Now a month into the 2005 Monster Jam campaign we've seen some surprises, yes, but the dominant theme so far this year is that Tom Meents is back on top, and right now his Maximum Destruction rates as the early favorite to win both the racing and freestyle titles again at the Monster Jam World Finals March 19th in Las Vegas.

Meents' has won of five of the six competitions on Speed Channel that he has competed in so far during this calendar year. The only win he has missed out on since the New Year was the racing competition in Atlanta, when a freak accident during introductions broke off a front wheel and sidelined him from that night's bracket. The Max-D crew fixed the wheel in time for Meents to come back later that night and win the Atlanta freestyle, and he followed that up with sweeps of the racing and freestyle in both New Orleans and Tampa.

While Meents, at least so far, has elevated his game above the rest, the parity in the sport still remains as everyone else battles to challenge Maximum Destruction, and Atlanta was a perfect example of that. On an exciting head to head course with a star-studded field that included the likes of reigning World Champion (racing) Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger XIX, World Freestyle co-champs Meents in Maximum Destruction and Madusa, Norm Miller in the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder, and former Rookie of the Year George Balhan driving the awesome new Escalade, it was an unlikely pair that lined-up to race for the event championship: veteran Alan Pezo driving Predator against Chad Fortune, completing a wildly successful debut outing in the brand new Superman truck.

Pezo showed the guile of a talent that has been around this game a long time, taking advantage of every opportunity. He lost a second round match-up to Superman, but obviously learned plenty even in the defeat and was still alive since the fastest second round loser, which he was, made the semifinals. In the semis he stayed right there throughout the race with fastest qualifier Grave Digger, and even though the Digger crossed the Ford Finish Line first, Anderson had knocked over a turning pole. Pezo and Predator were well within five seconds of Grave Digger's time and that five second penalty eliminated Anderson and put Pezo in the finale, where he avenged his earlier loss to Fortune, Predator edging Superman in an exciting championship race to claim the coveted Atlanta racing triumph.

As for Superman, you have to be extremely impressed with Fortune's performances so far this season. This is not NASCAR where a new machine goes into a race only after extensive testing. Fortune rolled this new piece onto the Georgia clay in a true maiden voyage, and he shined all night. He was literally feet away from doing something almost unthinkable: to come out in a brand-new truck and win it all against the best teams and machines in the sport. He has gone on since to race strong each week and finished second to Meents in the racing finals at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.

For Fortune this Superman opportunity appears to be a perfect fit. Chad is probably the tallest driver in the sport and is certainly one of the most physically fit, a former star division one football player at the University of Louisville before spending time in pro football and in the physically demanding world of professional wrestling. Now several years into his monster truck career, having bounced between a few high profile teams that included a couple of years as the driver of Karl Malone's Power Forward, Fortune is finally in the right digs. Not only does he look like someone who should be driving a truck like Superman, he has showed throughout the first month of '05 that he can take the truck right to the front, right now. Keep an eye on Chad Fortune and Superman though these major winter stadium events.

Along with the surprising final round match-up in Atlanta racing between Predator and Superman, the freestyle in Atlanta also indicated this will be a wide open season full of thrills and excitement, but that Maximum Destruction will be the truck to beat. The scores all season have been extremely close. Veteran shoe Dan Evans was brilliant in Destroyer's Georgia Dome run and came within two points of what would probably have been the biggest freestyle win of his career. After posting a 25 early on Evans stayed in the hot seat at the top of the leader board almost the entire competition until Madusa showed her World Championship form and put up a 26 to grab the lead. Anderson and Grave Digger thrilled the fans next with some vintage Digger freestyle moves but didn't fill the entire time period and ended up in a tie with Destroyer, 25 points, as Meents brought Maximum Destruction on to the obstacle laden floor.

Meents' appearance in the Atlanta freestyle was a story unto itself. After the freak pre race mishap the Max-D team went into full thrashing mode, determined to make it into freestyle. Several other crews chipped in on the effort and just in time the wheel was fixed and Meents was flying all over the Georgia Dome, the site of some of his most spectacular moments in recent years. As great as Meents has been in Georgia before, this may have been his most amazing Peach State effort ever. The air he was getting was incredible, but on a landing with 15 seconds left in the run the left front wheel broke off again. Not done, Meents re-fired the truck and finished the blistering freestyle on three wheels, then for good measure his final move snapped off the right front wheel. The entire sold out Georgia Dome crowd, well in excess of 60,000, was standing and screaming as Meents triumphantly climbed to the top of his damaged piece, both front wheels missing, and was saluted with a long-standing ovation. The performance earned a score of 27 from the judges and the event win in Atlanta.

The momentum has built from there. Maximum Destruction grabbed the winner's race trophies in both New Orleans and Tampa, and frankly he was a no doubt freestyle winner in both locales as well. Again the other competitors keep pushing Meents to the limit to win and he continues to respond to the challenge. As an example, in Tampa John Seasock brought his new Traxxas T-Maxx on to a rain soaked muddy course and was outstanding, as were Guy Wood in Hot Wheels and co-World champ Madusa. Meents then came out and did amazing things in the Florida mud - if he hadn't been so great Madusa would have won another Florida event.

What about Grave Digger? While I haven't mentioned Dennis much in this article, he's still been the Digger, he's been thrilling the fans big time, but each week it seems like mistakes keep costing him chances at event wins. Twice Anderson has been eliminated from the race bracket due to five-second penalties he received for knocking over turning poles. In freestyle there are two reasons he hasn't won in 2005: he has not been using the full amount of time on the clock, and Meents has been brilliant and has filled out his allotted time. The judges, as they are supposed to do, have been making the superstars use the full 90 seconds to get the big scores, so it is imperative that Anderson manage the clock better in upcoming events to grab some wins. That's tough for Dennis though. He never, ever holds anything back, so he is susceptible to flipping the truck or breaking it with time still left on the clock. If he uses the full 90 he's always going to be hard to beat.

Something to watch over the next two months is the head to head match-ups between Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction in racing. Anderson, the 2004 racing World Champion, hasn't won an event yet in 2005. The penalties cost him in Atlanta and Tampa, and in New Orleans Meents beat him straight up in the racing finals. While he wants to win everywhere he goes you just know that Anderson's main focus is on retaining the World Championship, and he has been running strong. He'll take a lot of confidence into Vegas for sure, but I'd think that he'd like to grab a few wins before then, not only for his own momentum, but to get into Meents' head a little. Tom is so good that none of his rivals want to afford him the luxury of rolling into Sam Boyd Stadium on a winning streak with a feeling of invincibility. They all want to plant some seeds of doubt into Tom's helmet, and Anderson remains the man most likely to be able to do that.

What a way to start out 2005. The first month has been absolutely awesome. Maybe most exciting is the fact that we have just started, really, on the road to Vegas. Week in and week out fans better be ready for wide open competition where on a given night any of the top superstars is a contender to win the racing, and freestyles that will continue to raise the bar to new heights of excellence and amazing performances.