Driving in Monster Jam is a thrill all in itself, but for me it’s taking on a whole new face. Driving a truck like Donkey Kong really puts thing into perspective. This past Thursday, in Tacoma, Washington it all came together, my crew chief Eric Schweikard (welcome back Eric!) and I had the pleasure of taking Donkey Kong home. Home meaning to the Nintendo of America offices. What a thrill to meet the people responsible for so many great innovations over the years in the video game industry. Also great to see was the enthusiasm for the Donkey Kong truck. I’ve mentioned this before, but I really do feel at home in the Donkey Kong truck, and part of a great team, with everyone at Nintendo.

 I’ll get you all caught up on what we’ve been up to the past few weeks. We started out in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is always cool, because that been our first show the last 2 years, so you get to know the area a little, and its always comforting heading into familiar cities. Another thing great about Council Bluffs, is it marked the return of Eric Schweikard to the team. Eric had moved on to do other things, but just like all of us, he is a racer to the core and when the opportunity for him to return came up, it just fit, and Christmas came twice for me this year! We had some great competition there with Neil Elliott in Max D, Chuck Warner in Bulldozer and Dawn Creten in Scarlet Bandit. It was Chicago style racing which is always tough. Dawn pick up a win in night one’s racing with Neil and Chuckie owning the weekend for the most part. After that we headed to San Antonio, Texas. The Alamodome has seen some awesome events in the past few years, and this weekend was no different. A stacked field of 16 trucks for 2 big stadium sized shows is a tall order, but all in all the fans left happy I think. Awesome runs turned in by Chad Fortune, Adam Anderson, and Kreg Christensen and of course Chuck Pauken in Grave Digger pulled off some magic as usual. The weekend wasn’t without its hiccups though, in the Saturday night show my truck Donkey Kong sheared off the front right spindle bolts. What a mess, but the wheel tethers put in place by the Monster Jam team did their job, and myself, Eric Schweikard and Adam Anderson worked late into the night to get it all repaired and ready to go. Its amazing at 4am how you can be having fun, but we sure were. All struggling with the heavy planetary hub, throwing clumps of grease at one another, its all good times. It’s that kind of stuff that makes all the work worth it. Jody was also putting in overtime getting Grave Digger back together. Jody sure has come a long way in a short amount of time. Working all summer in the NC Shop, he has had a big part in fabricating parts that you see on all of you favorite Monster Jam trucks. He truly is an asset to the team that’s for sure.

 After San Antonio, we were headed off to a big weekend in Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma is big for a few reasons. One, it’s very close to Redmond, Washington the home of Nintendo (Donkey Kong) and Second, the fact that there is 5 stadium sized shows in 3 days. It truly is a marathon. The great part is the place is close to sold out every night, so there is no time for slacking. As many of you know from some of my previous articles, I’m a big Hydroplane racing fan. This ties in here because northern Washington is the home to all the big time Unlimited Hydroplane drivers and most of the teams. So when I got up here I got in touch with Terry Troxell, who painted my racing helmet last year. It was great during a hectic weekend of shows to get to hang out with some great people and fellow racers. Terry’s stepson, Jeff Bernard is one of the youngest, and up and coming drivers on the ABRA Unlimited Hydroplane Tour. Along with J. Michael Kelly. Jeff drives for the Formulaboats.com team, (U-5) , and Mike drives the Spirit of Detroit(U-13). It’s pretty cool how different types of racing still have a common thread. It was great trading stories of Monster Truck highs and lows, and Boat racing highs and lows. The hospitality shown by Jeff and his family and Mike, and all there friends and family we met was just great. Oh yeah, Jeff’s girlfriend Christabelle makes some awesome Beef Stroganoff!!! I’m a pretty lucky guy; I get to race monster trucks every weekend from January through March, then soon after I’m going to head out to some of Jeff and Mikes races to be a spectator, which will be a relief for sure!! Also in Tacoma I had the privilege of running with some real veterans of monster trucks. I have a lot of respect for guys like Norm Miller and Jeff Bainter. Both of these guys have long, storied careers in monster trucks, and to were just another piece of the puzzle that made Tacoma 2008 a great event to get the season rolling for sure. The best part is, it was only the 3rd weekend out! So now it’s off to Anaheim, and then Oakland. We’re getting the tuck dialed in, I’m getting more comfortable in it, and our team is getting stronger ever week. Looks to me that we’ve only just begun. See ya out there. ---Frank Krmel