This year's St. Louis Monster Jam marked the one-year anniversary of my wife and I getting into Monster Trucks.  Sure, I was a fan when I was little like we all were, but as I grew up, it became harder and harder to find Monster Trucks on TV, and my interest moved onto other things, namely Nascar.  Last December we found out that my wife Rajeana was pregnant, and I began to look back on some of the things that I was most interested in as a kid that I would one day be able to share with my son.  The biggest joy of mine as a child was Monster Trucks, and upon finding out that there would be a Monster Jam in St. Louis in February, I told my wife that she could take me to the show for my birthday.  Well, you all can figure it out from there, as once we attended last's year's St. Louis Monster Jam, we were hooked.  How hooked?  Well, just think of how far The Monster Blog has come since we opened in August!!

Nonetheless, that made this year's Monster Jam very special for us, and we were really looking forward to this show.  It would be hard to top the event we attended in Indianapolis earlier this year, but this show would do the trick.  I ended up taking 733 pictures last night, so you can imagine that our Full Coverage will take some time to complete, so I have put together this Full Recap of the show, with right at about 50 pictures.  Not too bad in my opinion, and this should be able to hold you all over until we get the full thing done, because trust me, it will be worth the wait.  Consider this our "mini-coverage" of the St. Louis Monster Jam!!

THE PIT PARTY

We arrived at the stadium a few minutes before the Pit Party, and only got a chance to talk to Guy Wood, Tony Farrell, and Lindsey Weenk before the drivers were swamped with their adoring fans.  The Pit Party was pretty cool, as the floor was absolutely packed with many of the 70,000 fans who would be attending the sold-out show later in the evening.

THE LINEUP OF TRUCKS

BLUE THUNDER - TONY FARRELL

BOB & TOM - GUY WOOD

BOUNTY HUNTER - JIMMY CRETEN

DEVASTATOR - MARK SCHROEDER

EL TORO LOCO - LUPE SOZA

ERADICATOR - ANDY SLIFKO

GRAVE DIGGER - RANDY BROWN

IRON OUTLAW - LINDSEY WEENK

MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION - TOM MEENTS

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE - ALEX BLACKWELL

INTRODUCTIONS

Introductions would include the standard Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction blast out of the tunnel and race around the track, but before that in a welcome addition, Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter was introduced in the same fashion as the defending World Freestyle Champion.  Jimmy raced out onto the track and popped the truck up in the air on the bus stack, parking it facing Blue Thunder, who was on the other side of the track.  It was really great to see LiveNation featuring the independent Bounty Hunter during Introductions, in addition to their two stars, Digger and Max D.

THE RACING COMPETITION

QUALIFYING

Qualifying was fast and furious, with Randy Brown in Grave Digger setting quick time with a run of 21.24 seconds.  Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction was only two tenths off Digger's time, and it looked like those two would be the ones to be beat.

RACING

The racing competition was no doubt the best we have seen.  It seemed like every race was close, with many ending up in photo finishes and the replay having to be checked before calling an official winner.

Guy Wood in Bob & Tom had a great run in Round 1 with a truck that sounded pretty rough, upsetting fast qualifier Randy Brown in Grave Digger.  Digger's chance at fast loser evaporated when the Team CSK trucks faced off, with Jimmy Creten just edging teamate Lindsey Weenk to give Bounty Hunter the win.  It would be determined that Iron Outlaw would be the fast loser and advance to Round 2.  Blue Thunder, Maximum Destruction, and El Toro Loco would also move on.

Round 2 would see the first head-to-head match-up between rising star Lindsey Weenk and the 6-time World Champion Tom Meents.  In a hard fought battle, it would be Meents taking the win, but it would come at a price.  Coming off the last jump, Maximum Destruction nosed down hard, and smoke began to pour from the engine.  After parking the truck, the engine promptly started on fire, and the crew scrambled to put out the fire and repair the damage before the next round.  Lupe Soza in El Toro Loco was able to defeat the Guy Wood in the Bob & Tom truck which sounded even worse this time out than it did in its two previous runs.  Whatever mechanical difficulties he was having would keep him from performing later in Freestyle.  Another great match-up put the two big Fords, Bounty Hunter and Blue Thunder up against one another, and in another great race, it was Jimmy Creten just edging out Tony Farrell.  Farrell would move on as the fast loser.

Starting off the Semi-Finals, it was Maximum Destruction going up against Blue Thunder.  The crew had got Max D ready just in time to make the call, but it would be for naught, as Tony Farrell made a great pass, which earned him a berth in the Finals.  Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter continued to move through the brackets, defeating Lupe Soza in El Toro Loco to setup a rematch of the previous round against Blue Thunder in the Finals.

The whole racing show to this point had been fantastic, and the Finals would live up to its billing.  The two trucks had faced off in Round 2, with Creten taking the win by only inches in that match-up.  History would repeat itself in the Finals, as even though Tony Farrell made a great run in Blue Thunder, there was no stopping Jimmy Creten tonight in St. Louis.  Congratulations to Jimmy Creten for a great performance in Racing and for his big win.  Creten would now try to become the first driver other than Tom Meents to win the SPEED Double Down Award this season by taking the Freestyle win as well.

RACING RESULTS

MARK HAGER STUNT JUMP

You've seen the unusually large set of cars that resided in the middle of the track tonight, and their reason for being there was fulfilled before intermission.  Stuntman Mark Hager and his Brotherhood of Destruction group was on hand to thrill the 70,000 St. Louis fans tonight with an incredible jump high into the air, and then land on the cushion of the aforementioned 30 car stack.  Hager came roaring out of the tunnel in his specially prepared stunt car (formerly a police version Chevy Chaprice), sped up the ramp, hit the launching bar at the top of the ramp and twirled the car high into the air as the pyrotechnics sent fire into the sky!!  The car spun three times around through the fire, landed on the far end of the stack, flipped back into the air, and came to a rest on the other side of the stack.  The safety equipment did its job, and Mark Hager emerged to the roar of the St. Louis crowd who had just seen an amazing stunt!!

THE FREESTYLE COMPETITION

DEVASTATOR

After intermission, it was Mark Schroeder in Devastator leading off Freestyle.  Schroeder had been plagued with problems tonight, unable to make the call for Racing after suffering mechanical breakage in Qualifying.  The mechanical gremlins struck again during his run as the truck was obviously laboring around the track, but Schroeder stayed with it, and gave his all trying to put on a good show for the fans.  Schroeder's run was highlighted by the first sideways jump over the 30-car set, and a nice save as the truck started to turn over after hitting the near pyramid.  The judges would give Mark a score of 9 for his efforts.

ERADICATOR

Andy Slifko was next out in the Eradicator Dodge, and wasted no time going straight for the sideways hit on the 30-car set.  He followed that up by making the first hit on the bus stack, going up and over it fine fashion.  Slifko went to spin the Eradicator around on the far end of the track, but got into trouble as the truck rocked up on two wheels.  Slifko was slow to react and by the time he got into the gas to try and save it, it was too late, and Eradicator went onto to its lid to end his run.  Although Slifko had a nice start to the run, the flip ended it much too early, and the score given to him would be a 13.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE

Alex Blackwell brought out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and really put on a good show.  This is the second time we have seen Blackwell perform, and both times he has put on a solid,  entertaining Freestyle without putting a scratch on the truck.  Blackwell hit nearly all the obstacles, and went for the big air a number of times, and ended with a nice donut.  The judges returned a low score of only 15, but it was enough to put Blackwell on the hot seat momentarily.

IRON OUTLAW

Lindsey Weenk in Iron Outlaw was up next, and he really got the St. Louis fans pumped up with a wild run!!  Weenk went for the car pyramids, the bus stack, and the huge 30-car set, getting awesome air off all the obstacles, and working one of the hits into a great slap wheelie.

To go off topic for just a moment, the technology in these DSLR cameras is awesome.  I am very happy with my Nikon D50 as it really does a great job of capturing the action.  Probably the coolest thing about it is being able to take a number of pictures very quickly.  This allows us to put together some pretty cool animations after we get the photos downloaded onto the computer, and I think you will enjoy the ones we've done for this mini-coverage.

Going back to Iron Outlaw's run, Weenk was really getting going when he made a huge hit on the 30-car set, landing hard on the cars.  This produced a bounce which Weenk rode off the set, and upon hitting the dirt, immediately worked into an awesome slap wheelie.  As he was riding out the wheelie, the rear wheel rode up onto the big dirt ramp, upsetting the balance of the truck, and sending it up on two wheels.  The truck's left front wheel caught on the dirt, sending the truck up onto its nose, and try as he might Lindsey Weenk couldn't quite save it, flipping Iron Outlaw onto its lid.

This sequence was definitely the wow moment of the night thus far, but there was still some time left on the clock.  Even with that, the run was worthy of a low-to-mid 20's score, but the judges turned up only a score of 16.

BLUE THUNDER

Next out to Freestyle would be Tony Farrell in Blue Thunder.  Farrell had turned in a great performance in Racing, and was looking to put the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder in victory lane in Freestyle.  Farrell started his run with a couple of hits on the wheelie cars on either end of the track, and then took on the 30-car set.  Blue Thunder next took to the sky, launching over the dirt hill, and then up and over the bus stack.  Over to the far corner of the track, and then hits the wheelie car again, this time able to work it into a very short slap wheelie, Farrell quickly changed direction and went up and over the bus stack from the opposite direction.  A solid run up to this point, but then comes the move of the night thus far.  Farrell hit the dirt hill and got some great air.  Upon landing, Farrell stayed in the gas and hit the 30-car set launching Blue Thunder straight up, way into the air!!  The back end stuffed into the cars on landing, pogo-ing the truck back up and then burying the nose into the cars!!  Tony Farrell made an awesome save to keep Blue Thunder rubber-side down, and the crowd went crazy!!  Time had expired, but Farrell wasn't done.  He hit the wheelie car on the far end of the track, and this time was able to work it into a great slap wheelie down the center of the track.  He went to spin it around on the far end, but the truck hooked, and Blue Thunder goes over onto its lid!!  No doubt the best run of the night, and definitely had the crowd going nuts.  But then the judges turned up their score...it was only a 16, tieing him for the lead with Lindsey Weenk in Iron Outlaw.  The crowd reacted to this score, letting the judges hear it with a resounding course of boo's.  A run that no doubt should have scored around a 27 or 28 would go down in the books as a 16.

El Toro Loco, Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, and the reigning World Champ Bounty Hunter up next!!  Click below to see their runs!!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FREESTYLE!!