Just look at the last three events that are part of this year's Monster Jam on Speed TV schedule: Tony Farrell drives Blue Thunder to his first ever racing event win on Speed by winning at Ford Field in Detroit. Lee O'Donnell pilots Taz to the championship in Orlando's Citrus Bowl, not just his first televised win but his first ever win in a stadium, and then in Phoenix 21-year old Adam Anderson continues his amazing fill-in performance in his Dad's Grave Digger for his initial stadium racing victory on American soil. Adam did win a stadium race last September in Arnhem, Holland, but this was his first racing title in a stadium event on Speed after starting 2007 with three straight freestyle wins.

Already thinking about my annual pre-Vegas odds column where I will handicap the entire World Finals field, this will be the toughest year ever to figure the odds and hope to continue my streak of being pretty close, at least in forecasting the final four. You hear the word parity so often in other major sports and it is obvious that we are seeing it in Monster Jam, especially in racing. There is so much new equipment on the circuit now to go with some amazing new driving talent that combined with the seasoning of some veteran racers, creating an enviornment where it's hard to pick a favorite any more. It won't surprise me if we get another first time racing winner this coming weekend at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Freestyle trophies have been going home exclusively with the Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction teams so far this year although Jimmy Creten jumped into the mix when the 2005 World Freestyle Champion won the Phoenix freestyle in his Bounty Hunter Ford Expedition. Digger and Max-D will head to Las Vegas in March as the favorites to win the freestyle crown, but the margin of error for the big two has been greatly reduced. Certainly Creten's Arizona win serves notice that he will be rght there in contention and another former World Freestyle Champion, Jim Koehler, in my opinion, is having his best season ever in Avenger. Koehler hasn't won any of the TV events this year but he has been near the top each time and has forced Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction to be at their absolute best to beat him. Mr. Excitement will have a real shot at a second title this year, believe me.

The new talent in the sport also figures to make it tough on Tom Meents and Dennis Anderson in pursuit of the freestyle world title. A couple of prime examples of that are Courtney Jolly and Damon Bradshaw. Jolly scored a 29 in Detroit and only a perfect score of 30 in Max-D allowed Meents to win the event. Bradshaw, who has less than a half-dozen stadium freestyles under his belt, got a standing ovation from more than 65,000 in Orlando's Citrus Bowl following his best run ever. "The Beast" finsihed in second place, only one point short of Neil Elliot's winning score in Maximum Destruction. If Meents or Elliot had been off by even the slightest amount in Detroit or Orlando we'd be talking about a breakthrough win for Jolly or Bradhaw, maybe both. So Tom and Denniis will have to bring their A+ game to hold off the throng of contenders ready to pursue the freestyle championship.

Bradshaw's phenomenal run in Orlando ended up being a testament to the safety and technology that make this sport so safe at a time when the trucks are going higher, farther, and crashing harder than ever before. Bradshaw ended his brilliant performance by crashing his Air Force Afterburner on to its roof, and at that point the machine erupted in flames. I haven't personally witnessed that much fire on a truck since the much replayed crash Steve Dane had in Awesome Kong at Myrtle Beach Speedway almost two decades ago. Most notable from a safety standpoint was how valuable the quick release harness was to Bradshaw. As soon as Air Force Afterburner came to a stop and the fire started Bradshaw had popped off his belts and was out of the truck and well out of harm's way. I want to study the replay and see how long it took Bradshaw to actually escape, but watching the scene live it seemed like he was out in 10 or 15 seconds. With Damon out of the Air Force machine the USHRA officials proved why they are the best in the business. Jim Ursini, Kevin Krohn, Art Dougherty, Mike Rowinski, Brian Braunschweig, and the rest of the team of officials in Orlando under Sean Sermini and Ryan Westlake's direction, had the huge fire out extremely quickly. It showed me how valuable the extensive safety training that the USHRA provides for its tech officials is. From all the extinguishers being positioned in just the right places to the calm, efficient procedures the officials followed this was a perfect example of the priorty placed on safety in the Monster Jam series, and on how advance planning and training pay big dividends when they are needed. One of the sanctioning body's top safety officials, Rico Hawkes, was at the Citrus Bowl and had to be impressed with the effectiveness of his team's safety measures.

Back to the parity discussion. If any one questions just how wide open racing has become at the top level of the USHRA I'll just point to Orlando to make the case. The last four racing winners in Orlando have been Lee O'Donnell in Taz, Steve Reynolds in Cowboy, Scott Hartsock in Gunslinger, and Jim Jack in Reptoid.....Houston's another example. The Speed cameras will be at Reliant Stadium for this Saturday's event, an event last February that saw Carl Van Horn win racing in T-Maxx and David Smith take the freestyle trophy in King Krunch.....maybe the most disappointed driver last weekend in Orlando was young Deric Evans. He was not unhappy with his performance, in fact his freestyle run in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was the best I've seen from him. He was disappointed that he didn't get the chance to race his Dad, Dan Evans who was in the field in Destroyer. Sticking up for us old school guys I have to warn Deric of one thing: be careful what you wish for young man! Somehow I think Dad is looking forward to that match-up, whenever it comes, as much as his son. I just wonder who Mom will be cheering for. My guess is that with Lorrie being the Crew Chief on the Destroyer she may be more concerned about the condition the old man brings the truck back to her in rather than who crosses the finish line first.