Those who love Monster Jam have a special treat coming this Valentine's Day when the brand new season of Monster Jam in HD debuts on Speed TV.

 

We just put the finishing touches on the first two shows of the new season, beginning with racing from Minneapolis, then the Metrodome freestyle, and although I admit my point of view is biased, I think they are two of the best television programs ever produced in this sport. My opinion has nothing to do with my own performance, although Mark Schroeder and I have the goal of working better as a team on each new broadcast. It's because of so many great new aspects to the 2009 Monster Jam on Speed TV series that has me so excited about the new broadcasts that start when the Minneapolis racing program airs at 4:00 p.m. eastern time on Saturday, February 14th.

 

Viewers of these new shows will hopefully be as impressed as I am with the work our editors and producers have done across the board to make this our best product ever. New graphics and music, fun and informative new features, and an outstanding new pit reporter our just some of the upgrades for the 2009 shows. That pit reporter, Sara Dayley, will be familiar to many who visit this website often. She has been covering Monster Jam for Monster Jam Online at many 2008 events and she has basically spent a year learning the sport and its personalities before joining the Speed program, so she did an enormous amount of research and preparation before joining the Speed TV team, and it shows. Her combination of talent and knowledge come through in her new position on the broadcasts and I think fans will love her coverage of a very busy pit area throughout both Minneapolis shows with great behind the scenes looks at major thrashing, especially in the Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction pits. So Monster Jam fans can renew their love for the sport with the Valentine's Day debut of the new season on Speed TV, and it's on the air early enough (4:00 p.m. eastern) not to interfere with most dinner plans you better be making with your sweetheart!

 

Just when I'm thinking that Team Grave Digger is having the most dominant season that we have ever seen along comes Jim Creten to keep me aware that Bounty Hunter is also having a season for the ages. While Dennis Anderson, Pablo Huffaker, Charlie Pauken, Randy Brown, Gary Porter, Chad Tingler, and Rod Schmidt have been chalking up win after win, it was Creten who slowed a little of the Team Grave Digger momentum by driving Bounty Hunter to a head to head win over Anderson's Grave Digger en route to the New Orleans racing title last Saturday night. Bounty Hunter is now undefeated in the big houses in 2009, the Superdome win making it four straight stadium event racing triumphs for the best racer in the sport not to have yet won the World Racing Championship. Is 2009 finally the year Creten takes the world title he's been so close to winning so many times? We'll know in less than two months at the 10th annual Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals March 28th at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

 

Creten's win over Anderson came in the semifinals at the Superdome. In the Championship Race the opponent was Chuck Werner, who drove Bulldozer into a televised final round for the first time since the truck was piloted by Tom Meents, if my memory serves me here. It was an impressive run for Werner who clearly is an emerging star in the Team Meents camp where many stars have been born.

 

Bounty Hunter may have gotten the best of Grave Digger in racing, but the New Orleans freestyle competition turned into an Anderson family throw down. Dennis was amazing and he had to be for Grave Digger to take the win over Adam Anderson's insane big air assault in Taz. Adam's leaps were bigger than his dad's, but Dennis' run had lots of everything, over two minutes of non-stop action that included a couple of the season's best saves, and Dennis was scored three points higher than his World Champion son. Bounty Hunter also had an outstanding run as did Kreg Christensen in Maximum Destruction among others, which kept the sold out crowd in New Orleans thrilled throughout the competition. That capacity crowd included Louisiana's popular Governor Bobby Jindal and his family. It's amazing and exciting to see the well known faces at Monster Jam events this year. Just this month at Monster Jam events I've had the privilege of interviewing NASCAR Legend Richard Petty (in Atlanta), NHRA Funny Car champ Cruz Pedregon (in Indianapolis), and now one of the this country's rising political stars in Governor Jindal, and all were on hand as fans enjoying Monster Jam. I'm really looking forward to seeing how many more celebrities join with the greatest fans in motor sports at upcoming Monster Jam events.

 

I'm going to be interested in seeing how Team Scream comes back from a rough weekend. Even though Chris Bergeron was again very fast racing in his new Brutus, both Avenger and Brutus suffered big mechanical problems in the Big Easy. I've noted this season that with their new pieces 2003 World Freestyle Champion Jim Koehler, and his teammate Bergeron, have looked better than ever. Hopefully they'll be able to get both trucks back to 100% and continue their stellar seasons.

 

The pit crews always earn their money in Monster Jam but in New Orleans several probably deserve bonuses. The track was tough on the equipment for almost every team. Every crew had it's work cut out for it, but let me give special props to Ryan Anderson and the Taz team along with Kevin Lewis and the Maximum Destruction team. Both of those teams were forced out of the racing bracket due to mechanical issues, but both teams were able to get the trucks fixed and on their "A' games for freestyle, Taz finishing second and Max-D 3rd behind Dennis Anderson's winning perfromance in Grave Digger.

 

By the way Dennis confirmed that Ryan will be Adam's Crew Chief only for this season, as had been widely expected. The Anderson patriarch announced for the first time publicly that Ryan will drive a new truck called "Son of Digger" next year and he said that Ryan and that new truck will compete in New Orleans next season along with other high profile events.

 

We all love the southern hospitality that we are blessed to enjoy so often, but it's hard to top the treatment we receive in New Orleans, and I'm not only talking about the great fans there. Monster Jam truck owner Brandon LeGarde and his driver Sean Dujon both live there and with lots of promotional help from their new sponsor, Cult Energy drink, we were treated to even more New Orleans fun than usual. Thanks to everyone involved, and a tip of the hat to the team because the Cult Energy Activator looked great and Duhon, as we have come to expect from him, ran hard and strong all night.

 

With a brief break from action that will be recorded for Speed TV I'm really looking forward to announcing an event in a city where I have never had the pleasure of visiting before, this weekend in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I'm looking forward to four great events up there this weekend, and if you are coming to the events, be sure to stop by during the Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits and say HI!