Monster Jam’s success throughout Europe has been amazing, and the success of three more huge stadium events in Arnhem, Holland, this past weekend emphasizes the continuing growth of the sport outside of the United States.
With three huge crowds to perform in front of the 12 Monster Jam superstars and their teams were on their game all weekend. In a real testimony to the hard working crews on hand every truck made it through all three events, with plenty of thrashing between and during the events to keep all of the machines in action. The work in the pits was non-stop, including an overnight and early morning project to repair a badly damaged Maximum Destruction truck. Tom Meents’ piece was broken badly at the end of his Saturday night freestyle yet thanks to Tom’s effort with his crew and crews from several other teams Max-D was not only ready for the Sunday afternoon weekend finale, but Meents was the fastest qualifier in racing, advanced all the way to the championship race before losing a close finale to Adam Anderson and Taz, then Maximum Destruction was still up to the task of performing a sizzling Meents freestyle that had the Dutch fans on their feet.
The Monster Jam officials made a great decision to take advantage of the huge floor in the Gelredome by creating a head-to-head racing course with the trucks starting in the center of the floor facing each other before thundering onto the huge oval track, and the fans were treated to the best races yet in the history of Monster Jam in the Netherlands. Several photo finishes had the crowd gasping, highlighted by a scintillating battle between Chad Tingler in Grave Digger and Dan Evans in Jetix that was a close to a dead heat as you can get. Tingler won the race, literally, by centimeters.
The pit parties at the events this time in Arnhem were attended by the most fans ever, and the Europeans quickly have picked up on trends we’ve seen for years at American events, most notably bring signs in support of their favorite Monster. It was easy to see just how much time many Dutch fans put into their support with big, artistic signs that were extremely visible at all three events. One nicely done sign simply said: “Tom Meents, Best in the World”, and Tom rewarded a young member of the family that had made that sign with his helmet after Sunday afternoon’s weekend wrap-up.
The Gelredome was the first domed stadium to host Monster Jam in Europe and it remains one of the real showplaces of the sport overseas. So successful is the relationship of the sport with this beautiful city in Holland that thousands of tickets have already been purchased for the 2008 Monster Jam in the Gelredome which is schedule for next September.
For six of the Monster Jam stars currently in Europe it’s right back to action this coming weekend with a trio of competitions to be contested in Antwerp, Belgium, another very popular annual location for Monster Jam. Meents, Tingler, and their counterparts will show their versatility by going from three big stadium shows to battling in a Thunder Nationals style event. While the floor may not be as big the action will be just as exciting in this more intimate setting where Monster Jam has been the most popular fall event in town for years. Look for another weekend of huge crowds, great races, big air, and wild freestyles this Saturday and Sunday with Monster Jam returning to the Sports Paleis in Antwerp.
