THE QUEST FOR ANOTHER WORLD TITLE – PART TWO OF MY INTERVIEW WITH TOM MEENTS

Last week in this column Tom Meents offered his thoughts on this year’s Monster Jam World Tour, as well as offering some insight in to his thought process when it comes to the spectacular, sometimes unprecedented freestyle moves that he has become famous for in his Maximum Destruction piece. This week more from my interview with the sport’s only seven-time World Champion, as we shift the focus to looking ahead to 2008 when Meents hopes to add to his record setting championship total.

At least in American motorsports, the number seven is special in championship terms. Considering that NASCAR’s two greatest drivers of all-time, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty each won seven NASCAR Cup championships it is easy to see why the number seven has such prestige for motorsports champions. For Tom Meents having seven Monster Jam World Championships is great, but he has no intention of stopping there. When I asked Tom if he still has the same drive to win more world titles he answered very quickly :”Oh absolutely. More than ever. You know I’ve put a lot into it this year, a lot into it in 2006 to win. But, man, with the numbers of trucks we have right now that alone means there’s a lot of luck involved along with a lot of skill. There are a lot of great drivers too and a lot of the equipment is getting to where it is less likely to break. But I still feel like I’m the man to beat there. I think if I can’t win it it’s maybe due to some breakage sometimes, so it’s if we can just keep it together. I say this every year but the equipment keeps getting better and better, so hopefully we can come out on top again next year.”

There may be no competitor as fierce as Meents in the business today, one of the reasons that no is surprised by his drive to add more titles. And it’s not just World Championships that Meents has the fire for. Still to this day Meents hits the track intent on winning every single round of racing and believing he can win every freestyle. “Yeah I’ve always wanted to win,” Meents continued. “Especially freestyle. I love freestyle. And if I don’t win freestyle I still want to be the guy that puts on the best show, you know, that’s what everybody talks about, that’s what everybody comes to see. I mean that’s what’s the most fun for me because you can bring a lot of originality into it, kind of do it how you want. I’m a huge fan of other freestyle sports. Motorcycles, anything to do with like the Dew Tour, all that kind of stuff. I mean that’s always been something that has driven me. And I’m glad to see that over the last 10 years we have gotten a lot more like them, and we are able to have a lot more of our own special creativity in what we do and the way we do it.”

To continue to stay at the top of the Monster Jam circuit Meents not only has to contend with many veterans he has battled for years, but he also has to hold off the most impressive array of new talent the sport has ever seen. “Some of the new drivers, it’s unbelievable,” Meents said. “To hear them complain about how they’re not a good driver yet with say, 10 shows under their belt, I just think to myself ‘man, you have the experience of looking at veterans who know what their doing, now you’re already better than I was after my sixth year  after 10 shows.’ It has a lot to do with the new safety equipment and they was the trucks work now, they don’t break now when you try to do something radical like they used to. They are a lot strong than they were just five years ago. That’s the crazy part about these new drivers. They get a lot of experience in a hurry. You know you see these guys that come on real hot. You think ‘boy, that guy’s going to be good.’ But sometimes they just get onto something, you know. I don’t want to take nothing away from Linsey Weenk, but he sure didn’t have as stellar a year this year as he did the year before. He was winning so many races, he got really hot there. But you know there is always one guy I have to be concerned about, he has a lot of staying power just like I believe I do, and that’s Dennis Anderson. We’ve been able to be hot at times and at times we’re cold but we always bring it back to the level we need to be at, and that’s the level to win.” Clearly the Tom Meents vs. Dennis Anderson rivalry will continue for years, but both of the sport’s biggest guns are well aware of just how talented many of the newest stars in the sport really are and they know that the new talent is coming after them harder each and every season.

Of all of the new talent that has strapped into a Monster Jam machine for the first time in recent years Damon Bradshaw is one driver who has already caught Meents’s eye: “He’s a racer through and through. He’s always been a racer. He’s been a champion in a different sport, and yeah, another one that has really come on this year and proved that he could do very well. He’s right there. I haven’t seen him win a real big event yet, but he has surely shown that he can. Sometimes you just need to get your appetite up, you need an appetizer. He’s had a couple of those in many ways. But it is going to be interesting to see how he handles that second year, then the third year. You know, to see if he has the staying power. It’s obvious that he does in other sports, but, you know, monster trucks are a little different.”

With Meents willing to offer his opinion on some of the new stars in the sport I just had to ask him for his thoughts on the hottest new superstar in the business, Adam Anderson. Tom responded: “Tough guy. Man he was on fire early in the year driving Dad’s truck. I think that he had so much pressure on him, and he rose to the occasion. I think that once he got out of that truck he didn’t have quite as much pressure to do well and maybe he just caught his breath a little bit. It is going to be interesting to see how he can do making a name for himself without the truck there to do it for him. You know he has proven to be great already and I see no reason why he won’t continue to be. He just has it in his blood and he’s always going to be tough.” With Adam filling in for his Dad in 2007 as Dennis recovered from a shoulder injury Meents had plenty of chances to battle Adam on the track, and they had some great tussles in ’07. With Adam ready to return to his Taz truck full time in 2008 Tom can expect to have plenty of showdowns with an Anderson, and often he’ll have to take on both in the same event. Tom told me that all of his opposition can get ready for him to bring out some new Max D equipment, which may surprise some since his team is known for keeping the same equipment on line. Tom’s piece is 8 year’s old, Neil Elliott’s Maximum Destruction is 7 years old. But he says that big changes are brewing. “We have some plans to do a new one,” Meents said as he looked toward the future. “It will be quite a different design. Not on a grand scale that the regular fan would see, but as far as us building it, and for us as drivers, it will be a lot different.”