When it comes to sports, every one has it's own major milestone every year. Baseball has it's World Series, while the NFL has the Super Bowl. Hockey enjoys the Stanley Cup, and now NASCAR has it's own Chase for the Championship.
Monster Jam has it's own major event to culminate a successful season. Over the course of two days, the major stars of the sport gather in the "City of Lights", Las Vegas, for the Monster Jam World Finals. What started out as a risk for an already popular sport has become the go-to event for drivers, teams and fans alike.
Beginning in 2000, Monster Jam decided to hold their season-ending championship at Sam Boyd Stadium, just outside the University of Las Vegas. It was going to be the fastest course that any driver had seen, with trucks reaching nearly 70 mph on the straightaway.
Every year since then, the event has gotten bigger, more demanding, and has expanded from a one-day experience for everyone to a two-day phenomenon for fans, but also a week of preparation for the competition.
Defending World Finals champions Tom Meents and Jim Koehler, who have competed at every World Finals event, have seen the changes from that first in 2000 to last year when each took home a championship.
"That first year we showed up, it was interesting. We showed up on Saturday morning, you got the truck out of the trailer, put the tires on, and did a show that night," Meents said. "Doing the first World Finals, you didn't know if there was going to be a second or a third.
"Now, we're getting ready for the 13th, a huge two-day event, you know it will be sold out, and that there will be 24 of the best trucks out there."
For Koehler, the show itself has changed, but the competition has as well, as in it's becoming harder.
"It's tougher. That first show, in 2000, there were 16 trucks, and back then out of those 16 there were probably six trucks that were really crazy, hitting the stuff wild, and really getting crazy," Koehler said. "Now, they have 24 trucks, and out of those 24, 24 of them are hitting the stuff crazy.
"And the equipment has caught up with them. The technology and equipment has gotten better and can take the abuse. If you go out there now and win, it's saying something, whereas back then they knew the guys that were in the running to win. Some guys were just ahead of the game, but now it's matched up, it's everybody's game. Anyone that's in that show can win."
When Monster Jam began having the trucks qualify for their positions in the racing brackets beginning in 2001, usually it was done as part of the show. However, because of how many trucks competed at this event, the USHRA decided to hold qualifying the night before, to save time for the event and to progress the show.
Drivers then began qualifying without the bodies, or just the nose piece, to save weight and to make the trucks faster. Soon after, Monster Jam began dabling in the idea of having some fans arrive a day early to witness qualifying and the final practice runs.
In 2005, the field was expanded to include 20 trucks competing, Monster Jam made available to a certain amount of fans a pass to come in the day before to watch qualifying. Since then, the field has expanded to 24 trucks, and Monster Jam fans have come out in droves for what is now been called the "Double Down" Package.
Included is a pit party with all the drivers competing, and the trucks there for display, plus exclusive merchandise, along with other incentives for everyone involved. Fans also get an exclusive barbeque for lunch and an opportunity to walk the track.
Meents himself enjoys the World Finals not just because of the fans, but it has been one of his most successful venues. In the 12-year history of the event, Meents has won nine championships. More impressive is that eight of them were won with the same chassis. The same truck he drove to his first title in 2000 won it's final championship in 2010.
Why Meents stuck with the same chassis could be described best in two words.
"It worked," Meents said. "It had a simple design but it was built to be strong, it won eight Monster Jam world titles, and it just kept coming back for more. We've since replaced it this year, but really hated to see that old baby go, but we haven't got rid of it.
"Who knows, maybe someday we'll use it again."
For Koehler, the World Finals also means two traditions, one is the unique design his team brings for the body, and the second is getting wet. Since 2004, Koehler has put a unique paint scheme on his 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air called Avenger. Not wanting to stick with the traditional green look, Koehler's team has done an orange body, a two-tone look, a blue body, a flat black and most recently, a near-replica candy apple red.
But for Koehler, his favorite look was one that he did in 2006, simply because of something toy manufacturer Hot Wheels had said to him.
"My favorite was the chrome body because Hot Wheels made a chrome Grave Digger toy, and I asked if they were going to make everyone's truck chrome. They said 'No, just the Grave Digger'. I told them it would be a cool idea to make everyone a chrome edition, but they said they weren't planning on it.
"I decided I wanted to do a chrome body on my truck, that way if they see I did a chrome body, they (Hot Wheels) would make a chrome toy of my truck...and they did."
Koehler's other tradition at the event is jumping in the water obstacle, and it all started just because of a joke.
"Initially, I won in 2003, then in 2004 I had a bad run, so I was really bummed out. The next year was the first year they put a pond in there as one of the obstacles. I had a decent run going, but rolled over a little bit earlier than I thought. The fans were going nuts, but I was feeling bummed out that I didn't do better than that.
"Then one of the track crew guys said 'You should go jump in the water' and it just clicked in my head. He was just joking around, but I ran up and did it and the fans went nuts, more nuts than if I had done a good freestyle. The whole night doing autographs after the show, I sat next to the guy who won freestyle (Jimmy Creten) and not one person said to him 'nice freestyle'. All they could do was say something to me.
"So right then, if I don't win or even if I do win, I still need to steal the audience."
At the same time, the pit party prior to the event has become an event in itself. Drivers and trucks not even competing at the show now come out to display their trucks. In 2011 alone, alongside the 24 trucks competing, there were nearly 50 other trucks displayed that compete on the Monster Jam circuit.
The drivers will also do a parade of the trucks before the main event, which has become a festive moment for fans and drivers as they make the drive to the pit area. Nearly 70 trucks, with an estimated combined 105,000 horsepower, parading down the road for the fans gets everyone at Las Vegas jacked up for the biggest event of the year.
For both Meents and Koehler, they enter this year's World Finals as defending champions, and know that the competition wants to take away their crowns at night's end. But, neither one of them can deny that the event in Las Vegas is the must-see event for any Monster Jam fan.
For information on this year's Monster Jam World Finals, including the drivers that will be competing, tickets for the event, and hotel accomodations, visit MonsterJam.com and click on the World Finals link.
The Double Down Package is available at UNLVTickets.com.
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