A Journey of Faith: Monster Jam

Warning: this is a long post! If you are not a monster truck fanatic, or a lover of photography, you might not find this post interesting. BUT, if you are intrigued, read on!

I had never been to a monster truck show before, so I had no idea what to expect. I thought I would want to take pictures so I took my camera. I thought it would be loud so I took earplugs. Both of those assumptions were correct. And, it was a lot of fun!

The reason for going was to watch my cousin who drives one of the trucks. He has done it for a few years and I have never had the chance to go to one of his shows. This one was only a couple hours away, so we took a short road trip to see him drive. The world of monster trucks is a big deal. This was a smaller venue, but I was still amazed by all the fans. It was kinda weird seeing people wearing my cousin's truck on their shirt or their head. After the show he had to go sign autographs and pose for pictures. I had never seen him in that element lol! He pretty much stole the show and the crowds loved him.

I went in January and am just now getting around to posting these pictures. So without further ado, I bring you Monster Jam.

The first element of competition was the vertical jump. The trucks were judged on their vertical angle as the jumped the cars. I was totally blown away. This Dog (Monster Mutt) was unbelievable. He took first. My cousin (El Toro Loco) came in right behind him.

Wasn't quite set up for the altitude on that one!

And now, here he is!!

Not bad, huh?

The next competition was speed jumping. The had to jump across the line of cars before their opponents. My cousin beat out the Mutt to win this one.

The arena was really nice. I think it was only a couple years old.

After the drivers won, they would climb out of their trucks and walk out in the center of the arena to talk with the announcer. Then they got to throw merchandise (shirt, monster truck hat, toy monster truck, etc.) up into the stands. Marc has really good "stage presence" and is good with his fans. He would actually climb up in the stands to personally deliver the merch to one of his screaming fans. :)

Here are a couple of his kiddos. They are super cute!

Next up: Donuts!! Not sure how they judged this, but I think they were looking for good execution of tight, continuous donuts. Marc won this one too; at one point he was on two wheels and I have no idea how he managed to get it back on the ground without rolling. Maybe he got good points for that. Here are some of the other competitors:

You can actually see his back tires smoking in this one!!

I didn't get a good picture because the photographer behind this lens is a cousin first and foremost, so I think I gasped and jumped while I was still holding down the shutter button. Maybe you still get the idea. He said he actually did roll his truck the weekend before, so he has a pretty amazing pit crew because they got him up and running again for this show.

Before the last competition, they brought out these bikes. Crazy. But I did have fun with my camera!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Last performance: Freestyle! 60 seconds on the clock to do whatever you want to amaze your fans (really, I think they were judged partly by the crowds reactions). Marc won this one too.