Due to the incredible world wide popularity of Monster Jam most of the cities and venues on the circuit host events year after year. Still every year the series finds ways to try out some new facilities and it is really gratifying to see new venues get on the schedule and debut as a huge success right from the start. That's exactly what happened last weekend when Monster Jam roared into Calvert City's Kentucky Lake Speedway near Paducah for the first time to a pair of huge crowds featuring some of the loudest, most excited, and appreciative fans we've ever seen.

Years ago when the series came to a new market often it would take a few trips back to build to sellout crowd status which normally happened when word of mouth spread regarding how awesome Monster Jam is to see live. Now though, at least in western Kentucky, the sport's popularity preceded it and when Monster Jam debuted at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway last Friday night every seat in the house was filled. Saturday night the crowds grew even bigger into standing room only attendance. And again I'll say they were some of the loudest, most adoring fans I've ever seen at a first time Monster Jam hosting facility.

The size of the crowd and the enthusiasm of the Bluegrass State fans clearly fired up the Monster Jam drivers and teams and they burned up the spacious dirt race track both nights. The tremendous performances by all of the superstars of Monster Jam were rewarded with multiple standing ovations both night. The fact that the thermometer was hovering in the mid-nineties all weekend obviously did not hurt the size of the crowd and took nothing away from the competitors who battled through the intense heat.

Lots of fans who attended the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway "Jams" told me they also come to the mega show each February in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, but it was obvious that for the majority of the fans on hand this was their first chance to see Monster Jam live which added to the excitement. Lots of those fans told me they watch Monster Jam on Speed every week and they were thrilled to finally see Monster Jam live close to their home. By the way lots of fans at the speedway took their cues from the fans they see on Speed and brought their homemade signs out to support their favorites. As you would expect in this kind of an atmosphere thousands came out early for Saturday's Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits and the lines at the post event autograph session each night were lengthy.

One of the reasons that Saturday's crowd swelled to standing room was probably because of Friday night"s wild freestyle with four trucks ending their runs by flipping over at the end of their performances. You know word of mouth came into play with those on hand to see the crazy action live telling their friends and a large group of fans who were there Friday came back for Saturday's weekend finale.

The Friday flip-fest was just one of those unpredictable nights where strange things were happening, not drivers going to far over the edge. Tony Farrell was first to go upside down in Blue Thunder. Farrell's big Ford was damaged during introductions but his crew had Blue Thunder fixed quickly and Farrell ran the wheels off of it, winning racing and then turning in a ragged edge freestyle that ended when Blue Thunder went over.

Next to flip was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but this one really was just bad luck when Aaron Basl ripped into a donut, hooked an edge, and over she went.

Marc McDonald then took the track in Safe Auto Minimizer and appeared to have the track handled with a trio of big time saves impressing the crowd and the judges. As he was closing in on filling the time a confident McDonald soared into another huge leap but on this landing the sway bar broke causing Safe Auto Minimizer to roll over as well.

Then it was Pablo Huffaker in Grave Digger who wowed the crowd with his winning freestyle. After filling the 90 second clock Pablo didn't stop, thanking his fans for all the Kentucky love and support with more, bonus freestyle, but then the Digger had a strange landing that flipped him as well. It was just one of those nights where strange things kept happening and the fans loved every minute of it.

The bottom line to the weekend was that Monster Jam turned out to be a smash hit in far west Kentucky, and considering the tremendous fan support you can bet that Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway will be hosting Monster Jam again in 2009.