with his coils from a broken shock Saturday. With the last show of the year down, it is time for me to prep for my finals at Montana State University. My life will consist of the library, Mountain Dew, and a large bag of Spitz for longer than I care to admit. See y’all down the road!!" - Darron

12/10/06 - LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA

     We're back home and back in the shop with a list of things to fix and replace that will take every minute from now until January to complete. We're enjoying our time off and most of my free time is spent with Kaspar wrestling, having snowball fights and making snow forts, jumping on the trampoline covered in snow, or doing experiments with slime that makes a huge mess of the kitchen that his mother just loves!

     We have also found a great way to use the SPITZ T-Shirt cannon to launch snow balls about 300FT. into the air. What a blast!  More good stuff coming soon, stay tuned!!

.: Tales of the Tour -  10/27/06  :.

     We survived our tour of Arizona with the Tuba city show turning out to be very uneventful. There were only cars set out for us on the Sunday show and everything went as planned. Next we were off to the Tire Pros Truck & 4x4 Nationals in Phoenix. This was an incredible event with every thing from truck drag racing, rock climbing, and a huge manufacturer's midway. There were also 4 freestyle events with 7 monster trucks running. All of them put on some great freestyle runs. Event photos can now be seen in our Photos section, courtesy of Lauren Z. Bonar of TheMonsterBlog.com.

     Now for the current news. For the first time ever Weenk vs Weenk, but not what you think--Nathan and Kevin Weenk (the original Jurassic Attack and Young Gun driver) are headed to Everrett, WA to do our first event for AMP Live Events. Kevin will be driving Maniac while Don Stays home.
     It should be interesting as Kevin has only drove that truck one time before and it ended on it's roof (see our History section). We expect both trucks to place well. Check back soon for results.

.: Tales of the Tour -  10/13/06  :.

     Our last tales of the tour mentioned that we would be bringing you video of our all female drivers in Jurassic Attack and Maniac event that was a part of the Lethbridge, Alberta Show. But because some of the video is in Canada and we are currently in Arizona that story has been put on hold until we get home in a few weeks.
     Here is what we have been up to since then. We have done events in Pomona, Tulare, Red Bluff and Perris Lake.

09/14/06 - POMONA, CA

     Pomona was the yearly stop at the California State Fair. An all-freestyle event with seven monster trucks in total that featured a setup for wheelies, a one-car stack, and a car-bus setup. Everybody put on a great show with the CSK trucks stealing the show with huge air off the bus setup. It was rumored they were working on impressing a new sponsor and that they did. We got through the night without any breakage, and
were off to Tulare for a event the next day a few hours down the road.

09/15/06 - TULARE, CA

     Tulare was a smaller fair show with just our two trucks and Natural High. All three trucks put in good freestyles and survived both nights with out any major troubles. The next day we would catch a flight home back to Canada for a few days off.

09/29 - 10/01/06 - RED BLUFF, CA

     Nathan returned on Sunday to meet up with his brother Linsey in Red Bluff who, between the two of them, had to keep four monster trucks on display for the next six days--several of the displays were 40+miles apart! I returned a few days later in the motorhome.
     This was our first event for J&K Motorsports and their Red Bluff event so we wanted to leave a good impression. It was also the first time we had done any real side-by-side racing since July. With a field of 13 great trucks and only 10 making it past qualifying we knew we had to be on our game. We got done qualifying and had no idea how we had done--I knew I was not as smooth as I had hoped and Nathan said he had some brake issues. Turns out I ended up 7th and Nathan was 11th. He was done until freestyle.
     Number one and two spots went to Bounty Hunter and Iron Outlaw. My first match-up was the new "Crush Out Breast Cancer" Bigfoot that was painted pink. I got through round one and was up against Linsey in Iron Outlaw next. I figured I had probably beaten him more than anybody on the planet--Just not in that truck!!  So I just ran my own race and came out on top.

     The semi-final was Maniac against El Madador and I won that round putting Maniac in the finals against Bounty hunter. It was a close race until the second corner where Bounty Hunter went up on two wheels and Maniac went on to win the race. It
felt pretty cool to win all four rounds without lane choice.
     In Freestyle Nathan put Jurassic through its paces and had a good run with some nice air and slap wheelies. He was also one of the first to hit the bus stack and sent the nose of Jurassic very high, straight up and carried it up, over, and down the stack
twice. Very cool.
     Maniac was not so impressive. After two good hits on the cars stacks an attempt at a donut put the truck on its roof. The crowd liked it but it was short. Bounty hunter
went on to win the Freestyle for the night.
     Thanks to some great help we were ready for the next show. On Saturday night
we both qualified well--I was in the middle and Nathan was number two with Jurassic
Attack, with Bounty Hunter as fast qualifier. I went out first round and was done racing for the night. Nathan went on to make it in the semi-finals by winning the first round and losing to Bounty Hunter. He came back as fast loser, only to lose in the semi
finals to the winner of the night--Bounty Hunter, who won over Iron Outlaw.
     In Freestyle, Maniac was out early and blew the transmission after only a few hits.
Jurassic had his typical high-action freestyle and we were done for the night. Samson
was the truck to put it on the roof in a donut that night and Bounty Hunter was the
winner again.
     Sunday both trucks made the racing bracket, qualifying well, but Maniac went out
first round. With a Weenk vs Weenk race in the first round it was the Iron Outlaw
taking the win and moving on in the rounds. We were done racing for the weekend. In
the finals it was El Matador and Bigfoot, with Harkey in Bigfoot taking the win.
     Maniac was first out in freestyle and had a great run for being the first truck out, however Jurassic Attack's run was cut short due to mechanical problems. The big surprise of the night was when El Matador drove out on the track when King Krunch
was freestyling, parking in front of the pink bus stack. Kink Krunch jumped El Matador twice. Bounty Hunter ended the night with a reverse jump off the bus but there was no
beating King Krunch.
     In the end the real winners were the fans and the St. Elizabeth Community Hospital and Mercy Foundation, as J&K raised over $6,000 for their fight out breast cancer efforts. This was achieved through the power of pink. Pink busses, vans, cars, monster trucks, flags and shirts. It was quite a sight!
     We've also got to give a special mention to Whyett Froome for launching a Spitz T-Shirt onto the roof of the grandstand. Nice work dude!

10/07-08/06 - PERRIS LAKE, CA

     After Red Bluff it was off to Perris Lake for the Southern California Fair. During the Friday show Maniac had transmission trouble early on after only a few freestyle hits and with only a ninety minute show there was no time to repair. Nathan went on to put
down a good freestyle along with eleven other trucks. Friday's freestyle highlight was
when Sam Sturges in Unnamed & Untamed was doing one of his typical bumper dragging wheelies and got crossed up, hitting the car stack with one rear wheel and sending the truck onto it's side. He tried to save it but the momentum was too great so that when he got the wheels back under the truck it was thrown over on the other side, doing a huge amount of damage to the shocks and four-links. Sam was fine but done for the weekend. You can see pictures of Sam saving a similar ride on their website.
     The next day featured a strange Chicago-style racing with 6 jumps per race. Nathan took #1 qualifier and Maniac grabbed the #2 position. The semi-finals came down to a final four with Jurassic vs Iron Outlaw and Maniac vs Bounty Hunter. Or Weenk vs Weenk and team owner vs team owner. Or CSK vs Spitz. Anyway you look at it, it was good racing with an all CSK final. Bounty Hunter took home the final win.

     Another memorable moment was when Kelvin in Natural High put his truck on the
roof during intros. See more on their website at www.naturalhighmonstertruck.com.
     After the racing portion of the show, the track was changed back to freestyle for the final show. Everyone was having great runs until the final run of the weekend. Jimmy in Bounty Hunter was in the middle of a good donut when the motor stopped in a hurry and when all was said and done there was a hole in the pan. Not the way one wants to end a show. Rumor has it he has it already running with the help of Sam Sturges. Sam did the same for us once also. Thanks Sam!!
     We're now in Tuba City, AZ. No monster truck action yet but Lauren & Lynette Bonar from the TheMonsterBlog.com were kind enough to take us out for authentic Navajo Taco's for supper. Thanks Guys!!  Be watching for some pictures and videos from this weekend's show here on the site and on The Monster Blog.
 

.: Tales of the Tour -  9/03/06  :.

     Dauphin, MB. started out as another small town event that is in conjunction with a car cruise and show and shine along with FMX, Tuff Trucks and stock car racing. Jurassic Attack and Maniac were the only two monsters doing a freestyle exhibition and Nathan started things off with a pretty routine freestyle wheeling across the cars and having a good time. About halfway through his run he was getting into it and tried a quick donut that resulted in about 1/2 a yard of sand going over the fence and covering the band and their equipment. They were not impressed but a quick apology and a few beer tickets later they agreed that we were just there trying to entertain the
crowd just like them. Maniac was out next and the truck was landing hard so it was pretty much just sky wheelies for me. Then Nathan went out and got some huge air off the tuff truck jump, van combo in Jurassic. Maniac finished off the night and it was time for the free steak supper and the band rocking into the night.
     Sunday was about the same but a much bigger event as the place was sold out. Both trucks had pretty regular runs with good air and slap wheelies. It was on Nathan's last freestyle of the day when he put the big dinosaur upside down in a hurry during a donut attempt. Damage was just minor and he was ok as well. We didn't get any pictures but Nathan had time to snap a few of Maniac on the last run--see more of his shots in our Photos section.

     We have next weekend off from racing so we will be bring you some highlights  from an interesting weekend event during the summer with video of two new first-time female drivers behind the wheel of Jurassic Attack and Maniac, right here in the "Tales of the Tour" section. It's hard to believe they were driving for the first time--Stay tuned!!

.: Tales of the Tour -  8/29/06  :.

     Last weekend we went to Bonnyville, Alberta for an event that consisted of the Canadian Mud Racing Assn. points final for the year, Tuff Trucks, Demo Derby and freestyle exhibitions by Jurassic Attack and Maniac.
   The weekend had it's good and it's bad as both trucks were going to do two freestyles each day. Nathan went out first in Jurassic and hit everything in sight and set the bar for the rest of the weekend. Then things started to go downhill as the timing chain broke in Jurassic while doing a wheelie, ending his weekend with some bent valves in the motor. Maniac went out and made three more freestyle runs for the Saturday crowd.
    Then Sunday came around and Nathan offered to let me try his Hans Device and after one big jump Maniac was suffering from a broken axel. 25 Min. later we had it fixed and everything seemed normal but we were wrong. On the second run it was apparent we still had troubles with the locker, but continued to freestyle hitting everything with speed to avoid spinning left at the ramps. The truck was getting good air but hitting hard on the nose. I was sold on the Hans after that.

     It was after the second run that the day took a strange turn as Jody, who had just taken 1st place in the demo derby, asked me if I wanted to give his car a try in the grudge match derby. Me and 3 other cars--winner take all. I said sure, if everything goes good in my last freestyle, and it did. I got out of Maniac, switched helmets, and drove right into the derby ring with only one word of advice--it hurts more getting hit than when your doing the hitting. Boy were those words true. I started out trying to make very hard hits with the rear of the car on the others' front end and things seemed to be going well, but it was getting harder to see as the back of the trunk was getting higher. I just kept on ramming, assuming the opponent would still be there and it seemed to be working. Then just as I was about to back up again, someone hit me from behind HARD!!  I had never taken a hit like that in any monster truck--It felt like I was hit across the shoulders with a baseball bat. For a second I thought about throwing in the towel but it was just to much fun.

     Then I was having so much fun I started using the front of the car too. I was getting into it so much the officials had to blow the horn several times to get me to stop because one car had troubles.
     After the restart I just started hitting anything and the next thing I knew the horn was blowing again. I had no idea why until I was told I had won. What a blast!!
I'm sure I will be sore tomorrow though!!
     All in all it was a really fun weekend with a lot of great people in a small town fair atmosphere--until next time!!
 

.: Tales of the Tour -  8/22/06  :.

     We had a great weekend in Drayton Valley last weekend where Jurassic Attack won both freestyles!!  The event also included Tuff Trucks, Super Trucks Racing and Freestyle, along with stock car racing and two classes of sprint car racing.

     Let me take a moment to tell you about our newest sponsor. Every couple of years a new part hits the market that becomes a must have for every monster truck--a part that becomes part of the evolution of the sport in general.  The newest of these parts is here and they are proudly used on Jurassic Attack and Maniac!!  They are rod ends by www.evolutionmachine.com.
     They build rod ends that are a direct replacement for what is already on the market, but they are built stronger, adjustable as they wear, and rebuildable.  They also build a heaver rod end that tested to be over 4 times stronger than other leading brands and stalled pull test equipment that ripped other brands apart.
     They also build 4 link bars, jam nuts and tube inserts. Clayton and Chris are co-owners of Evolution Machine and Clayton decided to build a stronger rod end after this weekend at a Frankish Enterprises Ltd. event a few years ago. (see picture below)

     He has now built this incredible truck that they are calling "super trucks". This is a custom built truck called Twister from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  Originally built for rock crawling competition but he built it tough enough to do just about anything--it's got a 454 chev mid engine running on propane making 550hp, auto trans, Rockwell 106 diffs, 26" Cooms Shocks, and huge tires. The guy has no fear and puts on a great show.

Click here to view a short video of Twister in action!!

     Here is a link to what they are building and a review on the product. Check out our schedule for where we will be next!!

.: Tales of the Tour -  8/19/06  :.

     We have been doing several weeks in Canada with Scott Anderson's trucks Arachnophobia and Shattered, along with Jed and Cathy's Sheer Insanity and TNT. These were primarily freestyle shows, where our team won a majority of the contests.
     We have also purchased the old Terminator III truck and are in the process of converting it into a ride truck. So far we have scrapped everything but the blower motor, transmission, axels, tires, and transfer case. We bought it, keeping these components in mind, with the intention of using it "as is" for a ride truck right away. But after closer inspection we realized that the truck was very poorly built and decided to do the complete truck our way. It will have some very unique features when we finish it.

     Last weekend we ran in the Vancouver, WA Clark County Fair show for two events with the Bounty Hunter & Iron Outlaw team. It was two shows that featured a Weenk vs. Weenk battle, with Linsey coming out on top in the first show, and then going on to win the final against his boss.

     The next show's racing featured Bounty Hunter over Jurassic Attack, and Manic over Iron Outlaw, putting the two bosses in the finals. Jimmy in Bounty Hunter took the win, and both trucks performed a quick double freestyle.

     We parked our trucks only to find the crowd still wanted more--so Iron Outlaw and Jurassic Attack gave them an encore Weenk family freestyle. Everyone went home happy.  A huge thanks goes out to Dave Stephens for the photos from the show!!

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