Despite 103 degree heat, huge crowds turned out Friday in League City, TX, for a special Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits and Monster Jam parade through the streets of the beautiful community in southeast Texas, and again Saturday night at Houston Motorsports Park for a full blown, star-studded Monster Jam event, all totally free for the greatest fans in motorsports thanks to Ford Trucks and the lucky Monsters on Main Street grand prize winner, League City’s Michelle Stockton. Frankly it was a weekend love fest! The fans loved every minute of it and all the drivers and crews loved being a part of such a special and unique event, a weekend that frankly only Monster Jam and Ford Trucks could pull off.

Ford Trucks marketing exec Todd Eckert, who has become quite the Monster Jam color commentator for this event, was chatting with me about just how special this event, now having completed its third wildly successful run, really is. We agreed that this is an event that is unique to Monster jam, one that you won’t see any other sport or sponsor even attempt. Think about it. Do you think NASCAR would ever give a fan a Sprint Cup race in their hometown? Would the NFL add a game to the schedule to play it in a fan’s hometown and give that fan control of all the tickets for the game? Of course not. But that is what Ford Trucks does every summer in bringing a full blown, big time Monster Jam event to a fan’s hometown, with that fan really having ownership of the event.

Two years ago in Silva, NC; last year in Crete, IL; and this year in League City, TX, Monsters on Main Street has brought many of the sport’s highest profile teams and biggest name drivers into these lovely, small American towns for a weekend the fans there will never forget, really once in a lifetime experiences. And the winners bask in the entire weekend of special treatment. From hosting all of the festivities in their hometown, to being the guests of honor at a huge dinner party the night before the event, to riding onto the track in the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder ride truck for the opening ceremonies of the event, to standing on stage and presenting the racing and freestyle trophies to the night’s winners in front of 5,000 fans, all of whom all their tickets to the event thanks to the Monsters on Main Street winner, Ford Trucks and Monster Jam have teamed up and proven that Monsters on Main Street is the ultimate prize that any fan of any sport can win.

On the track the fans at Houston Motorsports Park were treated to one of the summer’s greatest events, and they even got to see history made when Candice Jolly powered the Monster Mutt Dalmatian to the racing victory in the Ford Super Duty Championship Race, Jolly’s first major racing event win. “It’s my first trophy” Candice gushed in an interview to the cheering crowd after Michelle Stockton handed her the race winner’s hardware with her fiancée, Neil Elliott, looking as proud as he has anytime he’s driven Maximum Destruction to victory, which he has done on so many occasions over the years. After racing it looked like we might see a Jolly sisters sweep when Courtney tore up the track in her Pastrana 199 freestyle to earn a huge standing ovation, eventually finishing third against the World Finals caliber line-up.

The final two freestyles of the night, though, will be long remembered by the fans in attendance. First reigning World Champion Adam Anderson showed the Texans just how he won the 2008 title with a performance that was off the charts, especially in terms of big air. Watching “Double-A” go ballistic Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder driver Linsey Weenk knew what he had to do, and he was up to the challenge. Weenk was every bit as spectacular as the world champ on this night, both Taz and Blue Thunder amazing the crowd with unbelievable leaps and both pulled off multiple spectacular saves. The judges, the winning Stockton family, scored it a narrow victory for Weenk and Blue Thunder, but clearly the biggest winners of this entire weekend were the Stocktons and the Texas Monster Jam fans. On behalf of everyone who enjoyed this amazing, one of a kind weekend, a huge thank you to Ford Trucks for making it all happen.