In The Dirt-2

IN THE DIRT

 

by
Aaron Cromer

In
The Dirt is Aaron Cromer’s take on all things in the monster truck
industry, a “monster editorial” if you will. He started as
a fan, created the web site MonsterWorldOnline.com, then eventually
began helping monster truck teams and worked his way up to being the
driver of Anger Management. Here, he will share his thoughts with
us.

In
The Dirt 2-January 16, 2009

Ok all you monster maniacs, week two of the
2009 season is in the books. I hope you all enjoyed the debut
column of “In The Dirt” last week. This week, I will be
touching on a few more shows that went on, once again with some
insider input on things. Let’s start out with a few little news
stories. Kelly Carrington, the widow of the late Calvin Carrington,
is the newest female driver to hit the track, as she has joined
Rob French on Wildfire Motorsports. Rob will still be piloting
Twisted Dragon, as Kelly will be driving a second truck called
“Dragonfly” for 2009. Checkered Flag Productions seemed to
have another good weekend of shows, as they started off the season
last week with two strong shows in North Carolina. I talked with
Zane Rettew, who is in charge of booking trucks and running events
for CFP, and he is very excited about how the 2009 season has gone
so far. I would like to commend Zane, Ed Beckley and the whole
Checkered Flag crew, as they seem to have a strong schedule and
trucks this year.
 
Speaking of Checkered Flag, there is one
driver who is rejoining the full CFP tour this winter, a former
CFP Winter Nationals Champion, Brad Campbell. Brad won the 2006
title driving Monster Moose, as he won racing as the CFP finals in
Pocatello, Idaho, and placed third in freestyle giving him enough
points on that night to take home the big trophy. The following
year he ran a part-time schedule, but still returned to Pocatello
to defend the racing victory, and once again, he came out
victorious. This means the CFP drivers have something to be
worried about. Brad Campbell had never lost a racing event in
Pocatello. Campbell is driving Public Disturbance this year, with
his wife Jen driving the former Monster Moose truck by the name
of  “Bombshell.”  Brad had a pretty good first
week, so I think he is one to watch out for this season for the
Checkered Flag Productions Winter Nationals Championship.
 
Moving onto some Monster Jam business now,
Bill Payne in “Rockstar” notched a racing victory this weekend
in Alabama. This is the first season Bill has had the opportunity
to run with Feld Entertainment, and I am sure he is going to make
the most of it. Bill is a hard worker, as he has put in a lot of
hours recently into the Rockstar machine improving it so he can
keep taking it to the next level. Anaheim, California saw some
intense action this weekend, as they had one awesome course set up
for freestyle.  The stadium is as wide as it is long, so the
drivers were able to hit obstacles in any direction. Kelvin Ramer
debuted the new “Time Flys” machine out of the “Living the
Dream” racing stable. It is a brand new RaceSource chassis with
all the trimmings. Kelvin put on one heck of a freestyle, hitting
everything on the track, catching big air and grabbing some
awesome slap wheelies. Good to see the new truck work well for
him, and Kelvin is really stepping up his game. Another guy who
had a sick freestyle in Anaheim is California driver Dan Radoni in
“The Patriot.”  The home state driver hit the track
with huge air, slap wheelied the truck right into the next
obstacle. Dan went into a donut, then the truck got up on two
wheels. Dan drove the truck on its sidewalls for 6-10 seconds; it
was by far one of the most amazing two wheel driving acts I have
ever seen. It did eventually go over after an awesome effort. I
give Dan the “almost save of the year award.” 

^Radoni’s freestyle run
from Anaheim^

 
Atlanta,
Georgia always sees great action year after year, and 2009 was no
exception.  Dennis Anderson came in and took both racing and
freestyle, but let’s look at some other points of the show.
Andy Slifko in Eradicator had a decent freestyle that turned into
a real good freestyle when after getting a nice cyclone donut going, the
truck hooked, got up on two wheels and balanced itself on the left
two tires for about ten seconds in one place. It was what I call
the Kodak moment of the event. The fans seemed to really like it.
Former Batman crew chief Coty Saucier (Two-time championship crew
chief) made his crewing debut with his new team, Randy Moore’s
War Wizard in Atlanta. I spoke with Coty and he seems very
happy with his new team. They had some first-show bruises, but if
anyone can get a truck back to 100 percent, it’s Saucier. Coty said Randy had a good freestyle that
ended with some blown hydraulic lines in the rear, and a broken
housing.  I would like to extend an extra good luck to Cody
with his new team as I have know Cody for years, and he is a great
guy, and a hard worker. We have been internet reporters together,
and we have worked in the pits together…good luck Coty.
Cam McQueen is starting to make his mark as a serious driver on
the Monster Jam tour this year.  After a short rookie season
in ‘08 that took him to the NGK Spark Plugs World finals, he is
back in his sophomore season in full throttle. He had some huge
air in the Georgia Dome, which ended with a hard rollover.
This guy is coming on fast, definitely going to be one to look out
for in the Pastrana 199 machine.
 
                                         Well that’ll do it for this week. Toronto is coming up next week, always a good show, so stay tuned. You’ve been “In The Dirt.”

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