MONSTER FINAL AT DIXIE
Woodstock, GA. Saturday night the rain clouds and a little sprinkle could not keep thousands away and they were not disappointed as the final night of the Carl Black Monster Truck Spring Nationals was incredible!
During the opening ceremonies the show director Ed Beckley and Tom Meents the driver of MAXIMUM DISTRUCTION talked about their friendship of the late Mike Swims and both dedicated the whole weekend to his memory. The crowd stood in unison and with the cue from Beckley yelled out We Love You Mike Swims!
After the introduction and the call for START YOU ENGINES the eight top monster trucks in the World roared to life and they were all for one thing and that was to thrill the crowd and have some fun while doing it. T MAXX driver John Zimmerman said it best, “Now it is time to go out and have some fun while living on the EDGE!”
Qualifying time trials had MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION as fast qualifier and T MAXX was second and the rest of the star studded field was nearly hundredths of seconds from the leaders. We all knew the night was going to be full of close racing.
Close racing sometimes means an accident is just waiting to happen. As Gary Porter in GRAVE DIGGER went side by side with Rob French in TWISTED DRAGON Corvette they left the line together and were racing hard going off the first ramp. As they throttled up for the second ramp jump Porter drifted to the left. Off the ramp they came side by side and in mid air DIGGER hit the DRAGON and they both got tangled in each other’s wheels and those huge 66 inch tall tires made for a big crash. DIGGER went launching into the air as French veered his Corvette monster out of the way. After flipping several times DIGGER landed upside down on the concrete wall with the roll cage down. The force of the crash folded the roll cage tubing enough to deem the truck very unsafe and Gary was lucky to get out of it as the fence posts were sticking into DIGGER cockpit and barely missed the driver.
Thru the night the racing was just as close and in the final round it was T MAXX versus MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION. When they lined up it you could feel the electricity in the air as both trucks had their fans from many years at the Georgia Dome and here at Dixie. As the light turned green Max D had the lead but T MAXX was coming on strong but about 40 feet from the finish T Maxx threw the front driveshaft out of the truck and that was all Tom Meentz needed to pull off the win.
After the interview with Meents it was time to get further on the edge of your seat as the FMX motorcycle jumper lined up. Just as before the runs up the ramp were to get the speed just right and then it was hit the ramp a little harder and there he went. As he left the ramp the bike rotated backwards while 35 feet in the air! As he sailed 75 feet to the landing ramp the bike landed safely and the crowd came to their feet!
Next was the most fun a driver can have when you are in a monster truck and that is the car crushing contest.
There were obstacles everywhere. Cars, vans, cars and vans on top of cars and vans – it was even wilder than ever before. Spectacular moves were made by all of the trucks although several high lights were SHELL CAMINO dragging the tailgate on one of Shelley’s runs. “This grandma from Michigan is one heck of a driver,” said Tom Meents. T MAXX went out with only two wheel drive and got some huge air, TWISTED DRAGON’s freestyle was on kill! Each driver knew that Max D was the last truck and knew they had to do something crazy so they were all trying to win freestyle.
Tom Meents quietly sat in his truck waiting for all them to finish and then went out and hit everything wide open and just about at the end of his freestyle run he hit the cars a little wrong in the infield and rolled the truck over! As the truck went over you could hear him blasting the throttle hoping the tires would dig in and DIG they did and the truck righted itself and he continued his run! With a perfect score of all three judges gave him 10’s and Meents defended his titsl as CHAMPION of the DIXIE MONSTER TRUCK SPRING NATIONALS with back to back wins in racing and freestyle for both nights.
Next time the Monsters are back will be September 19th and 20th you can be sure the crowd that was here this weekend will still be talking about this year’s Spring Nationals!
