Some kind of monster

A deafening roar filled the Rose Garden this weekend as tens of thousands of fans did their best to match the thunderous sound of eight 1,500-horsepower, supercharged, big-block American V-8s revved to life at the Monster Jam.

As the monster trucks circled the dirt track for the introductory lap, the biggest cheers were reserved for Grave Digger, the crowd favorite. No matter the seat in the arena, the sound was earsplitting and many regretted not bringing along earplugs.

“The crowd here in Portland is very knowledgeable when it comes to monster trucks,” said Frank Krmel, Jr., driver of the monster truck Blue Thunder. “If we give them something to cheer about, they can be real loud.”

This was Krmel’s second Monster Jam event in Portland. Two years ago, he was here racing for the Donkey Kong team.

When asked to describe his machine, he rattled off details as rapidly as his high-octane machine could crush a row of cars.

“Blue Thunder is 10 feet tall, 12 feet wide and weighs around 10,000 pounds,” he said. “It has 1,500 horsepower—which is almost 10 times the power of a regular car. It runs on methanol alcohol, and it takes around $200,000 to build one.”

The Monster Jam began with a barrel-racing event unique to Portland. Drivers navigated their highly tuned, stripped-down Jeeps and Ford Rangers around a weaving course of strategically placed barrels in the quickest time possible. The race required exceptional handling skills from the drivers as they rounded tight corners and quickly accelerated through the course.

The event also featured Quad Wars, where teams from Oregon and Washington participated in head-to-head racing on ATVs.
The main attraction, the monster trucks, began their duel with a relay contest. Three judges were chosen from the crowd to score, on a 10-point scale, two monster truck drivers who willed their mean machines over heaps of scrapped cars. The sole criterion being to wow the crowd and judges alike by soaring as high and as far as possible over the pile of junk cars.
When the dust had settled, it was Krmel and his Blue Thunder who emerged as the winner of the relay event.
“I grew up in Detroit, Mich., and went to all the monster truck shows with my dad. I knew when I was a boy that I wanted to be a monster-truck driver,” he said. “I feel lucky to be able to go all around the country and race monster trucks for a living.”

The second main event was a bracket-style race featuring two behemoths battling head-to-head with the dented pile of junk cars serving as a small obstacle to these juggernauts. The first truck to cross the line would be declared the winner.

Rick Swanson, driving his truck Obsessed, out-jumped Rod Schmidt and the Grave Digger in the final to win the event.

“Obsessed is actually my 14-year old-son’s truck,” Swanson said. “The people who know me know that I drive my Obsession—which unfortunately had some problems before the event.”

After a short intermission, the crowd returned to the edge of their seats for the grand finale of the night—the freestyle event. The three judges once again rated outlandish acrobatics performed by the massive machines.

Roger Stidell, driver of Captain USA, amazed the crowd with his skills and achieved a score of 26 in the process—the highest for the event that night.

Fans waited with anticipation as the final competitor, and crowd favorite, Grave Digger took to the track. While attempting a jump over the already-crushed cars, driver Rod Schmidt rolled the truck, drawing wild cheers and applause from the crowd.

Thanks to the series of redundant safety features in each truck, Schmidt emerged from Grave Digger without a scratch and climbed the barricade to mingle with his fans as Stidell was being honored as the winner of the freestyle.

“All the drivers had a great time, and we’d love to come back to Portland again next year,” said an excited Stidell as the awed crowd began departing the Rose Garden, knowing that they had got their money’s worth.