It has been an absolutely incredible start to the 2006 Monster Jam year, with record setting sellout crowds turning out for the huge Speed televised events at the Pontiac Silverdome in suburban Detroit and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to start the New Year. And all indications are that this season will just keep getting more exciting week after week as head toward the crowning of the new World Champions this March at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

The Silverdome event was destined to be special, and a sellout, as soon as it was created and tickets went on sale. Considering the history of monster trucks in that fabulous facility every Monster Jam fan wanted to be there knowing that this would be the last time the monsters would battle in that dome, now scheduled for demolition. The USHRA made sure the night would be memorable by scheduling a World Finals caliber 20-truck field for the final night in the Silverdome and the pre-event hype was off the charts. Every driver who competes in USHRA Monster Jam action wants to win every time out, but this was different. Drivers felt like this was an event they had to win, the historic significance of being the last driver to step on stage as a Silverdome champion being lost on no one. Unlike many big events that fall short, this one not only lived up to the hype, but surpassed it.

Starting with a huge four hour pre-race “Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits” that was attended by well over ten thousand adoring fans, every seat was filled and the fans were on fire from the first round of monster truck race qualifying. Race after race went down to the wire, several ending in photo finishes as each driver left every thing on the track in pursuit of history. Adding to the intrigue, with all of the premier superstars in action, was the prevailing story line surrounding upstart Linsey Weenk, trying to drive Iron Outlaw to a third straight televised win. Despite still being a relative unknown (but boy is that changing), the young Canadian has actually been involved in the monster truck industry for several years and is a real student of the sport, knowing and appreciating the legends who have built the sport as well as the legendary facilities like this one that have hosted so many years of thrills, excitement, and incredible competition. It was clear that this win had a major impact on him when he stepped onto the stage after again beating the best of the best to make it three consecutive racing triumphs. Weenk was well aware that as unbelievable as the start to this season has been for him, this was a win that will be more special as the years go on. It is a piece of history that he’ll remember fondly forever.

The Pontiac Freestyle Competition gave the fans everything that they could have wanted to close out the dome and they responded with huge standing ovations several times throughout. When you talk about tradition in this sport you start with Dennis Anderson and the Grave Digger and the fans in the Detroit area have always turned out huge for him. He loves the esteem that the fans hold him in there and over the years some of the all-time greatest Digger moments have come in the Silverdome, so it was no surprise that Dennis gave the fans there a finale to remember. Anderson’s perfect score was a perfect ending to more than two decades of excellence there.

After Grave Digger’s winning freestyle no one wanted to leave. All of the drivers came to the stage to get on the microphone for the fans and talk about this amazing experience and the crowd loved it, then it seemed as if everyone headed outside to the mini-dome there after Dennis invited the fans all to come out for a post race autograph party with live music that lasted for hours after the event. It was a fitting goodbye to a place as tradition filled as any. The great thing for the USHRA is that while the history book of Silverdome Monster Jams is now closed, the story in the Motor City does not end. A new tradition begins in March when Monster Jam makes its first ever appearance in the amazing new Ford Field, the site of this year’s NFL Super Bowl.

The only way to follow up that final night in the Silverdome was to head south to Atlanta where the Georgia Dome has been selling out for Monster Jam for the past several years, but this turned out to be the earliest sell out ever in the Peach State. Literally tens of thousands of fans couldn’t get a ticket to the hottest motorsports event of the Atlanta winter, and the fans were jacked up as soon as they came through the gate. The noise was deafening throughout the night, especially for Tom Meents and Maximum Destruction. Tom’s love affair with the Atlanta fans dates back to his driving for hometown hero Bill Goldberg years ago and has grown through his journey to the Team Meents machine and continues stronger than ever in Maximum Destruction. Tom was on a mission and became the first driver to win the new “Double Down” trophy by sweeping both racing and freestyle. The “Double Down” award, created in honor of that popular and special two-night package available to fans wanting the ultimate experience at the World Finals in Las Vegas, is a huge trophy that can only be won when the same driver and truck win the racing and the freestyle at the same Speed televised event. The trophy was transported from Montreal through Minneapolis and Detroit unclaimed but Meents nabbed it in Atlanta and has the hardware heading back to his Paxton, IL, home with the USHRA officials set to bring a new “Double Down” trophy to the next Speed event in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. Appropriately enough it is Tampa, a city that has also been home to annual Monster Jam sellouts, is the next stop on what is setting up to be the greatest season of Monster Jam ever, a season that may end up being witnessed by more fans “livin’ it live” than ever before. And the drivers are responding with incredible performances week after week, round after round. Monster Jam just keeps getting better and the fans are clearly pushing today’s superstars to greater heights every time out.