The Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals have come and gone. What an amazing night. Before I get ahead of myself though, we finally qualified for the World Finals in our final weekend of competition in Lafayette, Louisiana. That sure was a crazy way to end the season and head into Las Vegas. I had a 3 year streak of not rolling over, and that came to an end in Lafayette, Louisiana. We were very excited to accept our qualifier flag in Lafayette. It was the reward for a long season of hard work Eric and Jody headed back to the shop in North Carolina to get some work done over the week off before Las Vegas. Eric and Jody had the truck in tip-top shape when it got to Vegas. They went through the entire drive line. Replacing drive shafts, rear ends, axle shafts, transfer case bearings/lower shafts. Also, they got into taking care of some of the slop in the chassis by repairing four link brackets, rear steering brackets and rams. The truck was like brand new. By the time we were ready to run practice, the truck was awesome.

 The Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals race track is so intense, that you want to pace yourself, and save a little for the big night (Qualifying and Racing) so my goal was to be consistent. In Thursday practice I was in the mid 17 second range, which was a great place to be with the fastest truck being in the mid 16 second range. I knew the truck had a lot in it, and it was up to me just not to make a mistake. On Friday night during the Double Down, I turned a 17.28 in the left lane and a 17.81 in the right lane. Both runs, beating Captains Curse to the finish line. I drew the left lane in qualifying, which is where the truck seemed to work the best. So for my qualifying run I figured I’d go into the turn a little deeper, and come out of it with some more momentum. When all was said and done I came away with a 17.07. I achieved this time with a slight hesitation coming towards the cars, due to the truck being a little squirrelly(the lane was narrow due to the freestyle obstacles) and wanted to hit the cars square. I’m confident without that hesitation, I’d of safely got into the top 8. My 17.07 put me in the 10th position at the end of the night. You can’t ask for much more than turning your fastest time in the run that counts, so needless to say we were all pretty happy with our effort, getting faster every pass.

Qualifying 10th usually is a plus because you normally get a truck you should beat pretty handily. Well, this is Vegas and the Finals, and anything can happen. With this being said the brackets  ended up giving me “Big Daddy” himself Dennis Anderson and Digger in the first round. Now this is one of those situations where you kind of can’t lose. If you win, well you beat Grave Digger and you are a hero, if you lose, you lost to Dennis Anderson in the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals. So I was pretty stress free heading into the event. I wanted to pull it off for my crew, Nintendo, my family, friends and for me. We were neck and neck heading into the turn, and I tried getting in the throttle a little too early trying to get the edge coming out of the turn, and it bit me. The rear end came around a little and that was that. I think if I’d of stuck to what got me there, it would have been a closer race, and then what happens from there happens. 

After watching the rest of racing, I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do in freestyle. The obstacles were unreal. Your first real good chance to see it in all its glory, will be on CBS, 12pm eastern April, 27th. I was ready to pull off a repeat of the breakout run I had in 2006 in Del Scorcho, except this time with a few more points added on to take me to the promise land. I came out of the gate hitting a car set coming out of Thunder Alley. I did that to get the clock going and get to business. After that, the truck felt good, and I figured it was time to start going big, so I headed to the center of the floor to try my hand at the waterfall. As I was heading up the ramp I realized I wasn’t carrying enough speed. I thought the ramp would loft me enough to clear the waterfall, but I mis-judged the gap. That considered, I was prepared for what was coming, a horrific rear end trip. Now, the “trip” is one of the most feared situations for a monster truck driver. Mostly because it is so abrupt. It gives you the least amount of options in driving out of it. Also, it leads to one of the roughest ways to crash a monster truck. End over end. The endo is rough because there is no suspension on the ends of the chassis or on the roll cage. This one was so fast, the front of the chassis never touched the ground, just went right to the cage. Now that is a testament to the work of Chassis builder Dan Patrick, and the fabrication guys at the North Carolina shop Dan Bright and Paul Cohen, Jody Butcher. They keep a great product (Patrick Chassis) safe, and continue to improve it. When the truck was on its tail, I tapped the brakes and brought it back down. From that point, I figured it was on now, anything else is a bonus. So I kept on going like nothing had happened, and gave the best effort I could. Flat tire and all. I gained new respect for Tom and Dennis. Running on a flat tire definitely changes the way the suspension works, that’s for sure. In fitting manner, my teammate all this season and the last 2, had a stellar run (as usual) and finished with a 27. It wasn’t the run Chuckie was looking for but it was great.

 I can’t say enough how happy and proud of Adam Anderson I am. I met him 3 years ago when he came over to Europe to be a crew member, and it was all on from there. He is responsible for making my gut sore and bringing me to tears of laughter every time we’re around one another. With everything he’s done is such a short career, he has every right to be arrogant; but he isn’t. He actually is one of the most down to earth, grounded guys you will ever meet. He will be a great champion for Monster Jam and I think this is just the beginning of an amazing career for him. For my sake though, I hope I can jump in there shake up his apple cart from time to time though. (Sorry Adam) I also can’t thank my team enough. Eric Schweikhard. What can I say, he came out of retirement to come back into the business to work with Chuckie and myself. He always had my truck in tip-top shape and ready to ride. Eric was also awarded “Mechanic of the Year” at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals awards banquet. That right there speaks volumes of how Eric operates. Jody Butcher. Awesome job all season making sure Chuckie and I were ready to ride. Jody is an excellent fabricator, and stayed on mine and Chuck’s chassis to make sure we were safe all the time. These guys had the tough jobs, Chuckie and I got to have all the fun. I think I can speak for Chuckie here and say we wouldn’t have had the year we had if it wasn’t for these guys. Oh, and by the way we had a GREAT time along the way, that’s for sure.

This years Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals were amazing. I can only imagine what WF 10 will have in store for us. Fans and competitors alike. For me, it some time off before we hit it wide open again for the 2008 installment of the Monster Jam Europe Tour. This will give Adam a jump start at defending his World Championship, and everybody else a chance to knock him off. Well, it’s been great trying to give you all some insight on what goes on week to week on the Monster Jam Tour. I’ll check back in from time to time before I head to Europe (Early June) to let you know of anything good brewing. Until then, everybody have a great spring!