City of Monstery Love

Posted by lydonwrites under *like, Sports |

On Wednesday June 9th, Mayor Nutter proclaimed Saturday June 12, 2010, Monsterly Love Day in Philadelphia. Why? Because Saturday night, June 12 2010, Advance Auto Parts Monster Truck Jam descended on Lincoln Financial Field for a night of dirt track destruction!

The last time I went to a Monster Truck show, Mike Schmidt was still 3rd baseman for the Phillies and the show was in the now-gone concrete bowl of the Spectrum. BigFoot was the hot truck then, and GraveDigger was not the household name it is now (at least among Monster Truck fans). Fast forward 26 years, and Grave Digger is the top truck, Dennis Anderson from Kill Devil Hills, NC, is the most famous driver and… the sports spectators are still mostly families with kids under ten.

That didn’t stop me, nor quite a gaggle of the rest of my group in their 30s, from having an immense amount of fun. What? 30-somethings shouldn’t go to Monster Truck Rallies? Friend, you’re operating on a leftover idea of what 30-somethings do. No matter the age on your state-issued ID, fun will be had. Fun levels were huge, but so were sound pressure levels, so we brought earplugs. Good thing, too. Though we were up in the 200 level of the Linc, my decibel reader on my phone read a minimum of 87.3 dB and a max of 145.9 dB when the trucks were running. Monster trucks rock HARD, folks, so unless you want some tinnitus for the rest of your life, plug up those ears if you decide to follow in LydonWrites’ footsteps. Besides, how can you hear all the new ukulele tunes or dance diva beats pumping out over the airwaves without working ears? Plug it up, friends. Your years will thank you.

As a freebie with out 15 dollar tickets, we were also allowed in to see the trucks as part of a PitPass Party. I got a free clown nose, and saw a bunch of motocross jumps and tricks. Oh… and trucks themselves before their performance that night. Aside from the main event of the monster truck rally, there were 3 heats of quad races, which pitted “Team NY” against “Team Philadelphia”, although the accent of the leader of Team NY tells me that maybe it was all a put on, and there was no real “team” anything. He was far more Northeast Philly than Brooklyn, if you catch my drift. Ah, showmanship!

Of course, the best part of the night was the final event, the Monster Truck Freestyle. For those that have never been, it’s the part of the night where the trucks ride around the arena, executing jumps over dirt hills and crushing cars, buses, and last night at the Linc, a mobile home painted with a gigantic cheesesteak.

Once I figure out how to get the video off my Droid, I’ll update this post with a link to a heat or two, but for now, check out some pictures I captured during the fun!