THE BANQUET

When I got back to the hotel, we still had a little bit of time to kill, which I spent hanging out with Chris Kaelin and Jason Twite, just talking about this and that.  Larry Quick and his wife came by and it was really great to meet them.  They gave me the copy of the Albuquerque, NM Rolling Thunder Eve of Destruction video that they had shot that can now be seen in our Videos section.  A big thanks out to them for doing that for us, and it was really great getting to talk to Larry for a while.  Hopefully we'll be able to do an interview with him here coming soon about the new truck he's building.

Finally, it was time to head on upstairs for the Banquet.  We got up there and the meeting tables had been replaced with circular dinner tables.  Chris and I chose a table close to the front where we could get some good pictures and video of the Awards ceremony, and ended up being joined by Jason Twite, Scott Bryant, Tim Knerr, Rich Blackburne, and Nels Wickander, owner of Flame Motorsports (King Krunch & el Matador).  We got a pretty good group and we had a lot of fun, sitting around talking and having a good time.

After waiting around all that time for the Banquet to start, it ended up being in preparation for waiting for the food to arrive, lol.  Apparently the story was that the hotel elevator was broken, and they couldn't get the food carts upstairs to the conference room.  Dinner ended up not being served for quite some time, but that wasn't such a bad thing as it allowed me to walk around the room with the new camera and get some really great candid shots of some of your favorite drivers, hanging out and having a good time away from the track.

Team RAM's Mark Hall and Dale Benear.

Dan Runte, driver of Bigfoot #15.

Larry Quick, driver of the Born to Be Wild monster truck.

Owner and driver of the Big Dawg monster truck, Doug Noelke.

Bobby Holman, owner and driver of The Beast.

Greg Adams, owner / driver of the Annihilator monster truck.

Nigel Morris, driver of Bigfoot #17 that runs in Europe.

Jocelyn Perrin, Lil' Miss Dangerous herself.

Andy Hoffman, MTRA Board of Directors member, and owner / driver of Nitemare.

Shane "Air" Blair, driver of Bigfoot #10, and his wife Tayla.

Jeff Bursey, the man behind Towasaurus Wrex.

Nels Wickander, owner of Flame Motorsports (King Krunch & el Matador).

Rick Long, driver of Bigfoot #11, and the 2005 MTRA Rookie of the Year.

Tim Hall, co-owner of Hall Brothers Racing and MTRA Board of Directors member.

Shane Smith, driver of the Venom monster truck.

Scott Bryant, Monster Truck author, historian, and engineer.

The dinner finally arrived, and after everyone had gotten a chance to eat, it was time to get the ceremonies started. 

2005 MTRA BOARD INTRODUCTIONS

After a nice introduction speech by Doc Riley, it was time to recognize the 2005 Board of Directors for all their hard work in running the MTRA this past year.

Doc Riley gives the opening speech.

2005 MTRA Chairman of the Board Bob Chandler.

2005 Board of Directors member Jeff Bursey.

2005 Board of Directors member Bobby Holman.

Nigel Morris, President of the MTRA Europe.

After recognizing the 2005 Board of Directors, it was time to meet the new board and to hand out some hardware!!

LET'S SEE WHO WINS THE AWARDS!!