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News/Updates:

3-24-08: Recaps of the 2006 & 2007 Paul Shafer Motorsports' events in Grayslake, IL are now up in the Event Coverage section!

12-31-07: Final update of the year! Round 4 of the Team Demolition Derby Tournament of Destruction is now up!

11-5-07: Coverage of the 2006 Davenport, IA Extreme Monster Truck Nationals is now up! It features one of the most spectacular wheelie contest attempts ever!

9-22-07: Coverage of Round's 1 & 2 of the 2007 Team Demolition Derby Tournament of Destruction are now up! Round 1 includes monster truck freestyle from Lil' Miss Dangerous & Pure Vengeance!

Updated whenever I can these days!

Week of February 20th, 2008

::First Quarter '08 Update::

The extremely busy monster truck season is in full swing with dozens of events each and every weekend taking place ever since the start of January. Specifically, the Image Promotions' Monster Nationals tour has been criss-crossing the midwest, and now at the the half way point of the winter series, it's time for a recap.

Jan. 11-12th, Huntington, WV

My first test as the newest addition to the Monster Nationals crew came in Huntington, West Virginia. Let me just get it out of the way now so there is no guessing: This weekend kicked...my...butt! Plain and simple. One day I'm sitting 9-5 at a desk, the next I'm on my feet for 10-18 hours straining, cramping, tearing, parts of my body I haven't used in years. I was pretty much thrown to the wolves and had to learn on the fly and believe I survived the first weekend pretty well despite a laundry list of pains and injuries due to my nost-so-in-physical-shape self.
Huntington saw the surprise unveiling of the new Lil' Miss Dangerous body which prominately promotes the 15th Anniversary of the Monster Nationals tour. George Eisenhart, owner of the Monster Nationals, had absolutely no idea this was in the works and was in complete shock and speechless when he saw the truck late, very late, Thursday night.
Huntington was also the debut of the new Hummer-bodied Ironman out of the Holman Motorsports stable driven by Shane Smith. A jaw-droppingly awesome looking machine to saw the least. Ironman is a monstrous tribute to our armed services and a true conversation piece at every stop on the tour. This is the first year for Ironman and teammate Holman's Beast on the Monster Nationals series.
Due to the Monster Nationals event taking place in Cleveland, OH on this same weekend, tour mainstays Big Dawg & Tailgator were sent up north and we had the great honor of featuring the Virginia Giant in Huntington! It had been 6 years since I last saw Diehl Wilson up at the Lake County Fair in Crown Point, Indiana. Being able to watch the Giant run one more time was simply awesome. Wilson is a forefather of monster trucks and a true legend among us. Incredible showing from Virginia Giant at both shows. I truely hope I cross paths with the Giant again sooner than later.

Jan. 25-27th, Madison, WI

On this weekend in 2007, I unexpectedly was rushed up to the hospital with a mystery heart condition and consequently, missed out on what would've been my first trip back to Madison in 5 years. Thankfully the health issues are well under control and nothing was going to stop me from making the trip this time. A gruely three show weekend, but thanks to the hard knocks in Huntington, this weekend's work went by much more smoothly. Well, minus the smooth move of falling off a 4-foot high platform.
Dan Patrick's brand new Samson truck was to debut on the first night in Huntington, but the truck was not quite finished and Bigfoot #16 was brought in for the one night replacement. Patrick did arrive in Huntington on Saturday, but I didn't get a chance to take any photos of the new machine. A builder of over 80 different chassis, undoubtably, this one has to be his crown jewel. Spotless and perfect with a meticulous attention to detail only begins to describe this truck. Deadly looking standing still, and even more lethal on the track, Samson put on an aerial assualt during his brief appearance in Huntington and continued to flex his muscle in Madison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLetznF1Hgs

Monster trucks are in the fast lane of technological innovations moreso than ever before. Better tires, better shocks, better chassis, better seats, the list goes on and on. Well, now, brace yourself for....confetti cannons. From the deepest, darkest, lonliest corner of Jeff Perrin's mind came his latest creation for the Lil' Miss Dangerous truck, and along with the potential "oooh" and "aaahhs" of the crowds now come a lifetime of ribbing and wise crack jokes. Honestly, it's a genius idea which fits the LMD theme and it has been cool to watch the fans react to the confetti shooting everywhere during an LMD donut or Jocelyn waiving to the crowd. But, in reality, *sigh* seriously. What's next? Holman's Beast will have a bubble maker and TailGator will release balloons out of the gator's mouth?.

Feb. 2nd, East Lansing, MI

After two long weekends of shows, the stop over in East Lansing almost seemed too easy and too quick. The one-day show kept us on our toes though with a quick setup and tear down pretty much all on the same day. I also got sick of the slow elevator and 2-story stairwell very quickly. The building staff was an added help in our efforts and you can't go wrong with the extra hands during cleanup.
A big upside for me on the trip was spending time with two of my Aunts and each of their 2 boys before the show and during the pit party. A large party of my extended family lives in Michigan and I hardly get to see them much anymore.
They all loved the event and so did every fan jammed into the Breslin Center who witnessed Doug Noelke rack his impressive undefeated win streak up to 5 after defeating Samson in the Finals. The new breed of machine has been on a tear thus far and Noelke is off to one of his strongest starts ever.

Feb. 9th, Champaign, IL

The venue with the smallest floor space on the tour, yet one which is always prone to deliver some high impact action, was Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois. Another one-day show meant another fast-paced setup and tear down. The unique shape of Assembly Hall provides some challenges and pitfalls when dragging plastic around the walls and seats, as well as when trying to keep the necessary duct tape to stick to the cold, air ventilating walls! We were doing banner and plastic repair all the way right up to showtime, but thankfully, everything held from there on out. Champaign was an excellent event top to bottom and the thousands in attendance will definitely agree that size doesn't matter when you put the big monsters on such a small floor. HUGE kudos to Reynolds Towing and the Assembly Hall staff for an unbelievably fast cleanup. Preparations were already underway for the Women's basketball on Sunday even before we left the building.

Feb. 15-16th, Sioux City, IA

My longest trip, well, on the road anyway, of the season was last weekend out to the frigid and frozen tundra of Sioux City, Iowa. I shared the long 7+ hour ride from Joliet with Nick & Sean in George's beautiful motorhome as we passed several, wait, make that one, notable landmark on the way. Iowa 80, the World's Largest Truckstop. We bypassed Iowa 80, however, and spent the night a little furthur down the road and would finish the trek Thursday morning into Sioux City.
The Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena is a very unique 2-in-1 building. The newer Gateway Arena actually was building into and around the older Events Center. The Events Center was converted into a community recreation area, while the newer Gateway Arena now plays host to the monster trucks, hockey, and indoor football among other things.
We did not stop at Iowa 80, but, someone else did. Jeff Perrin's Valentine's Day gift to himself? A brand new set of air horns! Not just any ordinary set of big rig horns either. These were train horns! Too large to mount onto Lil' Miss Dangerous, at least at the time being, but I wouldn't put it past Jeff to whip up some kind of crazy configuration to make these things work on the truck. I hope he has another free button on his remote control keychain for all these LMD add-ons. The horns were hooked up to Bobby Holman's air compressor and Jeff just couldn't resist blowing the horns every chance he got. Including when unsuspecting people were standing right behind them.
Prior to the Friday night show, everyone was in relax mode and were off to the Events Center to try out a rock climbing wall. But, unfortunately, it wasn't open. Next, we went looking for an open basketball court. However, none to be found. So, Nick, Tom and I brought the basketball to us! We wheeled an extremely heavy and awkward mobile basketball hoop into the arena and shot around for an hour or so. The boys were no match for Jocelyn Perrin who showed up her jump shot skills and made me look like a fool on defense on more than one drive to the basket. Yes, she swished home that jumper below!
All three of the events were roller coaster rides to say the least. The night cap on Saturday was a real taste of being in the heat of the moment. Shane Smith rolled Ironman during the Wheelie Contest and the slippery concrete provided a daunting obstacle for us to turn the truck over. Our Event Director, Mike West, with more experince righting trucks than everyone in the arean combined, hopped on the loader and skillfully tugged, twisted and yanked Ironman back on all 4s. A dead headset also threw me into a frenzy during the Megasaurus performance, but at the end of the night, it was another excellent show and everyone's teamwork prevailed.
Sunday was the long trek back to Illinois and it was severely hampered by blizzard conditions across the entire state of Iowa. Blinding snow, powerful winds, and icy roads left dozens if not hundreds of vehicles in the ditch and upside down. My 7 hour trip turned into an 11 hour one, but thanks to the careful and excellent driving from George I arrived back home safely. My trip was only half of their ride home and the rest of the crew arrived back in Ohio early Monday.

Easily my busiest and most time consuming first quarter ever and one I'll never forget. We're only halfway done with the winter Monster Nationals season with stops in Battle Creak, Chicago, Bozeman, Columbus, & Erie yet to come! I'll try to squeeze in more updates when I get a chance, but be sure to check out MonsterNationals.com and MonsterMayhem.org for more timely updates and photos! If you're planning to attend a Monster Nationals event, drop me a line and let me know!

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