Every year, for as long as anyone in the club can remember, we work at the Monster Jam show held in the Blue Cross Arena. Club members set up safety holds, banners, lights, fans, and mats for the cars. This is done the day before the event and every member is welcome. This year it was done on Thursday because Friday was a holiday.
What makes this work interesting is you get to see how a show like this is organized. You get the opportunity to talk to guys who work on race car engines, the guys who drive them, and people who put on the show. It’s not a day wheeling, but you can get some free tickets for your family and you get to be up close when a 10,000 pound truck with a 1,500 horsepower engine fires up.
This year there was a pit party and 2 shows on Saturday and a pit party and one show on Sunday. This year they had enough radios with headsets for every one of us. With a headset, you get to hear all the communication that’s needed to coordinate the show. There is also some communication that is not needed for the show, but you have to be there and experience that yourself. The pit party allows the people to see the trucks up close and get pictures and autographs of the drivers. We get to watch. On Sunday it was snowing. The pit party was dead. The announcer counted 76 people.
Our jobs during the show revolve around cleaning up whatever debris created by the trucks smashing cars gets in the way. One guy gets to run the green light for the race. This is a sweet deal. You sit in the stands where the light is and switch it to green when told to. You get to see the whole show from behind the monster truck parking area.
If you’re a monster truck fan this is an awesome deal. If you’re not, watching and learning how one of these shows is put on is pretty interesting. I recommend every member try this at least once.
