As soon as I first heard about the Monster Jam Freestyle Mania that Feld Motor Sports had come up with my immediate reaction was “now that’s a great idea”. Now, after seeing that idea become reality, it’s even better than I imagined. Last weekend thousands of lucky fans in Mobile, Alabama, were treated to a weekend packed with non-stop thrills, and without question the greatest Monster Jam action of any type that the beautiful Gulf Coast town had ever before witnessed.
In recent years as Monster Jam racing in stadiums and domes has gotten more and more exciting with bigger, faster, and more challenging race courses complemented by huge freestyle obstacles, the sport keeps selling out the country’s largest venues and airing exciting television programming that continues to expand the huge fan base. At the same time the innovations and creation of new elements in smaller, more intimate arena settings has continued as well, even though the smaller spaces can sometimes limit those adaptations. So the new Monster Jam Freestyle Mania format creates the most significant expansion of an arena Monster Jam event that maybe we’ve ever seen.

In a nutshell, this new type of event eliminates the short course racing, where the track options are limited, and expands the freestyle opportunities which the fans have come to love so much. Without the restrictions of having to include racing lanes on an arena floor, the track construction team can then take every inch of available floor space to build obstacles so extreme that they’ve never been available in an arena setting in the past.

That all freestyle format for the monsters is then expanded. A wheelie contest that requires three separate hits, giving the driver the flexibility to choose any obstacle that he or she thinks will provide the best launch. A huge donut pad that makes that part of the competition one of the most exciting parts of the event. A freestyle competition that expands from the standard arena time period of :60 seconds to the stadium standard of :90 seconds per run, allowing the drivers full opportunity to take advantage of the bigger and more plentiful obstacles. It really is a Monster Jam freestyle lover’s paradise.

Also Saturday in Mobile a new timed obstacle course was added that proved especially intriguing. Each truck had to hit five separate obstacles in a competition where the winner was determined by who could complete the floor in the least amount of time. With an incredible line-up on hand that battle, while not a race, still was a neat combination of racing principles in a freestyle format and became even more interesting as strategies played out. Let’s take David Smith’s Texas based team as an example. Daron Basl decided to take a slower is faster approach,  taking El Matador through the obstacle course smooth and steady. Then Smith followed in King Krunch with more of a bonsai tact, big air and high speed in the turns. After both runs were complete, Basl’s technique had conquered the course almost a full second quicker. Watching those runs, I think, helped Adam Anderson and Pablo Huffaker then plot their plans of attack, both going somewhere in the middle of the El Matador and King Krunch styles. Anderson in Taz and Huffaker in Grave Digger both hammered the throttle hard, but not so hard that they lost any control, and both laid down thrilling, fast passes to post the best two times, Grave Digger actually winning the battle by more than a second. The fans loved both the freestyle flare on a timed course and the entertaining strategies that played out.

While this was a debut in Mobile it should surprise no one that the freestyle cream was still able to rise to the top. Over the course of two nights seven winner’s trophies were handed out. Despite sensational performances from the others in the field, each of those seven trophies victories went to a former World Freestyle Champion: Anderson, Huffaker, or Lupe Soza in El Toro Loco. While they grabbed the hardware, the rest of the line-up that included Floridians Scott Hartsock in Gunslinger and Lionel Easler in Instigator plus Mike Hawkins and the Equalizer and the afore mentioned King Krunch-El Matador combo each provided the cheering fans several huge freestyle thrills throughout the weekend.

Oh, and check this out. I mentioned the seven trophies handed out. Well, not one of those trophies went home in a Monster Jam semi truck. Every time an element was completed the winner grabbed the trophy, autographed it, went into the stands and gave it to one of their fans! You talk about an awesome souvenir to take home, the actual winner’s trophies all went home with fans. Monster Jam Freestyle Mania is all about the fans, so what an appropriate way for the drivers to salute them.

Make no mistake about it, Monster Jam Freestyle Mania was a huge success in its first weekend, and I’ve got to believe we’ll see more of these events in the future and this type of event will only grow, getting even bigger and better, although it will be hard to top the thrills the fans in the Mobile Civic Center enjoyed at the premier.

Those of you who read this column often know that I pretty much stick to Monster Jam themes and personalities in this space, but I would be remiss if I did not mention all of the freestyle riders that were also a part of Monster Jam Freestyle  Mania. Freestyle Super Bike (formerly known as Extreme Street Bikes) riders Aaron Twite, Josh Borne, and Andy Gates; Freestyle BMX riders Jody Donnelly, Juston Wood, Chris Gerber, Glenn Salyers, Jeremy Sawyer, and Bryan Prescott; Freestyle Quad riders Derek Guetter, Austin Wilson, and Jon Getter; along with John Sigismundi’s Freestyle Motocross team of Shawn Highland, Paul Smith, Tommy Hughes, Kevin Garrigus, Justin Stoltzfus, Jeff Banks, Thomas Alves, and Gabriel Villegas were, simply, amazing.  Without question one of the true highlights of each night was the portion of the event some of us called a Jam Session. After each type of freestyle team got to show off their own big tricks under the spot light as a specific group, all of the riders came onto the track together for the session that had the fans standing and roaring their approval. There was so much going on it’s hard to describe, but just imagine riders flipping their bicycles over the BMX box, riding side to side across the arena while motocross bikes and quads were performing huge tricks and stunning back flips going across the floor lengthwise, the motocrossers literally busting big tricks over the top of the BMXers. It was just amazing to see. And I have to complement all of those riders on the hard work they put in. To be able to pull off the Jam Session took days of practice to get it right. They put in the time and the effort and it paid off big time.

So in the future keep your eye on the schedule for Monster Jam Freestyle Mania. If you see one coming to an arena near you tell your friends and get your tickets fast, and come be a part of a new type of event that was clearly created to bring the fans more and more of what they want the most.