GREAT STORIES AND AWESOME ACTION MAKE FOR MEMORABLE MINNY MONSTER JAM

The new Monster Jam winter season began Saturday in Minneapolis with a book full of interesting stories and a night full of incredible action making it a truly memorable event in the Metrodome, an evening that launches in style what promises to be one of the most intriguing and action packed Monster Jam campaigns we’ve ever seen.

An all-star line-up was on hand for the first event that will be seen on the 2008 Speed TV Monster Jam television series, and even before the first engine was fired the buzz in the huge dome was at a fever pitch. Dennis Anderson was back in the building where a year earlier he suffered a broken shoulder that sidelined him for almost all of 2007. How would the icon respond? Would he be back to his Grave Digger form, or would he struggle after missing so much of last season? Linsey Weenk was on hand to make his stadium debut for his new team driving the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder, and also in the field was two-thirds of the team he used to race for, with Bounty Hunter and Scarlet Bandit representing 2Xtreme racing. How would Linsey handle match-ups against his former bosses? What about Jimmy Creten? The word is that Creten was very upset with Weenk for bolting his operation and the Iron Outlaw ride. Would Creten be able to exact some revenge on the track? The newest truck in the sport debuted in Minneapolis, with Frank Krmel unveiling Donkey Kong for that concept truck’s world premier. Would that new team have an impact on the event? No longer a rookie, how would Damon Bradshaw perform, bringing his Air Force Afterburner back to the site where he made his Monster Jam debut in 2006? And don’t forget that seven-time World Champion Tom Meents was in the house. Looking for championship “number 8 in ‘08”, the theme his team was touting, could Tom open this season as impressively as he did last year when he won the Double Down trophy, taking both the racing and freestyle in Minneapolis? Rounding out the field was Chad Fortune, who was last seen by many standing on top of his Superman truck in Las Vegas at the Monster Jam World Finals with the big Ford planted into the bus ramp at the end of freestyle. Fortune has several years of Monster Jam competition under his belt, but interestingly enough, this was his first competition ever in the famous Metrodome. So it was a big night for Chad and the huge crowd of Superman fans on hand as well.

As the storylines played not only did the questions above get interesting answers, the fans in Minneapolis were constantly on their feet for what rates as possibly the most exciting and action packed December event ever held in one of Monster Jam’s most storied facilities. The Dennis Anderson story clearly took the top headlines, especially when it was capped off by Anderson turning in one of the greatest freestyle performances of his 26-year career, and that’s saying something. During the pit party, even though all the fans just wanted to tell the icon how happy they were to see him back in action in Minneapolis and how glad they were to know he was fully healed from the shoulder injury, Dennis kept apologizing to all of them, saying he owed them for not being able to complete the event after getting hurt last year. Even though no fans felt that he had let them down a year ago Dennis made up for it anyway with a freestyle that will be talked about for years to come, and from my perspective, a run that already makes ts tough in the Freestyle of the Year category for my Scotty Awards next year, considering Dennis’ run last night and Tom Meents’ performance in Maximum Destruction during the Monster Jam World Tour in Gothenburg, Sweden. Already I don’t know how to select one over the other, and we have three more months of thrills coming from the Monster Jam superstars before we started handing out the accolades.

When fans see Grave Digger’s freestyle on Speed they’ll be as amazed as the fans who were there live were at the unbelievable height of Anderson’s biggest jump, one of the largest leaps ever attained by any Monster Jam driver and his machine. Even Meents after his performance admitted he could not get the same air, all of us still amazed at just how high Dennis had soared. The landing did break the Black and Green Wrecking Machine, but not enough to stop the former three-time World Champion, who not only filled out the clock to earn a perfect score of 30 from the judges, but as the run continued later he completely barrel rolled Grave Digger, landed back on the tires and kept going, and then some 20 seconds later flipped the truck over the nose, but again landed back on the tires and continued the run. Believe me, you won’t want to miss this performance when in airs next year.

The Weenk-Creten battled played out on the track, and you can score round one in this new rivalry for Weenk, who drove Blue Thunder to a first round win over Dawn Creten and Scarlet Bandit and then beat Jimmy and the Bounty Hunter in the Championship Race. It’s worth noting that Weenk is saying nothing but complementary things about the Creten’s as well he should, after the success he had driving Iron Outlaw for them over the last two years. As for Creten, he too was guarded in his comments about the team change although he did admit his displeasure with Weenk’s leaving, going on to say that he felt he now had an even better driver in Iron Outlaw with his recent signing of veteran Kreg Christensen to campaign the Iron Outlaw Ford in 2008. That remains to be seen, but on season opening night in Minneapolis it was Linsey Weenk who had the upper hand, and he followed up his racing win with an awesome freestyle that finished second only to Anderson’s showstopper in the scoring of the judges.

Krmel looked outstanding in a truck he was driving in competition for the first time, and watch out for Donkey King in 2008. You have to give Krmel lots of credit for the entire freestyle that start to finish was one of the best ever held in Minneapolis. Krmel, coming out first in freestyle, put on a huge show that set the bar high and forced all the other competitors to try and match his run. Krmel actually stayed in the hot seat almost the entire event before Weenk’s Blue Thunder freestyle was finally able to grab the lead away.

Bradshaw showed some of his Supercross type bravado in racing when he drew Grave Digger in the opening round. Bradshaw pulled the Air Force Afterburner up to Grave Digger, who was already at the starting line, and revved his huge engine and even nudged the Digger in an exciting man-to-man challenge. Then Bradshaw, just seconds before the light was to go green for the race, waved off the start and Anderson took off anyway, putting in a high speed lap before coming back around to re-start, and many believe Bradshaw’s wave off was even more psychological warfare. No matter, Dennis was able to win the race, but I can’t wait to see how things play out the next time these two super talents go head-to-head.

Meents had the unenviable task of trying to equal Anderson’s spectacular freestyle as the final truck to compete. Tom was brilliant and made a couple of saves that seemed impossible, but even Tom admitted that it was Dennis’ night. Anderson though, while grabbing his trophy and basking in the cheers of the crowd on the winner’s stage, actually during our interview chastised the judges, criticizing them for the scores that they gave Maximum Destruction, Anderson claiming that the judges scores for Meents’ freestyle were way too low. It is really interesting to see that despite how intense the rivalry between the sport’s two premier stars remains, the mutual respect the pair have for each other has never been higher, and it seems to grow event after event.

Finishing up the story lines listed above, at times it appeared that no one was enjoying the event more than Fortune. Despite never having competed in Minneapolis before Chad was overwhelmed by the huge crowds in his autograph lines at the pit party and how many Minnesotans turned out to be huge Chad Fortune and Superman fans just from seeing him compete on Speed and at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals. Fortune, like all the other drivers in the field, was also quick to heap praise on the Monster Jam officials for their creation of the new race track design, called “Cyclone” racing that proved to be one of the most exciting and challenging courses ever created in Monster Jam.

Yes, December 8, 2007, was quite a night in Minneapolis, and the best part is that this is just the opening round of what promises to be the most entertaining and thrill packed season ever in Monster Jam.