Attention Readers! A note regarding photo captions: Please bear with me as I’m trying something different this week with the photo captions. You’ll notice the change immediately. Let me know what you think!  I know there’s some room to improve, but as always, your comments are welcome. - KD

Doesn't it seem as though the summer has just whizzed right past? I'm sure for those of you readers who are still involved in some sort of school (or you parents who have kids in school) the summer probably seemed almost non-existent.  For me, at times, it has seemed to drag on; an endless barrage of oppressive heat and humidity, coupled with hard labor.  At other times, however, the fun seemed to fade as quickly as it had started, as day gave way to night and it was on to the next gig. While the life of a racer is definitely interesting, and can be very rewarding, it often leaves you with little time to stop and smell the roses.

The weekend following the Mopar Nationals in Columbus would be a critical weekend for our team, as far as this summer's Special Events racing series was concerned. The Bloomsburg Jamboree, which had been rained out in July, was set to kick off in mid-August. Despite our team’s sweep of the weekend's events at the Vermont Jamboree, Allen Pezo still held a narrow lead on our two trucks heading into Bloomsburg. Our team spent many extra hours in the week leading up to Blooms to ensure that the trucks would head there as ready to win as possible with the limited crew hauling them out there. You see, because of the rapid re-scheduling of the event, Dale, Travis, Darrell, and I would all be tending to prior commitments we had made to Dodge dealers in Wisconsin and South Carolina, and to corporate Dodge in Detroit.

Click for The Monster Blog’s Bloomsburg Photo and Video Galleries!
 

Mat, Tim, Geremie, and Mark would be the only normal personnel in Bloomsburg, but with the help of a very dedicated volunteer crew, the team was able to pull off a complete hat trick in Blooms. "Big John" from the Dodge dealer in Sussex, NJ came to help, as did our team's good friends Jim Daugherty and his son Dusty, from Mansfield, OH. With good preparation, some good luck, and lots of hard work, Mark was able to win three of the four races, with Geremie winning the one remaining race. Mark's truck broke a rear steering lock valve during a Saturday afternoon freestyle, causing the truck to drive itself into a violent roll, destroying the front end and two front shocks. Despite this, Mark would return later that evening to dominate the racing program and put on a strong freestyle to boot.
 

While all of this was going down, Dale Benear and I hauled up to Dodge City in Milwaukee, WI. While on the way up, we stopped by T&E Enterprises in Herscher, IL, where our race trailers and merch trailer are built and maintained. After a quick tour and having some rivets replaced on the trailer, we were back on the road for Dodge City. Let me just say that these guys in Milwaukee know how to throw it down, if you know what I mean. They've hosted monsters off and on throughout the years, but have consistently booked Raminator every year since 2002. They showed us some photos of an event they held back in 1990 with monsters crushing cars at the dealership. What trucks, you ask? None other than TerraDuster II and Rebel's Revenge. Pretty neat, if you ask me. I should also mention that a small handful of the guys at Dodge City are lunatics. Absolute lunatics. The really loveable kind; the kind that constantly keep you entertained. These guys raised ten kinds of hell while setting up the cars, on Friday and Saturday both. We even heard last year that they rolled an S-10 pickup that they were using to set the cars in place. You see, they don't bother with no stinkin' forklift; no my friends, they have an assortment of what they refer to as "Pushers". This is the term used by the salesman I later dubbed "Bob the Destroyer", the man in charge of the madness. Bob’s only explanation (read: excuse) for the mayhem and wanton destruction was “Don’t worry, I’ll get that!” That phrase has stuck in my mind like a bad 80’s pop song during a long drive.
 

After a day-long deluge of rain, I suited up and tackled six wet cars in a very large and open asphalt lot on a chilly Friday night. Unfortunately, I had my first performance-jeopardizing crisis of my young driving career. As I throttled into the cars for my first hit, the truck's Hemi powerplant began stumbling, and my front power steering went away. As the truck landed halfway on the slick cars, I had no way to power out of the situation, as the truck died completely upon landing. Though Dale later reported that I was nowhere close to falling onto my side, I didn't enjoy the feeling, especially considering I had no way to fix it! After checking all my switches and seeing that the RII had not been triggered, I was given a thumbs-up from Dale and re-fired. As I pulled off of the cars, the truck died again. Check the stuff, thumbs up, re-fire. As this point I'm beginning to become more confused than frustrated, running through my mind what this thing is doing to me. I made my second hit on the cars, which would have been pretty decent, but the truck essentially died in mid-air on me, stranding me atop the cars once again, powerless.
 

At this point, split-second decisions are required, so I thought to myself "you've been a crew guy for three years...what would you do right now?" You see, for me at least, the "driver" mentality during a performance is different from a "crew member" mentality. Anyways, I had Dale check all my plug wires and coil wire in on the motor, while I un-strapped my shoulders to check the RII. Just as he was running back towards the hauler to get the spare RII box, I discovered that the plug-in on the back had worked itself just loose enough to allow the radio to function while the truck wasn't jolting around. After securing the plug into its proper locale, I strapped back in and radioed to Dale that it was time for the show to start.

After getting another go-ahead from Dale (I swear, he was busier on the radio than an air traffic controller on an aircraft carrier!) I re-fired and proceeded to ensure that none of the six vehicles would be leaving the Dodge City premises on anything other than a flat-bed wrecker. Due to the dark conditions, I've not received any photos from any fans who attended, much to my dismay, as I really felt like the crush went great after diagnosing and fixing the RII troubles. I suppose the one upside to all of this is that the truck is wired (per the MTRA rulebook) to not allow the engine to run if the RII box is disengaged, so in that respect the truck performed outstanding.

Dale's car crush on Saturday went off without a hitch, and after grabbing some lunch in our 2006 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi that the dealership provided us, we hit to road to make the short drive down to Chicago's Brookfield Zoo to take part in Dodge's "Dodge Zoo Adventure" program being held their that particular weekend.
 

Arriving Sunday morning, we set the truck up as quickly and quietly as possible to avoid waking or scaring the animals. We went so far as to only use five lug nuts per wheel (it was a static display only) to keep impact noise to a minimum, in addition to rolling the truck out of the trailer and towing it around with Dale's father's Dodge Ram. After towing the truck into place just inside of the Zoo's main North Gate, we walked around with Dale's family for a couple hours, enjoying the beautiful animals the zoo had to offer.
 

We made sure to stop by the zoo's Pachyderm House, the building that is home to (obviously) Pachyderms. From what small bit I've read, Pachyderms are classified by their body's structure, namely the construction of the feet and legs (they don't really have any toes or claws to speak of, but rather large heavy pads). After admiring the Hippos, Pygmy Hippos, and Rhinos, we came across this awesome sign at the Elephant area.
 

Tim Hall and his fiancé Vicki "adopted" the Rhinos a number of years ago, contributing funding and time to help enrich the lives of the animals. Our team has also contributed a number of worn-out or otherwise useless 66" and 73" monster truck tires to the Rhinos and Elephants to play with. Standard procedure is let each tire sit outside in the sun for several days to help bake any tire shine or oil out, then a hot and soapy power washing to knock any unwanted car pain, glass, etc. out of them to ensure the creatures' safety.

After a late evening tire-down, we started the truck just long enough to drive it into the trailer, and then hit the road.
 

The following weekend, DW and I made the annual trek to Jack 'O' Diamonds Dodge in Longview, TX for a two-day R/T gig. Believe it or not, we were so busy that my camera didn't even make it out of my bag! I'm not sure it would have wanted to, as hot as it was down there. We gave rides for two days in 100+ degree weather, so we were both feeling pretty baked by Saturday afternoon when we tired down. The one side venture we were able to make involved walking across the street from the dealership to an awesome new music shop/recording studio that had recently been built inside of an old body shop. Really cool stuff.

After tiring down in the late afternoon in Longview, DW and I pulled another proverbial rabbit out of our proverbial hats and drove overnight non-stop to Kokomo, IN, north of Indianapolis. Dave Rounds and the good folks at Chrysler's Kokomo Transmission Plant put on one whammy of a car show each year, which the R/T is always a big part of. Each person who rides makes a donation to the plant's Kid's Christmas charity fund, so it is a rewarding gig, to say the least. This year was even more special, as we gave some very special rides to some very special people. A group of very dedicated volunteers and the group of older mentally ill men and women that they lovingly take care of got to take some special rides on the R/T in the morning before the crowd arrived. Gigs like these make those ugly overnight drives seem unimportant and trivial. After a long day of rides in Kokomo, it was time to bring the 'ole RT home for a short break in the action.
 

During the middle of the week following Kokomo, Dale Benear and I took a Raminator race truck down to St. Joseph, IL, to put the truck on display at a local Boy & Girl Scout recruitment drive. Despite the occasional spitting rain, the gig went just fine, and there were some pretty happy Scouts at the end of the evening, as we handed out hundreds of stickers and hero cards.
 

Friday would bring another community gig, as I made the short drive up the shop road to the small town of Thomasboro, IL to the elementary school in the center of town. As I rounded the corner following my police and team escort vehicles, the kids that had congregated outside the school came to life with excitement. Mark Hall, Tim Hall, DW, and I spent the afternoon giving rides to the kids and talking to them between rides, answering the requisite questions. Mark, Tim, and DW all went to elementary in Thomasboro, so it is always a good feeling for them to be able to share their success with the town they grew up in, and in some cases, a couple of the teachers they had!
 

As soon as we navigated the R/T back to the shop, we did an uber-quick tire down, and hit the road for our next destination, a Saturday-only gig in Archbold, OH. After spending a few hours giving rides at the local Dodge dealer, we were wide-loaded to the county fair about 20 miles away for another round of rides, which would precede the evenings [extreme] tuff truck racing. As the tough trucks started and our gig wound down, the rain and wind began to pick up, so we packed up in quite the hurry and put our 75ft highway beast in the wind and aimed it a home.

Thanks to the Labor Day holiday, after arriving home we were able to enjoy two days off in a row, a rarity in the racing community. I spent the majority of Sunday sleeping, as I made it home at about 3 a.m. that morning. The following day brought a change of pace, however, as we headed out early for Amanda's brother's house in Sheridan, IL. Sheridan is southwest of Chicago, which meant our day would be filled with some spirited driving on some of central Illinois' finest back roads. Had I not been on somewhat of a schedule, I probably would have stopped at least 15 times to shoot some pictures, but it just wasn't gonna happen that particular day. After picking up our quad runner from their house and enjoying lunch near Sandwich, IL (ha, that's not a joke but its funny anyways), we made our way down to Goose Lake Prairie State Park. From the point of view of a lensman like myself, I was sadly disappointed. I find it hard to get in a nature-minded groove when there's fishing boats buzzing on the nearby lake that is dammed up by a nuclear power plant. Needless to say, we didn't spend a whole lot of time there.
 

They day was growing old, so with only a couple precious hours of daylight left, we stopped at the Kankakee River State Park, near (you guessed it) Kankakee, IL. This stop proved to be a bit more rewarding, as we enjoyed the shaded walking and hiking paths, and then finished off our trip by cooling off in Rock Creek, a tributary that feeds into the Kankakee River. After drying our feet off and collecting our gear, I drove us home in a much smaller vehicle (my Ram 1500) than I am used to operating on the highway.

The short week following Labor Day didn't leave us much time to prepare for our next gig, which for me, Mark, Geremie, Tim, and Mat would be the Hayes Southeast Mopar Meet being held at Atlanta Dragway, in Commerce, GA. Despite being promoted by nothing more than a Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep dealership out of Baldwin, GA, this event is a far cry from your average car show or drag race meet. Of course, being the nation’s leading Mopar Performance Parts dealer, Hayes CJD is more than your average dealer. Drag racing superstars Gary Scelzi, Allen Johnson, and Richie Stevens Jr. were on hand to meet with fans, and in the case of the Pro Stock drivers, they would actually make three runs apiece down the strip on Saturday.
 

After a brief “teaser” crush performed by Mark and G, and following the Pro Stock runs and some passes by a handful of nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars, it was time for the main car crush. Mark and G put on a stellar show in the huge grass field provided by Atlanta Dragway. The length and width of the field allowed the guys to stretch out the trucks a bit, and also kept the 4,000+ fans back a good ways. Allen Johnson, his wife, and some of his crew made it down just in time to watch the show, and they seemed to really enjoy it. Following the performance, I sat Allen down in the cab of the R/T, and instructed him on how to operate the truck safely (I opted not to introduce him to the rear steering yet). Allen was ready to take his maiden voyage in a Monster Truck, and with Mark Hall at his side, Tim Hall running the RII, and yours truly with the camera, AJ took the R/T for a brief trip around the field.
 

AJ was all smiles as they returned to the “pits” in the R/T. Despite being only a ride truck, the truck’s 528ci Hemi mill was more than enough to impress the Pro Stock veteran, a guy who’s used to traveling the ¼ mile in under seven seconds at more than 200mph nearly every weekend. “I’m ready to suit up and jump something now!” said Johnson after emerging from the truck. I mentioned to him that he was braver than Gary Scelzi was, who opted to ride as opposed to driving at last year’s Hayes Meet. One more really cool experience to add to my list of accomplishments in the MT business.

Click Here for The Monster Blog’s Hayes Mopar Meet Photo Gallery!!
 

After getting to bed late on Saturday night, our team left Georgia early the next morning, arriving home midway through Sunday evening, in time to grab dinner with our respective families. Monday brought a well-earned day off for the crew, though Tuesday would find us hard at work preparing for the upcoming weekend’s gigs, and for the Indy Jamboree the following weekend.

On a side note, I’d just like to thank all of the people who take the time to read my often over-length articles here on the Monster Blog. If I had the time and patience to really go into depth about my travels and experiences, and if you had the time and patience to actually read them, The Monster Blog would take forever to load! It’s been nearly a year since I contributed my first article to the Monster Blog, and since then Ross and I have become pretty good friends, and for the first time I truly enjoy writing and taking photos for a Monster Truck site.

 
As many of you know, I contributed articles, photos, and drummed up news stories for another monster truck site a few years ago. Though I enjoyed helping the site grow, I found that my articles, which tended to delve head first into controversial topics that I felt very passionate about, brought people to their feet in a way I had never imagined. Some rose to their feet to “cheer”, while others rose to throw the internet version of tomatoes (e-matoes). That left a sour taste in my mouth, and I stopped contributing to sites for a couple years. Then, after discovering the Monster Blog, and being approached by Ross at nearly the same time, I’ve found a site that has successfully avoided bias and negativity like no other site ever has. In the spirit of that, I’ve tried to keep my articles funny, informative, and interesting, and most importantly, positive.

Working with the Hall Brothers for the last three years and change has taken me to some of the greatest tracks in all of Monster Trucks; however, it has also taken me to places far more spectacular than mere race tracks, and led me to meet some pretty spectacular people too. I hope that through my writing and photography you readers have been able to see that, at least in my case, there is far more to being a Monster Trucker than merely moving big tires around and crushing cars (though often that’s all it boils down to!).
 

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read. Until next time…
 

- KD
 

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