There really is nothing else like it. Just ask Bruce Heavner. Monsters on Main Street is a promotion unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in sports or frankly in any form of entertainment. I mean, can you go on line and register to win a concert by your favorite band in your hometown where you can give away all the tickets for free? How about a pro football or baseball game? Any chance that you can click on a website and register to win your own game in your own city? Not that I know of. But that’s exactly what Heavner won: a huge, full Monster Jam event in and around his hometown of Crete, IL, this past weekend. And what a weekend it was for Heavner, his family and the communities a little south of Chicago.

Treated all weekend like Monster Jam royalty, Heavner, his lovely wife, and children (wonderfully polite,. well behaved, and appreciative children, I might add) were the special guests at several functions featuring the superstars of the sport leading up to the actual event at Kankakee Motor Speedway, and during the event where Heavner, with the help of the area’s Ford dealers, had distributed some 5,000 free tickets to his family and friends as well as Monster Jam fans from all over. Heavner and his family were right in the middle of all the action. From joining all the Monster Jam stars for a wonderful dinner at Vic’s On Main Street in Crete Friday night, to hosting a special pit party in his hometown Saturday morning that featured a parade of Monsters driving through the downtown streets of the beautiful village of Crete (big thanks to the Mayor of Crete and the police and fire departments for allowing that unique experience to happen), through the on-site 3 hour Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits at the Speedway and throughout the event itself, Heavner and his family were at the center of it all.

How about these perks for the winner and his family: Heavner was driven onto the track by Deric Evans in the Blue Thunder ride truck during opening ceremonies where he was presented a huge trophy as the Monsters on Main Street winner by Ford Trucks Marketing manager Todd Eckert; Heavner’s family did a great job during the event as the judges for both the freestyle and wheelie competitions; it was Bruce and his adorable children who presented every winner with their trophies at the starters stand throughout the event; and then after Linsey Weenk ripped most of the body off of his Blue Thunder Ford Super Duty Eckert presented the winning family with the tailgate from the truck to take back home to Crete as the ultimate souvenir. Several times throughout the event the winner’s friends and family broke into chants of “Bruce, Bruce, Bruce” as a way of saying thanks to him for winning the promotion and bringing this huge event to them absolutely free. Again, just ask Bruce if there is anything else that you can win, in any type of a contest, which is even close to what his family won in Monsters on Main Street.

By the way, Heavner heard about Monsters on Main Street when he took his family to one of the popular Monster Jam events last winter at the Rosemont Horizon, clicked on Monsters on Main Street.com that night as soon as he got home from the Chicago area event, and soon found out he had won a special VIP trip to the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas as one of the five finalists thanks to Ford Trucks. As great as winning that trip was, when Heavner pulled the winning key at Sam Boyd Stadium to become this year’s Monsters on Main Street winner he truly was able to bring home the ultimate prize for Monster Jam fans.

Other news and notes from the great weekend at Monsters on Main Street: if you have not already heard the news, then the mention above of Linsey Weenk driving Blue Thunder probably comes as a shocker to you. Actually, many of us were stunned when Ford released the news of Weenk joining Tony Farrell on the Blue Thunder team. The announcement was made last Friday and Weenk debuted brilliantly in his new ride at Monster on Main Street, winning the Freestyle Competition in his first event for his new team. I’ll devote next week’s column to the move of Weenk to the Blue Thunder team in much more detail, but make no mistake about it, Weenk’s team change and the formidable combination of Weenk and Farrell for Ford’s top team was the talk of the weekend…..Dan Evans brought his brand new Destroyer to MoM and the piece looks awesome. A long time Chevy driver, Evans converted to Ford for his new digs and not only does the truck look awesome, it clearly will be a major contender on the track. Sticking with the familiar red and black colors, the new Destroyer graphics add a destroyer battle ship to the body and everybody I talked to loves the new design. Dan had tested his new machine but had not competed in it before the event at Kankakee Motor Speedway. Well, compete he sure did. On a long u-turn style course that was extended to a Chicago style oval for the finale, Evans’s new Destroyer was fast right out of the trailer, and he advanced all the way to the championship race where he narrowly lost to Marc McDonald in the Safe Auto Minimizer, and you only have to check the stats from the last two Monster Jam World Finals to know how fast McDonald is in the Safe Auto sponsored Ford. By the way, Evans didn’t just get on the phone and order a new truck after completely breaking in half his old Destroyer at the ’07 World Finals. No, it was Dan, Laurie, and Deric who built the new truck from the ground up and they did an amazing job. Don’t be surprised if 2008 becomes the best year ever in Dan Evans long Monster Jam career…..Back to the Safe Auto team, I believe that 2008 may just be the year that McDonald steps up to the next level and becomes a big time winner in both racing and freestyle. He is so consistently fast on any type of race course and is quickly turning in to one of the most improved freestyle shoe’s in the game…..I found it interesting that with the fans making hundreds of signs for the Monsters on Main Street event that, in my informal survey of the crowd, only Blue Thunder had more signs visible that Courtney Jolly’s Pastrana 199. The college co-ed was a real hit at all of the MoM festivities with the fans, especially the younger ones. Watching a four year old fan at a dead run go leaping into Courtney’s arms for a huge hug was just, well, an awesome moment…..It was great to see the fans at the event get behind Chuck Werner and his Hot Wheels Ford so strong. Clearly the Team Meents camp is wildly popular in its home state…..While the drivers love all of their young fans I think Charlie Pauken’s young son may have the most popular youngster on hand all weekend, and the little Pauken had a blast hanging with Dad and his rivals at all of the functions. It was no surprise to see the elder Pauken grab one of the beautiful trophies that Ford created for the event when he nailed an incredible sky wheelie in the Monster Mutt to win the night’s first competition…..A large number of the fans on hand had obviously seen the Monster Jam World Finals from this year either live, on Speed, or on the newly released DVD, because at the Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits fan after fan came up to Chad Fortune to get him to talk about the incredible finish to his freestyle where he left Superman standing on its nose…..The huge turn out of fans for all of the festivities included several familiar faces. Cowboy driver Steve Reynolds, who lives in Illinois, brought his family and grabbed a prime front row seat, and seemed to really enjoy a rare night as a spectator rather than as a driver…..Maximum Destruction/Hot Wheels driver Neil Elliot was on hand in support of Werner’s efforts, and drivers Chad Tingler and Alex Blackwell were in the pits throughout the event lending hands to everyone who needed a little extra help…. George Balhan came down for the event but left his Escalade at home. Still, the mohawk sporting superstar couldn’t sit on the sidelines, so he went back to his roots and jumped onto to a four wheeler to win Quad Wars for Team Illinois…..and all of us loved seeing Bobby Z, the former Monster Mutt driver, who came out as a fan and seemed to have a great time. Bobby looked great and everyone got a kick out of seeing him again.

The bottom line to the weekend: Monsters on Main Street is an event like no other, just an unbelievable gift from the best sponsor in motorsports, Ford Trucks, to the best fans in motorsports, the fans of Monster Jam!