The next stop on the
'08 Tour was in Vancouver, Canada, about 15 minutes from Kristy's hometown
and an event where she had a lot of friends and family in the stands.
Kristy got beat by Grave Digger in the first round of racing and Maniac
would only make two rounds of the racing. Both trucks did ok in the
wheelie and donut contest, with Maniac breaking the front diff during the
donut contest. It was in Freestyle where Kristy got to show the hometown
crowd what she was best at getting some big air and great sky wheelies on
the double stack cars and making some great saves after having the truck
on the sidewalls several times. She would finish third of 8 trucks right
behind Max-D and Grave Digger.
Our next stop was Edmonton and the weekend started out with huge troubles
as we had problems with the hauler and the poor -35 weather would prevent
us from being able to get truck drivable by show time and we did not make
our first Monster Jam event in 18 years of racing for them.
We would however come back strong for Saturday and Sunday's events with both
trucks making rounds of racing. In freestyle both events were a tie
between Maniac and Grave Digger.
Next up was a non-Monster Jam event in Saskatoon Saskatchewan where it
would be a strong performance for our team, as we would win five out of six
competions. Kristy lost in Friday's final in racing, but Maniac and Jurassic
would be in Saturday and Sunday's racing finals with one win each. Maniac would
go on to win all three freestyles with a close secend for Jurassic Attack.
Our last Monster Jam event of the season was our closest show to home in
Calgary, AB. For some reason they turned Calgary into a 4 show marathon
and for some reason the judges there seem to think local trucks can't
place well as the judging there is always favoring other teams. It happens
there every year. It sucks because we normally have sponsors there but
after several years you learn to just go with the flow and when you do
well people in the autograph line will let you know what they thought of
the judging and that you belonged at the top of the pack. We both made
several rounds of racing and Kristy was in Sundays final losing to the
Pastrana 199 truck.
The next two weeks were in California doing smaller all
freestyle shows in Santa Maria, CA and Victorville, CA. Kristy won the freestyles in the
Victorville event.
From there, we were part of the Double Down and regular pit party and monster truck
parade for the Monster Jam World Finals. It was a great event with some
incredible highlights. Congrats to both John Seasock and Adam Anderson for
their wins, they earned them.
The Monster Jam World Finals Banquet was also a highlight for us as we both
took home some hardwear, with Kristy Edge being named the "Rookie of the
Year" and Don Frankish taking the "Best Save of the Year" award for
Jurassic Attack in Cardiff, UK. We all had a great time.
Our most recent event was Tucson, AZ for M80 Productions and the event
went well for both of us. We both made a final in drag racing one day and
Maniac won both Chicago-style races. Everyone had good freestyles but no
winner was declared that we know of.
We now have had two weeks off before doing Red Deer Alberta this weekend, and then
we have several
weeks in Eastern Canada taking us all the way to St. John's, Newfoundland.
For those of you who don't know Canada very well its on an Island about 250
miles off the east part of Canada, and about 800 Miles farther from our
shop than Key West, Florida would be--and that does not include the 6-7 hour ferry
boat ride to get there. More coming soon!
.:
Tales of the Tour -
2/03/08:.
San Antonio was our
second SPEED TV event of the year. It started out great for Maniac as Don
qualified #1 in the field with a time nearly four secends faster than the
next competitor. Jurassic qualified 12th out of 16 trucks. A broken brake
line early on in the secend round would cause Maniac to run into slower
runs and lead to Don being taken out in the semi-finals.
Both trucks had good freestyles going but would end a
bit early due to breakage. Manic would lose a front tire when going off
the FMX hill and Jurassic broke a shock off the bus stack.
Sunday's show was a great show as well with Jurassic advancing into the
secend round of racing over Predator, while Maniac lost in the first
round. Jurassic had a good freestyle, but Maniac was out due to a broken
shock. There are pictures of our trucks at the Monster Jam website and can
be seen by clicking
here.
The next weekend we were in Minneapolis at the Metrodome, and we had a
great start to racing with both trucks doing well. Maniac was third and
Jurassic was eighth with all trucks within only 2 seconds of each other.
Maniac would break a driveshaft and axel in the first race of the night,
but Jurassic would beat out hometown favorite Rolling Thunder in the first
round. Kristy would then fall to the night's racing winner in the second
round, Carl Van Horn in T-Maxx.
Maniac would be finished for the night but Jurassic would go on to
freestyle. Kristy wanted to go out and set the bar high. Her first hit was
very hard and would launch the truck very high in the air off the large
bus stack. It was easly the best hit of the night but unfortunately it
would be the end of the run as her landing would hit on the right rear
tire and wheele bar destroying a four link, shocks, steering rams and
nearly tearing the flanges off the rear diff housing. There are photos on
the Monster Jam website that can be seen by clicking
here and also there is video on
YouTube at which can be seen by clicking
here.
Anahiem was a very muddy event that would have
no qualifying and both trucks would end up out after the first round of
racing. Don bumped a turning pole in Maniac after a strong race against
shocker and Kristy would lose first round. Both trucks would have average
freestyles in the mud. Videos can be found on YouTube of both freestyle
and racing.
That's all for this update, we're off to Vancouver, British Columbia for
Kristy's first stadium event in her hometown!!
.:
Tales of the Tour -
12/31/07:.
Five
countries, 40,000 miles, and the end of the year. Well it’s the end
of the year and it’s been a while scence our last update, lot's going on.
Last time we premiered the new Jurassic Attack look in Bonnieville,
Alberta. After that we packed up, headed home long enough to put the new
lettering on Jurassic, and then headed for Tijuana, Mexico. We setup near
a local school and there were about 200 kids watching as we opened the
trailer door chanting “Jurassic - Jurassic” as Kristy unloaded the truck.
It was a great show to a full house and both trucks did well. A great time
was had by all.
We then headed
back to California to kill a few days in the LA area with a big thanks to
Frank Schettini from the Pro Comp Tires monster truck as we had a pickup
to drive to visit Universal Studios, the beach, and run around and get
parts. Frank's a pretty funny off the wall type guy but I think even he
thought the Canadians were strange when we got to the beach late and it
was dark and cool out and we decided we were going to go jump in the ocean
in our clothes and go for a swim, then having to change into our beach
wear to go for supper with him after.
We then headed
to Phoenix, AZ for our first Special Events Thunder Drags where Kristy
raced her long time hero of monster trucks in the first round - “Bigfoot”.
I went on to the second round and was also beaten by Dan Runte in
“Bigfoot” as well. We both put on strong performances in freestyle with
Maniac taking home the big win.
Our next stop
was Victorville, CA for a freestyle-only event that saw Kristy have a good
couple of freestyles and Maniac break off a wheel off early. Everything
went in the trailer ok and we were in Pomona for the State Fair on
Thursday night. It would be a night that would take a toll on our trucks
after only one round of freestyle each. Jurassic had a steering issue that
was not common enough to have the parts to fix in a hurry and Maniac was
also unable to make it back for the fast-paced show. After a long night of repairs we headed straight
through to Longview, WA for a very disappointing event. The crowd was
great and our trucks did make the most of racing in the mud. Kristy and I
did freestyle at the same time that was very poor because of track
conditions as the mud pits had burst and filled the arena. We ended our
freestyle both doing donuts a few feet apart in the mud. Chris Roy went
out to roll his truck and take the freestyle win. It was after the event
we would find out we had been mislead and that there was no event the
following weekend--it had been cancelled a few weeks earlier without the
promoter telling us. We had planned and had to cancel flights for Mike
Bell to fly in and drive Maniac while I was in Europe driving a Jurassic
Attack truck in Holland.
After a quick
change of plans we decided to leave our trucks in WA. Kristy went home for
a week’s holiday while I went to Europe to drive another Jurassic Attack
for the USHRA World Tour. When I got to Arnhem, Holland the trucks were
ready to go for the three shows in two days. Because I had never been it
the truck I was driving this weekend we had to adjust the foot pedals and
shifter for me to drive the truck. We did three shows in Arnhem and all
were great events with huge crowds. My racing was a little off but all
three freestyles were near the top of the pack. Everyone involved had a
great time.
A week later
we were back in the United States on our way to our annual trip to the
Southern California State Fair in Perris Lake. This event consisted of one
race event and two freestyle shows. All went well and we were on our way
back to Canada.
Our next stop was in Prince George B.C. and it
was a good event with Bigfoot, Bounty Hunter and Iron Outlaw, with Iron
Outlaw taking home most of the wins.
The next
weekend would see Kristy taking charge of the team in North America while
I was in Cardiff in the UK. Grand Prairie Alberta would be bringing the
same lineup of monsters to there arena as the weekend before in BC with
Mike Bell behind the wheel of Maniac. Both Mike in Maniac and Kristy in
Jurassic would take home freestyle wins with Bigfoot winning the racing.
Meanwhile in Europe I was driving another Jurassic Attack and took the
freestyle win at the soldout show in Cardiff. There is a lot of good video
on YouTube of this event and Jurassic Attack's wild ride.
After the finish of the Europe tour it was
said on Scott Douglas’s page on USHRA.com that I had a fourth place
average finish, not too bad when you consider I only did 2 out of 7
cities. We also did a very cool event with the make a wish foundation with
about 15 kid’s at the Hard Rock Café in Cardiff.
When I
returned home we jumped into the KW and headed to the last event of the
year in Montreal, Canada. This was about a forty hour drive and although
we both went out early in racing we both had good freestyles and tested a
new shock setup that we were very happy with and will work well for the
new upcoming season. On the way home we started a new list of things to
change or repair before the new 2008
season and with only 6 weeks to do so we were
very busy. Changes included lowering the motor on Jurassic Attack 5 inches
and foreword 2 inches which involved changing the whole lower cage on the
chassis. We also intended to put a new motor in Jurassic that should give
Kristy about 400 more horsepower. This engine did not get completed in
time but will be going in as soon as we get home for a few days. That's
all for this update, we're back on the road starting with the new year!
.:
Tales of the Tour -
08/22/07:.
A lot has
happened in the last few months including the event in Regina,
Saskatchewan. No real highlights other than the fact that Kevin Weenk got
behind the wheel of Iron Outlaw and took it to the racing final win
against Bounty Hunter. Everyone else did well and it was a blast working
with Kevin again and seeing him behind the wheel of a monster truck. Our next event turned out to be a surprise as I
was headed to another town for a 10:00 AM chiropractor appointment, when I
got a call from Edge Motorsports to see if our trucks could fill in at an
event in our hometown of Lethbridge that day. I said we could do it but
don't expect us there early as I still needed to go to the US border an
hour away to get parts for the Maniac motor and then install the motor. We showed up for a 7:30 show at 7:20 and tired
up the trucks. I was still hurt from a BMX crash and asked long time
hometown crew member Greg Baker to fill in for me. We drove Maniac into
the building not having any idea what was expected of him: we didn't know
if it was racing, freestyle or wheelies and he had not even been in the
building to know that there was no dirt. I told him the new shock setup
was working great and to go as hard as he was comfortable with. He ended
up winning both freestyles that night. Not too bad for the first time in
the truck at a show. Mike in Jurassic had some rear steer issues but still
made all his passes. It was decided after this event that Mike was
not going to work out well as a full-time driver for Jurassic Attack, as
he just had too many things going to do monster trucks week in and week
out. That's where Kristy Edge came into the picture. She had drove the
Firestorm ride truck for two years and had always wanted to race. She even
freestyled my Maniac truck a few times for fun in the last year and
surprised me. I had considered her before and thought that having a girl
for a teammate would put too much shop work on my shoulders. This time
around it came down to hiring a stranger or someone I knew truly had the
desire to do this for a living. Her first event was Abbotsford, British
Columbia, about 5 miles from her home town. We were both pretty nervous
but at the end of the night I knew we could make this work. She did well
and I could not wait to get her to an outdoor track where she would have
more room to learn.
The best part of the whole weekend was the
Canada vs USA - Spitz vs CSK hockey game after Sunday's show. It was great
and with Linsey Weenk being a near pro hockey player before monster trucks
he knew how to keep the puck about 1/2 an inch out of my reach even when I
put in 110 percent. He has always had that quality about him that made him
fun to be around no matter what sport we were playing from golf to XBox to
football. I also have to hand it to Jay and Darron for going out there on
the ice and skating for two hours when they had never been on skates or
ice like that before. We all had a good time. The following weekend was in Victoria on
Vancouver Island which would be Mike's last weekend as a full-time driver
in Jurassic Attack. On our way out there we stopped in Kelowna and did
some racing at the local Malibu Grand prix track. We had a blast and in
the end Mike had the better of our two times. I think he won by 10/1000 of
a second. The weekend went well and Mike had some of his best ever runs in
the truck. He seemed more comfortable that weekend than any before. The
shows went very well with Bounty Hunter taking most of the wins. We also had a few visits from the local police
as a neighbor to the building did not care for all the monster truck
noise. In one of their visits, they were saying how Linsey, during a media
crush, had gone over the 110 decibal legal limit by about 60 decibals.
Thus we would no longer be able to display on the lot with the rest of the
trucks that night. Stacy, who is promoter Chris Arel's right hand man, was
dealing with the police in a friendly manor when Mike decided to have a
little fun and have the other officer handcuff him while we took some
pictures. Stacy was giving the first officer some free tickets for his
family when the second officer hand cuffed him. It was great as Stacy was
thinking of swearing in French and trying to speak in English and his face
in the pictures told the rest of the story. From there on, Kristy became the full-time
driver of Jurassic Attack. She did very well in Provost and took on the
bus stack several times and also got the hang of doing some slap wheels.
She did well all weekend but Maniac did not. After a nice hit on the bus
stack, the Maniac motor decided to throw a rod out the side of the pan
destroying the whole motor. We had to be in California in a few days and
it was decided to run with just the Jurassic truck while repairs were
being made to Maniac. After this weekend I knew had no regrets about
hiring Kristy and that she was going to be a great replacement for a truck
that had been driven by Weenk brothers for the past 12 years. Our California trip consisted of three events in
about 10 days and this is where Kristy did great in Calistoga where most
of the first video of her is from. We also did the Kaboom event in Pomona,
CA and things went well there. In the last California event of the tour
she was really starting to shine and getting some pretty good air when the
truck decided if was time for her to see how wild this sport can get and
rolled onto it's side. By the time officials got to her she had the fuel
and power off and the truck in park and was out of there. She said she
even remembered to hold her self up while undoing the belts. She finished
the night with two more great freestyles. It was time to get back home and
get the motor back in Maniac for the Airtime Motorsports 3 show tour. The tour consisted of shows in Winnipeg,
Estevan, and Lethbridge and had a good lineup of 6 trucks--Maniac,
Jurassic Attack, Poison, Shattered, Martail Law, and Eliminator. Winnipeg
had a wheelie competion, racing, and freestyle over the two days. The
wheelie competitions were split between Maniac and Scott Anderson's
Poison. Race wins would go to Maniac and Martial Law. The freestyle wins
would both go to rookie driver Kristy Edge in Jurassic Attack. Saturday
freestyles between Jurassic Attack and Maniac were very close and the
crowd broke the tie. On Sunday it was all Kristy Edge in Jurassic Attack
with an easy win after Kristy ended her freestyle by hitting the bus stack
and rolling the truck over backwards. The crowd loved it! The events
also featured backfliping FMX and tuff trucks. The next stop was Estevan, Saskatchewan with a
great show and a sell out crowd. It was a one night only show with 3
rounds of freestyle and the crowd loved it. It turned out to be a tough
night on equipment but almost everyone made it out for all three rounds.
At the end of the night Maniac would take the overall win with a borrowed
tire off of Jurassic Attack who had Transmission trouble. Poison would
also go down at the end of the night with a broken rim. One standout for
the night was one of the youngest drivers on tour, Scotty Anderson driving
Shattered, doing a great job of freestyling the truck after being it it
only a few times. Next stop was Lethbridge for the final Airtime
Motorsports show. This show also featured the extreemeriderz Spot Bike
Stunt Team (http://www.extremeriderz.com).
They put on a incredible show with 5 bikes doing every thing possible on a
streetbike. Again this show was a 3 freestyle format and Jurassic Attack
would come out on top with great runs by all six trucks. In the end Maniac
was out due to broken suspension parts and Kristy Edge would go on to
destroy the badly damaged Jurassic Attack body while jumping the double
van stack causing her to run without a body the last run. It was the
original body on that truck and had been on there for 8 years and survived
8 rollovers. A good part of it is still repairable now that we have the
molds.
The following weekend we were off to the
Edmonton, Alberta Monster Jam. This was Kristy's first taste of serious
racing and she was also the first female driver from Canada to race in a
Monster Jam event. The trucks in competion for the weekend were Maniac,
Jurassic Attack (wearing an old Maniac body named MS. Maniac, Grave
Digger, Bulldozer, and Sheer Insanity.
It was a long Minneapolis style
track that turned out to be very muddy on Friday night. The show featured
a wheelie competion, racing, a donut contest and freestyle. In the wheelie
contest, Alex Blackwell would take the well deserved win in Bulldozer,
with Maniac and Grave Digger tying for second followed by Sheer Insanity
and Jurassic Attack. In racing Jurassic was eliminated early, while Maniac
would take out Grave Digger in the semi final and Bulldozer defeated Sheer
Insanity. In the final it was Maniac taking the win for the SPITZ race
team on the long two lap final round. In the donut contest Digger and Bulldozer
received perfect 30's with the win going to Digger followed by Maniac,
Sheer Insanity and Jurassic Attack. In freestyle it was Grave Digger
taking the win with a 30 followed Bulldozer 26, Maniac 24, Jurassic Attack
22 and Sheer Insanity 16. On Saturday things started out the same with
Alex in Bulldozer taking the wheele win with a 27 Followed by Digger with
26, Maniac 21, Jurassic 20 and Sheer Insanity 18. Alex would also go on to
defeat fast loser Jurassic Attack, while Grave Digger took out Maniac in
the semi-final. In the final it was all Bulldozer taking the convincing
win. In the donut competition, it was also Alex's night as he also took
the win with a 30. Jurassic attack and Maniac would tie for second with
27's followed by Sheer Insanity 25 and Grave Digger 24. In Saturday night's freestyle it would be Grave
Digger taking the win and ending upside down scoring a 30. Other scores
included Bulldozer a 26, Jurassic Attack a 21, Sheer Insanity 19 and
Maniac scoring a lame 18 because of a killer mix-up and no explanation as
to what the trouble was so I left the track only to find out later I could
have keep going.
Sunday was a strong day for the Spitz (www.spitz.ca)
team as well as Kristy was starting to get the hang of the wide turns at
high speed but first, the wheelie competion ended with Bulldozer the
winner again in a cheer off with Digger. Both scored 28, Jurassic a 24,
Maniac a 21 and Sheer Insanity with 15. In racing Kristy Edge in Jurassic Attack took
out Don Frankish in Maniac in the first round. I thought she was brought
back as the fast loser only to watch the tape on Monday to find that she
beat me fair and fast. There is video in our latest video clip and she is
carying some speed into the last turn and makes it look easy. I would come
back as fast loser only to lose to Bulldozer in the semi and Kristy would
face Digger only to end the run by putting the truck on it's side.
Bulldozer would take the racing final. The donut contest was where Kristy Edge would
capture her first ever monster Jam win on her first weekend running for
USHRA in a tie breaking applause from the crowd. Both SPITZ backed trucks
scored perfect 30's with Jurassic taking the win with the MS. Maniac 1996
Ford body on the truck. Bulldozer and Digger would settle for scores of 27
and Sheer Insanity a 24. Digger would once again win freestyle with a 30
Maniac in second with a 24, Jurassic third with 23 and Sheer Insanity a
15. It was a great weekend overall. Our next stop was the Lethbridge International
Airshow. It was two shows a day on Saturday and Sunday for the monster
trucks and pretty easy stuff with only 4 cars and a wheelie car. The best
part was moving the trucks around after the event for photos with some of
the fighter pilots. They had as much fun in our cockpits as we did in
theirs. Still couldn't snag a ride in something capable of breaking the
sound bearier though.
See below for a video
of some of Kristy's recent highlights:
That pretty well brings us up to date with a few
other things worth mentioning, Nathan Weenk's new ride is a 2006 Monte
Carlo back where I believe he truly feels at home and runs 100% every time
out in what used to be CASCAR and is now called
Western Elite. He has also been filling
in in monsters now and then and took a win over Grave Digger in the Ninja
Turtle a while back. I'm sure we will see more of him from time to time. Other big news in the Weenk family is Linsey
Weenk (former Jurassic Attack driver) moving from Iron Outlaw to the Blue
Thunder camp for LiveNation Motorsports. I think he will have incredible
success in this truck and am very happy to see him take his career even
farther in this sport. I expect to see a lot of wins in freestyle and
racing out of Linsey in 2008. As for Iron Outlaw I'm sure Jimmy Creten
will always have a winning truck and driver combination in his equipment. Also we are working with LiveNation to bring
Jurassic Attack to Europe by sending a new Jurassic Attack body to them to
be painted and mounted on Alex Blackwell's Bulldozer chassis. I will be
driving it in Arnhem, in The Netherlands and Cardiff, in the United
Kingdom coming up soon. I am looking forward to the trip and don't worry
Alex, I will treat it like I treat mine. Also in this update are a few video clips done
by the local news on me and Kristy:
There is also
a cool new surprise in the works from Kristy and Jurassic Attack but you
will have to stop back next week to see what it is!
.:
Tales of the Tour -
03/20/07:.
The
team has been all over the place in the first quarter, and we are proud to
bring you a new "Tales of the Tour" recapping the year's events thus far!!
01/13/07 - ANAHEIM, CA
Our first stop
was in Anahiem CA, which saw some tough luck to start out the season for
Maniac--tearing off the rear drive shaft, taking out the complete
drive-line, breaks and knocking the pinion off the rear differential.
Jurassic went on to the first round and also put on a very good freestyle.
It was also the debut of Dawn Creten's new Scarlet Bandit truck. I would
have to say it is probbaly the nicest truck ever built. We also have to
mention that Niel went on to win racing in Max D and Charlie went on to
win Freestyle in Grave Digger.
01/20/07 - SAN DIEGO, CA
Next stop was
San Diego: Don qualifed Maniac in the # 2 position behind Bounty Hunter
but the luck ended soon after as in the first round the transmission
started to slip badly. Jurassic had a good quilifying run and made it to
the secend round of racing. Both trucks had great freestyle runs.
01/27/07 - ANAHEIM, CA
Back to
Anahiem again for what started out as a great run to the finals for Maniac
only to have a steering selanoid short out, not allowing the truck to
restart on the line. It was one of my most disapointing nights in 17 years
of racing monster trucks. Tropical Thunder would take the win in racing
and Digger in freestyle. Both Spitz backed trucks did well in freestyle.
02/02-04/07 - EDMONTON, ALBERTA
Friday - A
quick stop at home on our way to Edmonton and we were back to doing
smaller 3 day events for the next couple of weeks. Friday's events would
have Jurassic taking a 2nd to Hot Wheels in the Wheele competion, and
losing the left rear wheel in the first round of racing. The same lane and
round the Scott Anderson in Aracnaphobia lost rear wheels in the past two
years. Next year the real race will be for lane choice. Jurassic was done
for the night. Maniac went on to win the final on Friday and Digger won
freestyle with a 27 score to Maniac's 24 for 2nd place. Saturday - In the wheeles it was Jurassic taking
2nd to Digger and then we moved on to racing. In the semi final it was
Jurassic Attack vs Maniac with Nathan taking the win. He would then go on
to the final to take out Grave Digger in racing. In freestyle Digger would
take the win with a 27 and Maniac would take 2nd with a 25. Sunday - Digger would win the wheele
contest and In Racing Nathan would take Jurassic Attack all the way to the
finals, but for the first time all weekend Grave Digger would take the
racing win. In freestyle Maniac would take a secend again to Grave Digger.
02/09-11/07 - PORTLAND, OR
This was
written by our crew member Darron: "Hey ya’ll. This is Darron (a.k.a.
Q-Tip) back for another installment of "Tales of the Tour". Our stop this
week took us out to the west coast where we did three shows in Portland.
As I am writing this, I am sitting in Salt Lake waiting for my flight back
to Montana that was canceled due to snow. Only ten more hours to kill!
Something about monster trucks is that it seems like you are doing nothing
or have everything to do. For me, it seems like that line is crossed when
the trucks are within ear-shot. This weekend was one that will be remembered.
Friday night started off well with Don and Nathan both doing some nice
wheelies and Don taking out Digger in the first round of racing. Then
freestyle started off the real fun of the weekend. On Nathan’s first hit
on the row of cars, he managed to slice a right rear tire big enough that
I could stick my fist through the cut in the pan of a tread. So…We are on
the coast and our spare tires are in Lethbridge. What do you do? Well,
Saturday morning was staring us in the face way too early when an idea was
hatched. The tire was drilled and stitched back together with
deep-sea-fishing line and then booted with a patch on the inside. It was a
crazy idea that made most of the night. About 45 seconds into Nathan’s
freestyle, the cut ran and truly ruined the tire. It did, however, survive
intros, wheelie contest, and most of freestyle. Not something that you
would want to have to do every day, but it worked most of the night. I
thought about taking it home and making a table out of the junk tire, but
I don’t think that it would fit in the overhead bins. Luckily, a
replacement tire was found and mounted (stubborn 10-ply) for Sunday. Good
luck shaving that one up Nathan! So with two freestyles cut short because
of tires, Nathan was really getting after it for the Sunday freestyle.
That run was cut short after a huge launch off of the FMX hill put a
hurtin’ on a rear spindle. Luckily the tire stayed out of the bodywork
(for the most part) and was put back together shortly after autographs
were done. Don ended up having a very solid weekend. He
made it to the semi-finals each night. Unfortunately most of the stuff was
beat down when his turn for freestyle came around, but he just stuck his
foot in it just that much harder. Several launches off the FMX ramp for
the weekend capped some very nice freestyles. A big shout has to go out to Phil Foster for the
weekend. Between playing tire seamstress and beating that 10-ply into
submission, Phil was getting after it. Phil, you are awesome. "Super" Dave
also managed to get put to work after about 15 seconds of hanging out with
us and was a huge help all weekend. Next week the guys get to go to the
icebox in Saskatoon, SK. Catch ya’ll later. - Darron"
02/16-18/07 - SASKATOON. SK
Saskatoon was
a great event and our only non Monster Jam of the first quarter. The
trucks included Maniac, Jurassic Attack, Godzilla, Sheer Insanity and TNT. Friday would see Maniac take the racing win over
Jurassic Attack. Jurassic Attack would take the freestyle win of the
night. Saturday would see Nathan taking the
racing win over Maniac and all 5 trucks had great freestyles. There was a
car pyramid that sent Godzilla on its roof and allowed Maniac and Jurassic
Attack to get by far the most air Saskatoon has ever seen. Jurassic would
take another freestyle win. Sunday was another awesome show with a little
change in store for the Maniac truck. You may remember a girl named Kristy
Edge doing a freestyle in Maniac last summer in Lethbridge. Well she was
back in the drivers seat of Maniac for the racing in Saskatoon leaving her
boss Paul Mayfield to drive the Firestorm ride truck. (http://www.monsterridetruck.com)
She started the night with quick reaction times but was a little
intimadated by the smaller floor at the finish line causing her to get on
the breaks a little hard. The FMX riders were impressed by her nose
wheeles. In the end she would get it figured out and took Maniac to the
finals aganst Nathan in Jurassic Attack. There reaction times were
identical but Nathan took home the win. I jumped back into Maniac for
freestyle only to have Jurassic take the win again. Nathan had a great
weekend winning 5 out of 6 events, What a incredible way to end his last
show in front of his hometown crowd. Just for the record I think he has
won 9 out of 9 freestyles there over the last 3 years and believe me, I
make him earn them.
02/23-25/07 - WINNIPEG. MAN.
Winnipeg would
feature Grave Digger, Hot Wheels, Shattered, Arachnophobia, Jurassic
Attack and Maniac. On Friday digger would win the wheeles despite
some incredible wheeles out of Matt Powers in Shattered. I have always
considered Matt to be one of those drivers that could go along way if ever
given a truck with unlimited budget backing. They improved the shock setup
in Shattered the week before Winnipeg and it show in the way Matt is
driving the truck. Hot Wheels would go on to win racing against
Scott Anderson in Arachnophobia and Charlie would take Grave Digger to the
Freestyle win. Saturday looked to be Frank Krmels Night as he
won the Wheele competion. Then in Racing Jurassic would set the fast
qualifing time after spending the whole day rebuilding the transfer case
in the pits. Many thought he would be lucky make it in for freestyle but
with the help of the Digger and Hot Wheels crew it made the whole event.
He then went on to take out Hot Wheels and pair up aginst Maniac in the
final. It was a photo finish for both Spitz backed trucks with the
dinosaur taking the win. Saturday night's freestyle was a great show by
all trucks with Frank Krmel leading and Maniac in secend when Digger came
out and roofed it on the first hit. According to Monster Jam rules he had to be
given a score at this point. There was talk of letting him continue his
run for a score until Frank and I went to the announcer to point out this
rule. Actually when the crowd turned on Frank like an angry mob, I stayed
away from the mike! He back-pedaled fast and got them back on his
side when he said he wanted to see Digger do an encore freestyle . Hot
Wheels got the win and Charlie rocked the place with a spectacular
freestyle just for the crowd. Sunday, Jurassic would take a 2nd place to
Digger in the wheelie competion on Sunday's show. In racing it was a Hot
Wheels vs Digger final with Digger taking the win. Charlie would also win
the freestyle again.
03/02-04/07 - CALGARY, ALB.
It was the
closest event we have on the Monster Jam circuit and we started the
weekend with a win--Maniac in racing, taking out Monster Mutt, Grave
Digger and Hot Wheels in the Final. Digger would win both wheelies and
freestyle on Friday night. Saturday saw Digger win everythig with very good
runs out of everyone in freestyle. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with
Charlie winning all three events.
03/09-11/07 - RENO, NV
It was off to
Reno next with some of the hardest competion we had seen all year with the
likes of Bounty Hunter, Iron Outlaw, Bulldozer and Chad Tingler in Grave
Digger. In racing it turned out to be all Team CSK with Jimmy taking the
win twice and Linsey once. In freestyle it was all Chad Tingler in Grave
Digger taking the wins. Everyone did well and made him earn it including
Bounty Hunter tying the score on Friday, only to have the crowd favor
Digger. It was a great weekend hanging with everyone in
Reno including my brother Kirk Frankish. He drove monster trucks in the
past including his truck Taurus, Wild Thing as well as Bigfoot, Snakebite,
and the Skoal Bandit.
Well, that
concludes the Monster Jam season and we're off to display at the Monster
Jam World Finals in Las Vegas. A event I would love to see from the
drivers seat someday. Stop by and say hi and grab a free bag of SPITZ
Sunflower seeds.
