THE MONSTER BLOG

DECEMBER ARCHIVE

PICTURE OF THE MONTH!!

Photo by:  JASON TWITE

• Happy New Year's:  2005 Year in Review Video!!:  Hope everyone has a happy and safe time as we celebrate in the New Year this evening!!  To help you ring in the New Year, I have created The Monster Blog's 2005 Year In Review Video with video clips from all the events I attended this year for your viewing pleasure!!  You can either view it by clicking below here or there is also a link in the Videos section.  Please let me know what you think on the Fan Forum, and enjoy!!  Happy New Year's!!  (12/31/05)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO!! (20 MB)

• New Drawing from TLB!!:  Every once in a while I like to highlight one of Tommy's drawings here on the main page, and this one really demands attention, lol.  This new drawing Tommy did of T-Maxx is fantastic and with the recent big news that Carl Van Horn will be taking over the truck, it is also very timely.  Congrats to Carl and we wish the Sudden Impact team the best of luck in 2006, and major props to Tommy for this awesome drawing.  See the full version in Tommy's MT Art Gallery in the Features section, or by clicking here!! (12/29/05)

• MTRA Wallpapers:  We have a real treat for you courtesy of Kyle Doyle.  Using some of his best photographs and some cool effects, Kyle has put together a couple of great Wallpapers for your computer desktop celebrating the 2005 MTRA Driver of the Year and Most Improved Truck of the year winners.  Here are some quick previews, they can be downloaded in the Features section or by clicking here!!  Thanks Kyle!! (12/28/05)

• Merry Christmas!!:  Just wanted to wish all of our viewers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!  I hope that everyone enjoys their time with family and friends, and that Santa brings you all something good!!  Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year, we are really looking forward to 2006 and bringing you all some awesome Monster Truck coverage.  As someone had said on the Fan Forum, we're going to make 2006 "The Year of The Monster Blog"!!  Once again, Merry Christmas!!  (12/25/05)

• Kyle Doyle's Look Back at '05:  Its time for another "Behind the Scenes" article from our good friend Kyle Doyle, and he really has a treat in store for you all this holiday season.  Kyle takes us back through the fun, trials, long journeys, and hard work that made up the first half of the 2005 season in Part 1 of his latest blog entry entitled "Bookends."  This one is a must read and you can check it out in the Features section, or by clicking here!!  Be sure to leave Kyle some feedback on the Fan Forum or shoot him an email.  Thanks and enjoy!!  (12/22/05)

• SMTS Invades Iverness!!:  This past weekend's Southern Monster Truck Showdown in Iverness, FL featured three days of wild action!!  Trucks competing included Wild Hair, Monkey'N'Around, Clydesdale, Iron Horse, Gun Slinger, and the Traxxas T-Maxx driven by Carl Van Horn!!  Van Horn would be the star of the weekend taking the Wheelie & Racing competitions 2 out of 3 nights and sweeping the Freestyle competitions!!  The Monster Blog's Flyin' Bryan Wagner was on hand for all the action and we will soon have up a full coverage of all the weekend's action!!  (12/19/05)

• MTRA Meeting & Banquet Coverage!!:  Just posted the in the Coverages section!!  I really hope you all enjoy this one, check it out, and leave us some feedback on the Fan Forum!!  (12/18/05)

• Picture of the Week Announcement:  First off, congratulations to Jason Twite for his awesome winning picture in this week's Picture of the Week contest!!  Having said that, I would like to announce that, although there are technically two weeks left in the year, the week ending with the December 24th Winner will be the last Picture of the Week contest of 2005!!  Shortly thereafter we will vote on the Picture of the Month for December, and then YOU will have the chance to vote on the Picture of the Year, to be chosen from the Picture of the Month Winners!!  So to all of the folks who enter our Picture of the Week contest, and also to those who haven't before, this is your last chance to get another entry towards the big Picture of the Year crown!!  (12/17/05)

• Some New Site Design Stuff!!:  We here at The Monster Blog are all about continual improvement, and thanks to our good buddy Kyle Doyle, we have an awesome new main header at the top of the page!!  Kyle and I are still going through and tweaking a few things on it, but in my opinion, it looks awesome and KD did an amazing job!!  Another face lift came in the form of an awesome new drawing of The Monster Blogger Monster Truck from Tommy Lee Byrd!!  This thing is just too cool, too bad it isn't real, lol!!  Let us know what you think of the new goodies over on the Fan Forum!!  (12/17/05)

• Muddy Muddy Christmas:  Last weekend on Sunday December 11th, Trucks Gone Wild hosted their 1st Annual Muddy Muddy Christmas event at the Lakeland Motorsports Park.  The event's title would be quite fitting as due to heavy rains, the entire grounds were covered in mud.  The event had already been scheduled to feature Scott Hartsock and his Gun Slinger and Cowboy monster trucks, but to everyone's surprise, James Tigue II and the Carolina Crusher showed up as well!! 
  I was asked to pass along this story from Allison Turner of Bandit Mud Racing, who helped arrange the Crusher's trip to Lakeland.  According to Allison, who was one of the organizers of the PSM World Finals, Scott Hartsock and the Gun Slinger was to have competed at the event.  However, on the message board of the Gun Slinger's Official Website, Kathy Hartsock stated there were never plans on attending the PSM World Finals.  Well, when show time came at the Volusia County Fairgrounds, there was no Gun Slinger present. 
  So when PSM and Bandit Mud Racing heard about Gun Slinger performing at the Lakeland Trucks Gone Wild event, they decided to send down the World Finals Freestyle Champion James Tigue and the Carolina Crusher for a showdown against the Gun Slinger.  Both trucks performed a freestyle in the muddy conditions, and while there may have be some strained relations between the two camps, the real winners were the fans who got to see two trucks freestyle instead of just one!!  A special thanks to Allison for these great pictures of James Tigue tearing up the Lakeland Motorsports Park in the Carolina Crusher!!  For more pictures and coverage from this event, be sure to check out http://www.trucksgonewild.com!!  (12/16/05)

• This Week:  Just wanted to let you all know why things have been and will continue to be a little slow this week.  I am still going through and finishing up with school, a couple more finals, and final projects due on Friday and will be all done for the year!!  Also have a lot going on with work this week that is keeping me from being able to update much.  We have some great Fan Photo Gallery submissions and the MTRA Meeting & Banquet Coverage is coming soon!!  We have lots of exciting things planned for the rest of the year, so stay tuned!!  (12/14/05)  UPDATE:  As of today, this semester is finally over!!  Three more semesters to go!!  But this means that the dark week for The Monster Blog that we just endured is now over, and I'm back at it with lots of great new stuff coming your way!!  Stay tuned, and thanks for your continued support!!  (12/16/05)

• 2005 MTRA Meeting & Awards Banquet Recap:  Just got home from attending this year's MTRA Meeting and Banquet held at the Howard Johnson in St. Louis, MO!!  Chris Kaelin and I had a blast at the event, getting a chance to meet a ton of fine folks, and support this very fine organization.  In addition to having a good time, we were also working, ensuring that we provide you with some top notch coverage of the event, which we will have up as soon as possible.  Also wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in the MTRA who helped make this evening possible and who attended the event to show their support.  We've got a lot of fun stories from the event to share with you, but in the meantime, let's dedicate some space to this year's MTRA Award Winners!!  Congratulations to all of the winners!!  (12/11/05)

2005 MTRA Driver of the Year - Mark Hall, Raminator

2005 MTRA Truck of the Year - Raminator

2005 MTRA Most Improved Team - Andy Hoffman, Nitemare

2005 MTRA Rookie of the Year - Rick Long, Bigfoot #11

2005 MTRA Mechanic of the Year - Roy Hooser, Team Bigfoot

2005 MTRA Promoter of the Year - George Eisenhart, Image Promotions

2005 MTRA Sportsman of the Year - Andy Hoffman

2005 MTRA Sponsor of the Year - Vinyl Images

• Rolling Thunder Eve of Destruction VIDEOS!!:  Originally, I didn't think we were going to be able to provide you all videos from last week's Torgerson Motorsports event in Albuquerque, NM, but thanks to Larry Quick, driver of Born to Be Wild, they have now been posted in the Video section!!  I got a chance to meet Larry and his wife at the MTRA Banquet this weekend, and they are absolutely great people.  Larry and his wife took it upon themselves to arrange for permission for us to use their video from this event and provided us a copy of it for you all to enjoy!!  So let me just say once more, a huge THANK YOU to Larry, and I would encourage you all to leave him a message on the Fan Forum, and let him know what you think!!  (12/11/05)

• Amsoil Rock'N'Monster Truck Winter Series:  We just received the new schedule from Bobby Paul of Paul Shafer Motorsports and have added all of their events to the most complete Monster Truck Event Schedule on the internet!!  Special thanks to Bobby for sending those to us, looks like some exciting things coming from all the folks at PSM this year!!  Was very excited to see a Missouri event on the schedule, and odds are very good that we will be covering the Poplar Bluff, MO show May 27-28.  And with a Phoenix event on the schedule as well, odds are quite good that my parents will be covering that one, so we're really looking forward to seeing what the Amsoil Rock'N'Monster Truck Winter Series has in store for us this season!!  (12/11/05)

• November Archive:  The main page of the Blog here was starting to get really long again, so I went ahead and archived the month of November's content, a link to which is now available at the bottom of the main page.  Just tryin' to keep this thing loading in a respectable amount of time!!  (12/11/05)

• Picture of the Week 12/10/05:  Due to Chris Kaelin and I attending the MTRA Meeting & Banquet, voting has not been completed for this week's Picture of the Week contest.  We will finish our voting tomorrow and have the latest Picture of the Week announced, as soon as possible.  Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!!  (12/10/05)

• MTRA Meeting & Banquet:  We will be attending this year's Monster Truck Racing Association Meeting and Banquet and covering it for the site!!  I will be making the trip up to St. Louis for the event tomorrow and I will be trying out my new Nikon D50 camera.  Chris Kaelin will also be attending the event, so we should have all of the day's activities well covered.  Check back here for an update and recap on Sunday!!  (12/09/05)

• Rolling Thunder Eve of Destruction Coverage!!:  Is now up in the Coverages section!!  A HUGE thanks out to my parents for attending the event, and for Dad's great work with all the pictures and helping me put together the coverage!!  Also, a giant thanks to Danny Torgerson for being so great to my parents at the event, and for providing us with the first look at the Torgerson Motorsports 2006 Event Schedule, and all of those events can now be found on the most complete MT Event Schedule on the 'net, right here at THE MONSTER BLOG!!  Check out the coverage in the Coverages section or by clicking here, and be sure to leave Dad some feedback on the Fan Forum and let him know what you think of his first coverage!!  (12/08/05)

• The Buck '03 Videos!!:  Charlie Wagner has sent in some great new videos from The Buck Motorsports Park's Battle of the Monster Trucks back in 2003!!  This video features Predator, Easy Rider, Black Stallion, Pure Adrenaline, and Backdraft!!  Check it out now in the Fan Submitted portion of the Video section!!  Be sure to scroll down as the page is in chronological order and this event was from 2003!!  Thanks and enjoy!!  (12/02/05)  UPDATE 2:  Charlie sent me a couple more videos from The Buck '03, including Bigfoot and the Nitecrawler tank Freestyle runs!!  Also one new video from The Buck '04 of American Pride Bigfoot doing some wheelies!!  Check them out now in the Video section!!  (12/05/05)

• New "Behind the Scenes With KD"!!:  Kyle Doyle's latest article entitled "Twenty-One" tells the story of their latest trip out to Maysville, IL with the Raminator R/T!!  This past weekend also marked the 21st birthday for our friend Kyle, and a sincere Happy Birthday to him from all of us at THE MONSTER BLOG!!  Read how Kyle spent his birthday and about the event held at Maysville Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep!!  Check out the article in the Features section or by clicking here!!  Thanks and enjoy!!  (12/04/05)

• Rolling Thunder Eve of Destruction!!:  What a wild night in Albuquerque, NM!!  My parents, Lauren & Lynette Bonar drove down from Tuba City, AZ for this Torgerson Motorsports show at the Tingley Coliseum!!  The event featured four trucks, including the Monster Patrol and Awesome Kong trucks (both of which would be driven by Rex Smith, as the normal driver of Kong was unable to attend due to a family emergency), Born to Be Wild driven by Larry Quick, and the hometown favorite, Charles Benns's Pit Bull!!  The Pit Bull would take the win in the Wheelie contest, while Monster Patrol would prevail in the head-to-head racing!!  Freestyle was highlighted by a couple of great runs by Monster Patrol and Born to Be Wild, though a scary moment occurred when the Pit Bull truck caught fire.  Driver Charles Benns would be able to escape with minor burns, and was upbeat and in good spirits about his performance when Dad spoke with him after the show.  All in all, a fun evening according to my parents, and a huge thanks out to Danny Torgerson and his crew for all their hard work!!  On a personal note, I must send out a huge thank you to my parents for attending and covering this show for the site.  They were testing out their brand new Nikon D50 camera, and although not all of their shots came out like they wanted (still learning the camera), they were able to get some great pictures from the show!!  All those pictures, as well as a full coverage will be coming soon from THE MONSTER BLOG!!  Thanks and enjoy a few teaser shots from the show!!  (12/04/05)

• Picture of the Week!!:  Be sure to check out this week's Picture of the Week entries!!  This is our biggest week ever as we have received 12 amazing entries!!  Not the week to have to be a judge, lol!!  We have a difficult task ahead of us in picking a winner tomorrow, but we will do our best!!  This is a great sign of our growth here at the THE MONSTER BLOG with one of our unique features really taking off!!  See this week's entries by clicking here!!  (12/02/05)

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