Monster Trucks are Monster Family Fun

Vehiblog was invited to attend the Monster Jam, monster truck racing at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL, March 14th, 2014.

It had been awhile since we had been to a monster truck event and a little research yielded some surprising information about how these vehicles have evolved over the years. Long gone are the cobbled together trucks with giant tires like the old Bigfoot's of the 1980's. These trucks are purpose built, and they mean business. Trucks have custom built frames with external dimensions around 12' tall by 12' wide and weigh almost five tons. The trucks are powered by custom 575 cubic inch engines that are supercharged, run off of methanol, and produce 1,500 horsepower. Tires are 66" high and 43" wide and are operated by a twin steering system to keep the trucks maneuverable even in smaller arenas.

Custom engines produce 1,500 horsepower

Dual shocks at each wheel handle the impacts

One thing that really impressed us was how accessible the drivers and trucks were to fans during the Party In The Pits before the racing began. The trucks had a little bit of warning tape around them but other than that you could walk right up and check them all out. Much to the excitement of fans, young and old alike, all the  drivers were available to answer questions, sign autographs, or just say hello.

Jim Tracey, driver of Higher Education give a young fan an autograph

The line for Grave Digger stretched the entire length of the arena floor

Now lets take a look at the six trucks and drivers that raced:

Jeffrey Anderson driving Iron Warrior

Andy Hoffman driving War Wagon (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Ed Eckert driving Full Boar (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Whit Tarlton driving Monster Mutt (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Jim Tracey driving Higher Education (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Gary Porter driving Grave Digger (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Throughout the course of the night there were five different events that all the drivers participated in. Wheelie competition, maniac time challenge, head to head racing, donut competition, and freestyle competition.

Grave Digger won the wheelie competition with 25 points. (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Grave Digger won the maniac time challenge with a 12.94 second run (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

War Wagon upset Grave Digger to win the head to head racing (Image courtesy of Amy Stitt)

Grave Digger won the donut competition with 27 points.

Grave digger took the final, and most popular event of the evening, freestyle.

Given the smaller size of the Von Braun Center arena, and the fact all the trucks remained inside the arena the entire time, the drivers exerted some impressive skills keeping their vehicles shiny side up and out of the rears of their competitors 

If you're in the Las Vegas, Nevada area March 20-22, 2014 be sure to check out the Monster Jam XV world finals. 32 trucks are scheduled to compete.