THE BANQUET (continued)

THE RAFFLE

I myself bought $10 worth of raffle tickets, so I was anxious to see if I could get any of the cool stuff up there.  They started off by taping the matching tickets onto a lot of the smaller items while saving some of the bigger, cooler prizes for last.  Everyone got in line up in front of the table to compare numbers and claim their prizes.  For me, that would be one of the cool American Pride Bigfoot mouse pads, which I would later get autographed by Bob Chandler.  Not too shabby.  Some of the funnier moments came with rival teams winning each other's merchandise.

George Eisenhart sportin' one of the two Bigfoot hats he won.

Jocelyn Perrin really cleaned up, winning two hats and a couple of Vinyl Images cuzzis.

Scott Bryant got an awesome throw back T-Wrex T-Shirt, and got it signed by Jeff Bursey.

Other humorous prize winners included Team RAM's Dale Benear and Travis Howard and Flame Motorsports's Nels Wickander all winning some nice new Team Bigfoot hats!!

Next up it was time to give away the good stuff, including the Bigfoot R/C, the awesome poker chip sets, the toolbox, and of course...the Sponge Bob toilet seat!!  Wouldn't you know it, sitting right next to him, Twite wins the awesome Big Dawg poker set??

The next award winner didn't really seem too excited to claim his prize.  After a long pause, Team RAM Driver Geremie Dishman slowly rose to go and get his awesome new Sponge Bob toilet seat!!

Probably the most excited person in the room about winning a prize came with a great reaction from Shane Smith after hearing his number called for the brand new toolbox!!

With the end of the raffle, the event officially was drawn to a close.  Many folks stayed around talking and having a good time, but it was time for yours truly to hit the road.  With it being just after 11:00 and a two hour drive home looming ahead of me, I said my goodbye's and nice to meet you's and hit the road.

NEW WALLPAPERS

Here is something that Kyle Doyle did for us that I think is absolutely awesome.  For those of you that would like to show your support for the Driver and Most Improved Truck of the Year, Kyle made up these awesome new wallpapers for us!!  Enjoy!!

Click here to download for your desktop!!

Click here to download for your desktop!!

THE FINAL WORDS

All in all, a great day of activities at the MTRA Meeting & Banquet.  I had an awesome time getting to meet so many great people from folks I talk to on a regular basis like Chris Kaelin and Kyle Doyle, to people from the Mayhem board like Jason, Scott, and Tim Knerr.  It was fun chatting with Mark Hall and Shane Blair and meeting Larry Quick, Nels Wickander, Rich Blackburne, and Rick Long.

I found the MTRA Meeting to be very informative and feel like I learned a lot more about some of the inner workings of the sport.  Next year I'll have to try and make the Tech School on Friday as well.  I'm a new member of the MTRA, but I really look forward to getting involved and helping out wherever I can over the next year.  A special thanks out to everyone who helped make the weekend possible, especially Robyn Brow for all her hard work!!

I really hope you all enjoyed the coverage of this event.  I had a lot of fun playing with the new camera, and I think that by videoing the awards presentations and acceptance speeches (Thanks Chris!!) that we were able to provide a look at the event that many of you wouldn't normally get to see, and will hopefully enjoy.  I encourage everyone who can to sign up for an MTRA membership and get involved!!  Thanks for reading, and leave us some feedback on the Fan Forum!!

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