We arrived at Raymond James Stadium later than planned due to a bad wreck on the Howard Franklin Bridge. I had to wait about 15 minutes in the Will Call line to pick up our tickets so we could enter the stadium. By the time we headed to our seats the first round of racing had begun and El Toro Loco was in round one so I totally missed her racing because Barbarian beat her :-(. Our seats were in the corner of the south end zone which gave us a different, less desirable view than we have had from sideline seats in the past.

The racing continued, Grave Digger lost a wheel and the finals were Iron Outlaw vs Son-uva Digger, with Son-uva Digger posting the win. The wheelies competition was new-to-us and only some of the trucks took part. This is the part of the show where we realized how unfair the Monster Jam scoring is. This is from the Monster Jam website:

A panel of audience members who view the competition and assign a value to the performance. Each judge can score from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Once scores are reported, the highest score and lowest score are disregarded. The total of the scores is the score for the competition. In the event of a tie, the highest high score dropped will be the first tiebreaker. If still tied, the highest low score dropped will become the tiebreaker. If it is still tied, a tiebreaking official will break the tie to determine a winner.

Iron Outlaw freestyle

At this particular show, judge #2 aka “the bald guy” was obviously not judging fairly. Trucks that wrecked got higher scores than trucks who completed the wheelies. These discrepancies continued throughout the freestyle competition as well. Granted, the high and low score from the panel of 5 judges is thrown out, judge #2’s scores skewed the overall scoring. If I were a driver, I wouldn’t want my winning or losing to be based on biased fan scoring, would you? Wrecking Crew won the wheelies competition with a score of 27.

Monster Energy, Coty Saucier backflip

Overall, we had fun at Monster Jam, as always. If you missed this first show in Tampa Monster Jam returns to Raymond James Stadium on February 4th, tickets are on sale now.

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This year is the 25th anniversary of Monster Jam and it’s Grave Digger’s 35th year competing, the series wasn’t Monster Jam in his earlier days. On January 14th in Tampa we have Dennis Anderson driving Grave Digger, and his son Ryan Anderson driving Son-uva Digger in our show. Two generations of Monster Jam drivers competing to be the Tampa champion! That is keeping it all in the family. We also have my favorite, El Toro Loco driven by Becky McDonough.

About Monster Jam

Did you know that Monster Jam competitors are trained at Monster Jam University to master the skills of driving Monster Jam trucks? Monster Jam trucks can fly up to 125 to 130 feet (a distance greater than 14 cars side by side) and up to 35 feet in the air. At approximately 12 feet tall and about 12 feet wide, Monster Jam trucks are custom-designed machines that sit atop 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds. Built for short, high-powered bursts of speed, Monster Jam trucks generate 1,500 to 2,000 horsepower and are capable of speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

The Party in the Pits from 2:30-5:30pm is where fans can get up close and personal to the Monster Jam trucks and drivers. Pit Party tickets are $10 in addition to show tickets. They’re on sale now, and will be free at participating Southern Ford Dealers’ locations beginning January 1. Show tickets are also available online and range in price from $15-$112.

Good luck!

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Last weekend we attended our third Monster Jam event. Monster Jam is a fun night out and this year we brought our friends Sarah and Damon along for the evening. Each time we attend Monster Jam it is a little different. There is always the head-to-head racing and everyone’s favorite the freestyle. This year’s January 16th Tampa show included a donut competition by the drivers who didn’t make it into the head-to-head racing semi-finals and there were races between mega trucks. The mega trucks look like jacked up regular street trucks or dune buggies. I love that you never know what to expect in a Monster Jam show.

Also, in case you don’t know, there are multiple Monster Jam tours and multiples of some of the trucks. You need to figure out which driver is driving which truck at the show you are going to. My favorite trucks are El Toro Loco, the yellow one driven by Becky McDonough and Max-D driven by Tom Meents. I was happy to find out that both of my favorite truck/driver combinations were going to be at the show we went to.

In Saturday night’s show the head-to-head races came down to Monster Energy and Grave Digger. Monster Energy won when Grave Digger flipped on the final turn!

During the donut competition, my girl Becky McDonough showed the boys how she gets things done. Click over to see my Instagram video of her doing donuts. There are other photos and videos of the even on my Instagram page as well. My guy Max-D held the lead in the freestyle competition most of the night, even though he flipped before he got to try his well-know backflip Unfortunately, at the end of the night, Grave Digger bested Max-D’s freestyle score by 1 point!

Tampa friends, if you missed last week’s Monster Jam fun you have one more chance! Monster Jam will be back at Raymond James Stadium February 6, 2016! Tickets are still available and they start at $16! There are Monster Jam tours criss-crossing the USA so check the schedule to see when there is a show near you! You can also catch Monster Jam action on Fox Sports 1.

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