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July 21,
2005
Frackville Resident to Race Monster Trucks Overseas
By Andrew Palochko
FRACKVILLE - Later this month, Frackville resident Alex Blackwell
will begin spreading one of the most uniquely American motorsports to
scores of fans overseas.
Blackwell was chosen to compete in the Monster Jam Europe tour, a
10-city European tour extension of the popular monster truck series
that competes in cities across the United States and Canada and airs
weekly on SPEED Channel.
"I'm
looking forward to seeing what our following will be in other
countries," said Blackwell. "Most of them have never been
exposed to our events, so they should bring the same kind of
enthusiasm that we saw here when the sport was developing years ago."
Blackwell will serve as a crewmember on all of the monster trucks and
will drive a yet-to-be-named monster truck at the Gelredome in Arnhem,
Netherlands in October. Other stops on the tour include
Manchester and Birmingham, England; Zurich, Switzerland; Antwerp,
Belgium; Oberhausen, Germany; Milano, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic;
Helsinki, Finalnd; and Stockholm, Sweden.
Blackwell, a rookie driver, got into the sport when his truck club was
asked to coordinate the infield activities at the Bloomsburg 4-Wheel
Jamboree in 1992. Here he met Pottsville resident Andy Slifko
who owns the Eradicator monster truck. After serving as a
crewmember for Slifko and his Eradicator, Blackwell was hired by Randy
Brown Motorsports, which fields the Grave Digger and Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle truck that he drove all winter. Blackwell has also
engineered a steering motor that is used today on nearly 50 monster
trucks.
Monster
trucks emerged in the United States in the early 1980s as a sideline
to tractor pulls and mud bogs. After Bigfoot, the first monster
truck, made a few high profile car crushes and movie appearances,
promoters had the idea to organize the exhibitions into competitions.
The trucks became lighter, more powerful, and more agile.
Today's monster truck competitions consist of two separate elements:
racing and freestyle. Trucks race two at a time in a
tournament-style bracket until a winner is declared. Freestyle,
the more creative of the two elements, gives each driver an allotted
time on the track to perform high jumps, long jumps, wheelies, and
donuts over stacks of crushed cars, vans, school buses, and motorhomes.
Last
year's inaugural Monster Jam Europe tour of three cities produced
seven sellouts. This year's expanded tour is expected to segue
into a worldwide tour in 2006, with possible stops in China, Japan,
and Mexico.
"I think
it says a lot for what we've done in the United States," said
Blackwell. "Last year's European shows were unbelievable.
When the show ended, nobody would leave the stands without an encore."
Blackwell leaves next week to do a promotional display tour. He
will meet up with the rest of the Monster Jam Europe tour before the
first shows in mid-August.
For more
information on Alex Blackwell and the Monster Jam Europe tour, visit
www.randybrownmotorsports.com or
www.monsterjameurope.com.
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