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Monster Jam roars into Tingley Coliseum
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The sounds of rumbling engines and screaming crowds will be heard at Tingley Coliseum from Friday, March 14, through Sunday, March 16, when Monster Jam rolls into Albuquerque.
Eight monster trucks will hit the dirt during the weekend-long pit stop, where drivers battle for glory to show their mastery of the 12,000-pound vehicles.
Each truck will compete in four competitions: racing, two-wheel skills, donuts and the freestyle category, where drivers push their skills to the limits while performing high-flying tricks.
“For our freestyle competition, we have 75 seconds to do whatever we want on the track, see what new tricks we could come up with or the backflips that everybody sees,” said Weston Anderson, a driver at Monster Jam. “All of these competitions are judged by the fans, by the way. These shows are 100% unscripted.”
Anderson, one of eight drivers, will be behind the wheel of Grave Digger, a 1,500-horsepower legacy monster truck that has spun its wheels for 43 years straight.
As a child, Anderson would wake up each morning to his father reeving the engine of Grave Digger, a nickname that was given to his father’s old pickup truck. The nickname would stick around, as did the monster truck named after the small pickup.
“We’re out here keeping the legacy going each and every weekend, trying to keep the torch lit and keep that Grave Digger name a household name in the monster truck world,” Anderson said.
He added that each driver has their own driving style, leading to the trucks having a personality of their own.
“We call it the way that we drive the truck, and we can’t interact with the fans while we are driving the truck, so we interact with them through our runs,” he said. “My personal driving style, I like to say that it’s controlled chaos. It looks like it’s chaotic out there, but 95% of the time I know where I’m at and what I’m doing.”
When trucks aren’t flying through the air or revving their engines, fans can see them up close during the Pit Party. With a special ticket, guests can come down to the dirt pit where monster trucks and their drivers will be for photos and questions.
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Anderson said the fans encourage drivers to push for harder skills, and he enjoys seeing them every time.
“They better have their party pants on, because whenever they come to one of our shows, we want them to be as loud and as rowdy as they get as they can. The louder and rowdier they are, the crazier we get in the trucks,” he said.
