THE TOP DOZEN MONSTER JAM WOW MOMENTS OF 2007

It seems like I get ideas for these columns from all sorts of different sources. Take this one for example. In church the Sunday before Christmas, listening to my preacher’s sermon on the Joy of Christmas he used the term “Wow factor”, which got me thinking about that phrase that we have been known to use when talking about some of the amazing things that happen in Monster Jam. So with that inspiration I’m going to take a look back here at the end of this year and recap Monster Jam’s 2007 “Wow Factor”.

Here, listed in chronological order, is one announcer’s list of the “Top Twelve Wow Moments of 2007”:

MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION LANDS ON THE WALL PROTECTION, Georgia Dome, Atlanta –  Seven-time World Champion Tom Meents has been known to win with lots of style, but this was a little more that he wanted. Crossing the finish line victoriously in his first round race against Allen Pezo and Prowler, Meents then lost control of Maximum Destruction and the truck barrel rolled to the end of the Georgia Dome before rolling onto the top of the wall protection. Problems getting the truck off of the wall protection meant extensive repairs, costing Meents the chance to continue in the racing bracket but Tom and his crew welded the truck back together in time to come out and turn on his Atlanta fans with a sensational performance in freestyle.

PABLO HUFFAKER’S ST. LOUIS SAVE. Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis – The massive floor in the Edward Jones Dome usually makes for one of the year’s greatest freestyle competitions, but Pablo started the freestyle type thrills in his first round race against Michael Vaters in Black Stallion. Huffaker’s Grave Digger started into what appeared to be a sure fire rollover, but somehow with the truck literally on its side the veteran was able to power out of trouble and get his Digger back on all fours. Vaters went on to win that race but Huffaker saved his truck from damage and was able to return for freestyle at 100% where he and Meents staged a thrilling freestyle duel, Grave Digger tying Maximum Destruction for the St. Louis win as Pablo built momentum toward Las Vegas that would culminate in him winning the World Freestyle championship driving Captain’s Curse.

JOHN SEASOCK EDGES DENNIS ANDERSON TO WIN THE WORLD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas – The race for all the marbles had every fan in Vegas on their feet for a great battle with Seasock claiming the ultimate prize. This had to be the way John dreamt of winning the title, beating Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger, who had won two of the previous three World Racing Championships, in the final race.

DAMON BRADSHAW BURNS UP JACKSONVILLE, Jacksonville Stadium – The rookie turned in the best freestyle so far in his exploding Monster Jam career to tie for his first stadium freestyle event victory, but it was the ending of the run that proved to be one of the year’s great Wow moments. Ending up with his Air Force Afterburner flipping onto its roof a huge fire erupted underneath the truck, with the flames coming into the driver’s cockpit as well. All of the USHRA’s extensive safety features got the job done, including the quick release safety harness that allowed Bradshaw to escape the inferno quickly, unharmed.

DAN EVANS BREAKS THE DESTROYER IN HALF, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas – Air Man Dan told us before he took the floor for freestyle at the World Finals that no matter what happened, this would be the final run for that Destroyer truck because he had a new piece ready, so we were expecting Dan to let it all hang out. It was his reverse move flying over the double bus obstacle, landing between the busses, which literally broke the 10,000-pound Destroyer in half.

CHAD FORTUNE LEAVES SUPERMAN PLANTED ON THE NOSE, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas – You can’t plan this one. Fortune continued on after filling the clock at the World Finals in freestyle and ended with a moment no one there will forget. In the valley between the bus stacks Fortune stuck his big Ford into the dirt, nose first and the cape stretching toward the sky, and the truck just stood there, defying the laws of gravity, standing on its nose as Fortune somehow managed to get out and strike a Vegas pose.

THE 25th ANNIVERSARY GRAVE DIGGER ENCORE, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas – Encores at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals have been amazing year after year, but this one will be hard to top. With the founder of the Grave Digger watching on in delight, five other Digger drivers got into their trucks and freestyled at the same time to celebrate Anderson’s quarter-century of leading the most popular Monster Jam team on the planet. It was incredible from out viewpoint, but Randy Brown, who flipped his Grave Digger truck over fairly early in the encore said he had the greatest seat ever, watching black and green wrecking machines flying all around the stadium while still strapped into his truck laying upside down on the floor of Sam Boyd Stadium.

GEORGE BALHAN’S PERFECT ESCALADE LANDING, Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden – I didn’t think George was going to pull this one off. Taking the first run at the motocross mountain built with three cars in the facing of it, acting as a kind of step ladder, Balhan went full throttle in his Escalade and climbed the mountain, which shot him straight up into the air. At first it seemed like he was suspended in mid air at the zenith of the jump, then it looked the truck was going to plummet some 30 feet all the way back down to the floor. But at the last second the truck leveled and landed perfectly on the top of the obstacle. An Olympic gymnast would have been proud of the way Balhan stuck the landing.

TOM MEENTS BACK FLIPS IN MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION, Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden – On the same obstacle that Balhan used for his Wow moment Meents gave us a Monster Jam first. He too climbed the face of the mountain and sailed high into the Swedish sky, but he did not land on top of the mountain as Balhan’s Escalade had. Instead Max-D started rolling over backwards, catching the roof and hood as he hit the ground, then completing the back flip with the truck coming all the way around, 360 degrees, and back on all four wheels. Meents still plans to try and perform a totally clean back flip in Maximum Destruction one day, but clean or not, Meents back flip in Gothenburg will probably be the most remembered moment of 2007 for many Monster Jam fans.

DON FRANKISH HAS THE SAVE OF THE YEAR IN JURASSIC ATTACK, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales – I think if I were to go back to Millennium Stadium right now that Jurassic Attack would still be there, on its roof, because there’s no way that Frankish could save this truck from a rollover. But save it he did. Any driver will tell you that a great save takes driving talent, experience, and some luck. Frankish had all that working for him big time as he brought the prehistoric themed truck back on to its tires after being so far over on his side he could have reached out the window and grabbed a handful of dirt. It was a wild ride that led to Frankish recording the biggest win of his Monster Jam career.

NEIL ELLIOTT PLANTS MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION, The Globe, Stockholm, Sweden – Elliott was on a mission all weekend to prove that his seven year old truck could sky wheelie with the best of them, but in the Sunday afternoon Stockholm finale Elliott took it too the extreme. His wheelie was so close to perfect that he flew all the way over the cars and landed hard on the dirt ramp past the last car in that stack. Like a golfer who hits the perfect shot onto a green, next to the hole, and makes the ball stick there, Elliott planted Maximum Destruction into that ramp and the truck stuck, the nose of Max-D pointed majestically toward the roof of the Globe. Elliott literally buried the truck with mud packed tightly some three or four feet inside of the frame of the machine.

DENNIS ANDERSON LEAPS TALL BUILDINGS, Metrodome, Minneapolis – Welcome back, Dennis. After missing most of 2007 with an injury Anderson ended the year by returning to the site where he got hurt the previous year and gave the Minneapolis fans a freestyle for the ages, just maybe his best ever, and that’s saying a whole lot when you are talking about the inventor of freestyle. As awesome as his barrel roll and pirouette saves were, the main moment everyone remembers is Anderson launching Grave Digger over the biggest obstacle at full throttle and hitting every thing just right to fly higher in the air than any truck I’ve ever seen fly in competition. Maybe the most amazing thing was that on the landing, while the truck did sustain some damage, it did not break enough to keep him from continuing on and turning in a freestyle that has everyone fried up for the amazing Wow moments that are ahead in 2008.

So there you have my list, strictly my opinion, on the top dozen Wow moments of 2007. I’m sure most fans have others that they would put on their own personal list because all over the world the Monster Jam superstars delivered more of these spectacular moments during the past year than ever before, and that’s just another reason to get your tickets now for the 2008 Monster Jam events that are coming up……because even more and greater Wow moments are sure to be coming week after week.