As those of us in the Monster Jam world enjoy the holidays and wish the most wonderful of holiday greetings to all of the great fans of the sport, this is also the time of the year that everyone involved is feverishly working toward the beginning of January and the annual week-to-week winter grind that will culminate with the crowning of the 2006 World Champions March 26 th at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

One of the unique aspects of the way the major monster events are scheduled these days is that we actually get a fall preview of what to expect before we hit the every Saturday night battles in January, February, and March that lead up to the Monster Jam World Finals. The October event in Montreal and the Minneapolis Monster Jam in December actually begin the new season, and what we saw in those two locales was that we might just be heading into the most unpredictable, competitive and spectacular season since monster trucks starting racing each other and freestyling to turn on the fans.

With two racing events and two freestyle competitions in the books for the new Speed Channel season one of the first things to jump out at you is that Dennis Anderson has not won an event yet this season, and Tom Meents’ only trip to the winners stage was as part of a three way tie for the top freestyle score in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. Even though the crowd selected Meents and Maximum Destruction as the winner that night over reigning World Champion Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter and Charlie Pauken in Taz (during a cheer-off to break the tie) it appears that the days of major dome and stadium events being dominated by Meents and Anderson’s Grave Digger are over. Those two are still at the top of the monster truck food chain, for sure, but they have to make room for lots of company now. Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction still head into 2006 as the trucks to beat on a weekly basis, but never before have so many contenders appeared to be ready to challenge the legends for the triumphs.

If anyone has dominated this fall, you would have to say that it has been newcomer Lindsey Weenk in Iron Outlaw from Creten’s 2Xtreme race team. Weenk won the racing events in both Montreal and Minneapolis, and knocked off both Anderson and Creten each time. This kid is for real and his equipment is first class, state-of-the-art, exactly what our sponsor means with the phrase “Built Ford Tough”. A look at the individual round racing statistics after the first two events of the season is both revealing and stunning. Weenk is 7 and 0 in round racing, the type of gaudy numbers you get when you are winning events. But along with Iron Outlaw only Bounty Hunter and Grave Digger have winning records so far this season race to race. Both Anderson and Creten have 4 wins and 2 losses on their ledger for the new season. No one else is over .500 so far, including six-time World Champion Meents, who has an un-Maximum Destruction like record of no wins against 2 losses.

Last year the only thing that seemed to stop Meents was equipment problems. During the 2005 season Tom was 21 and 2 in round racing on television, winning almost every event he was in unless the equipment failed. So far this season the equipment is holding up for the most part but Meents hasn’t won a race; so watch out in the Silverdome, boys and girls, when Monster Jam makes one last appearance in that historic Michigan facility to begin January’s schedule. It’s hard to see a Meents losing streak continuing and with all the hype surrounding the final Monster Jam in that storied dome, and with a Vegas-like 20 truck field scheduled to compete, that is just the kind of event that brings out the best in the “King of Air”.

You may have noticed this recap of early season racing has not included the name Madusa, the reigning World Racing Champion. That’s because she spent the fall participating in the historic Monster Jam tour across Europe, where she proved to one of the most popular, maybe the most popular, driver with the European fans. She will have plenty of opportunity to defend her title against the top superstars in the sport during the coming months as she heads back to Las Vegas in search of more championship gold.

Maybe more surprising so far this season is the realization that parity is not just reaching the racing side of the sport, but freestyle as well. Another young gun, Paul Cohen, was brilliant driving Pastrana 199 in Minneapolis and won the event over a star-studded line-up that included the likes of champion Bounty Hunter, Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction. Cohen was a no doubt winner and the judges got it exactly right. Although I’d like to see the judges select a winner and not leave us with a three-way tie, I sure understand the dilemma they had in Montreal, which was, start to finish, an incredible competition where every truck rose to the occasion. The best of the best that night, Meents, Creten, and Pauken, were each so different and spectacular it would be hard for anyone to decide which of the trio actually won the competition. That was one of those competitions where everyone you talked to after the freestyle though a different truck had won. Another interesting result is that of the trucks who competed in both Montreal and Minneapolis the best average freestyle score belongs to Creten, proving that the current World Freestyle Champion is serious about defending his crown.

We’ve already seen Dennis Anderson debut a new truck for the new season, his son Adam begin his dome and stadium career, the emergence of new stars (most notably the previously mentioned Cohen and Weenk), and some of the closest, most exciting competition ever. And that’s just from two events. Heading into 2006 more new trucks are on the way, the top talent that has been in Europe returns for the big winter battles, a night for the ages is already scheduled for the Silverdome finale, and the biggest and best field ever assembled will be in Las Vegas to determine the new Monster Jam World Champions. So here’s wishing everyone the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Year’s. Enjoy the holidays. Then it will be time to cross the country and thrill to the most exciting Monster Jam season ever. I know I speak for fans across the nation, now actually all over the world, when I say I just can’t wait for January to get here and to start jammin’ with the monsters in 2006!