7 April 2021
When you have been anywhere near a vehicle radio in the last 30 years, you have heard of Grave Digger. Or even, to put it more precisely, you’ve heard of Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrave Digger, the massive, car-smashing, dirt-hill jumping monster truck which has been barreling across arenas round the country since 1982. Originally owned and driven by Dennis Anderson, Grave Digger started out as a Frankenstein’s monster of salvaged parts melded to the body of a 1952 Ford pickup and ended up an iconic monster truck. It’s mostly of the instantly identifiable trucks on the Monster Jam motorsport event tour, a combination of pure racing, driving skills and freestyle stunts created by Anderson himself back in 1992. Nowadays, there are seven different Grave Digger monster trucks raising hell around the country, and driver Tyler Menninga will undoubtedly be behind the wheel of Grave Digger chassis No . 36 once the Monster Jam rolls in to Colonial Life Arena this week. Menninga will churn up the dirt and compete with other monster machines like Megalodon, Bad Company and Xtermigator. “It’s gonna be awesome to be back in front of a crowd of people again, ” Menninga said of getting back again to driving the behemoth carrying out a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s been over 365 days since I’ve been behind the wheel, so I may be a little rusty at first, nonetheless it might be like riding a bike. I don’t know, because I’ve never gone without doing it because of this long. “
So how does one find yourself behind the wheel of Grave Digger to begin with? Well, it helps to truly have a lifelong love of motorsports. “It’s definitely something I pursued, ” Menninga recalled. “I grew up pursuing off-road racing at a very young age, and I had a passion for motorsports. “It also helps to know the owner’s son. “I got tight with Dennis Anderson’s son Adam while i was in high school, ” Menninga said. “I went to work with him one summer, minus him I wouldn’t exist driving this truck at the moment. “Not that it was easy to obtain behind the wheel of perhaps the many iconic truck in the sports activity. “I like to say there exists not any pressure, but right now there probably is, ” Menninga laughed. “I try not to allow any of the pressure of the Severe Digger name over our shoulders get to me. I actually try to put on a good display for the people who came to discover us. That’s really what comes down to: They’re there to find out something cool and Now i’m there to give it for them every time. “In terms associated with what people who come to the particular socially distanced, masks-required-when-not-eating-or-drinking edition of Monster Jam are usually in for, even Menninga appears a little awestruck. “Even when you have been within the last couple of years, it really is so different now, inch he posited. “We’re doing it craziest tricks with these vehicles. Ten years ago you never could have thought possible, it’s simply something you have to see on your own. The equipment we’re running is continually progressing, both in terms associated with performance and safety, as well as the tracks we’re driving about right now are progressing extremely fast. “Menninga said that one of the reasons the particular stunts and racing are usually better than ever is that, for the first time, will be certainly essentially a farm-team program for Monster Jam motorists.
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“For the particular longest time, you type of had to know somebody or even know somebody that knew someone, ” he explained. “But here in the last couple of years, we have partnered with the University associated with Northwestern Ohio (in an application called Monster Jam University), so they have a scholarship system set up through the school where one can earn a chance at doing work for Monster Jam, whether it be around the mechanical side or motorists side. “Other than that will, Menninga said that if you want a profession in a monster truck, absolutely nothing beats seat time — ANY seat time. “Just having a motorsports background assists, ” he advised, “whether it be go-karting, dust biking or ATVs, the particular longer you can be on some thing with an engine, the more it can help you. “April 9-11. Colonial Life Arena. 801 Lincoln subsequently St . $20-$163. coloniallifearena. possuindo.
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