Time Travel to January; Route 66 Nears

Trevor Andrews’ photos from January 29’s Raleigh Monster Jam are now available in the Photos section.

Also, Route 66 Raceway’s monster truck show is all set for this weekend, and AllMonster will be covering the event. A “new” truck will debut at the show as the eighth truck (permission was not given for truck and driver name at this time) in a field that includes Raminator, Rammunition, Sudden Impact, T-Maxx, Eradicator, Airborne Ranger, and Stars and Stripes (Equalizer chassis, coloring contest body).

Team Raminator and the T-Maxx team both sent us press releases regarding Joliet; they are available at the links below:

Dodge Monsters Return to Chicagoland, Bloomsburg (.txt file)

T-Maxx to Generate Fireworks at Route 66 Raceway (Microsoft Word .doc)

We will have the updates from Joliet as soon as possible.

Catching Up…Quincy, Baxter, and More!

AllMonster.com is back to full strength after some computer problems and more, and we’ve got reports from Quincy, Illinois (photo above courtesy Josh Rhodes) and Baxter, Tennesee’s Monster Jams. In Quincy, Carl VanHorn took the wheel of Grave Digger XIX and immediately took a liking to it, winning five of six events on the weekend, his only loss coming to teammate Chad Tingler and Safe Auto during Saturday afternoon racing. Phil Foster had drive shaft issues all weekend, breaking two on the weekend and running the Saturday evening show in two wheel drive. The highlight of the weekend came in Saturday evening’s freestyle. Chad Tingler laid down a blistering run that included two slap wheelies and a cyclone donut. He earned a 29, but VanHorn was one point better with a run that was incredibly varied. Two sets of fast cyclone donuts, two sidewall-scraping saves, and a huge hit on the van stack into a frame-dragging slap wheelie earned VanHorn the win.

Reports from Baxter’s Friday show indicate VanHorn taking another sweep of racing and freestyle. Allen Pezo’s Predator broke a rear steer belt during the finals. More to come.

Photos from Williams Grove Saturday Show Now Up!

monster truck photosThe fans packed the stands at the famed Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania for an exciting show featuring five great monster trucks. Gary Porter went on to sweep the event, taking the wheelie contest, racing and freestyle. The finals came down to Randy Moore’s War Wizard and Porter in Grave Digger. The race was extremely close but the call went to Grave Digger. The freestyle contest saw a 4-way battle between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, War Wizard, Bad News and Grave Digger after Rap Attack broke what is believed to be a transmission. All the trucks put on great runs in the “funky” wet to dusty track conditions, but Gary Porter stole the show with his high-speed antics and awesome donuts.

Monster Trucks Return to Williams Grove

The Monster Jam Summer Heat tour is heating up and will be stopping by Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania at the famed Williams Grove Speedway for 3 action-packed events. The 1-800 SAFE AUTO Monster Jam Summer Heat will feature five great monsters: Gary Porter in Grave Digger, Brandon Harrington in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dave Rappach in Rap Attack, Bruce Haney in Bad New Travels Fast and Randy Moore in War Wizard. AllMonster will be bringing you the action from the Saturday afternoon event as both Dustin Hart and Trevor Andrews will be there covering the event.

Richmond Photos and More!

Stone Crusher Monster truckThanks to Dustin Hart, AllMonster.com has some new material in the form of photos from the Richmond Thunder Nationals way back on March 19. Check them out at the photos section. Highlights included Jason Childress taking a ride in Grave Digger 7 and some great concrete racing. Enjoy!

Monster Trucks ’05 Trading Cards Debut

The first set of monster truck trading cards since 1990 hits the shelves this week. The set of 36 cards exclusively features some of the top independent teams in the world.

Cards will be sold in plastic sleeves with nine cards per sheet. They are packaged numerically to make it easy for fans to collect entire sets in one purchase.

The trading cards will be sold at novelty stands, in shops, and over the internet by the teams that are participating in this year’s set. The theme is “support the independents”, so purchasing a set of cards from your favorite monster truck team directly supports the independents that brought our sport to the phenomenon that it is today!

So support your sport and support your favorite teams! Look for the trading cards at a show near you this summer!

Send an e-mail to rhaught@allmonster.com to preorder your trading cards today! Sheets are $5.00 (9 cards per sheet), sets are $20.00 (all 36 cards), and the list of trucks featured is as follows:

TRADING CARD KEY

Card – Truck

1 – Gun Slinger
2 – The Broker
3 – Samson
4 – Black Stallion
5 – War Wizard
6 – Avenger
7 – Towasaurus Wrex
8 – Destroyer
9 – Obsession
10 – Brutus
11 – King Krunch
12 – Bad News Travels Fast
13 – Equalizer
14 – Little Miss Dangerous
15 – Devastator
16 – Big Dawg
17 – American Guardian
18 – Cyborg
19 – Iron Warrior
20 – Backdraft
21 – Thrasher
22 – Virginia Giant
23 – Avenger (Orange)
24 – Fullboar
25 – Eradicator
26 – Pure Adrenaline
27 – Boston Big Shot
28 – Tuff Enuff
29 – Shocker
30 – Patrick Enterprises, Inc.
31 – Wild Hair
32 – War Wizard Ride Truck
33 – Michael Vaters Jr FMX
34 – Vintage Collection
35 – El Matador
36 – Vintage Collection

More Virginia Beach, Salinas Recap

Trevor Andrews’ photo gallery from Sunday’s Virginia Beach show is available in the Photos section. We thank him for his time. Quickly recapping the information reported to us on this past weekend’s Salinas Monster Jam, Madusa took another straight up racing win over a Grave Digger truck in the finals, this time with Carl VanHorn behind the wheel. Jimmy Creten was unable to race the Bounty Hunter, so Linsey Weenk filled in, with Dawn Creten flying in to drive Iron Outlaw. Freestyle ended with VanHorn and Tom Meents tying with 30-point scores. The winner was VanHorn in a cheer-off. Highlights included Meents’ huge air and a dizzying set of cyclone donuts, and VanHorn’s past-vertical sky wheelie and save (photos to come). Thank you for visiting AllMonster.com!

Virginia Beach Photo Blowout!

Dustin Hart’s gallery from Sunday’s wild show in Virginia beach is now online, including more than 100 photos and a few animated .gif’s of all the wild racing and freestyle action, available at the link below or by clicking the photo above. Enjoy; photos from both Hart and Trevor Andrews will be online of all four shows in the coming days!

Sunday Virginia Beach Madness! VanHorn Sweeps Event

Dustin Hart and Trevor Andrews of AllMonster have checked in with us to give us the first update of the final show from Virginia Beach, as the event has just concluded. Apparently nobody told Carl VanHorn that he wasn’t used to Power Forward. Subbing for the injured Chad Tingler, VanHorn won racing in the finals against Brian Winston (Monster Mutt), then proceeded to have the highlight move of the event in freestyle–a slap wheelie that is estimated at nearly 300 feet! Exact measurements are unknown, but our reports are that it was easily the longest of the weekend. Paul Cohen in Pastrana 199, Gary Porter in Grave Digger, and more had solid freestyle runs as well. Teaser photos from all four shows on the weekend will be available in a few short hours; we thank Hart and Andrews for the rapid updates.

More From Virginia Beach – Bradshaw, Porter, and More!

We have a report from Virginia Beach on today’s afternoon show thanks to Monster World Online. Carl VanHorn (Blue Thunder) and “Fletch” Lewis (Bulldozer) tied for fastest qualifying time, but VanHorn broke a power steering belt and was unable to continue. Racing came down once again to Paul Cohen (Pastrana 199) and Gary Porter (Grave Digger) in the finals, with Porter’s transmission holding this time and Grave Digger grabbing the victory. Freestyle was spectacular as well, with highlights including Chad Tingler (Power Forward) riding out a slap wheelie on a blown tire, Brian Winston’s Monster Mutt getting some huge air and knocking a header off upon landing, and Gary Porter having perhaps the best freestyle of the event. Former pro arenacross and motocross rider Damon Bradshaw tested a monster truck out for the first time in Digger’s Dungeon in North Carolina earlier this week, then did a qualifying run today for George Balhan in Escalade (Balhan would run the rest of the event) as well. More information to come from the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon shows!