At the end of July each year the Jet Cars come to play at Englishtown Raceway Park for the All American Jet Car Nationals, thrilling spectators with their amazing speed and fire show.  This year's event included 4 of the best Monster Trucks around that would be freestyling on 6 rows of cars; 3 rows of 6 on both sides of the drag strip.  This year the Monster Trucks attending the event were:

 

 

Black Stallion

Owner/Driver: Mike Vaters

Hometown: Hagerstown, MD

 

Team MEENTS

Owner/Driver: CCE Motorsports/Tom Meents

Hometown: Paxton, IL

 

Grave Digger 12

Owner/Driver: CCE Motorsports/Gary Porter

Hometown: Wadesboro, NC

 

Bulldozer

Owner/Driver: CCE Motorsports/Neil Elliott

Hometown: Paxton, IL

 

 

Before the Monster Trucks Freestyled, they ran 2 at a time (one in each lane) down to the end of the drag strip, then coming out one at a time to freestyle.  This month's event was made interesting when the staging area was wet down with the fire hose so the Monster Trucks could kick up some wet donuts.  With a name like Tom Meents performing, it was easy to tell what was going to happen!

 

 

Monster Truck Freestyle

 

A cool effect that Raceway Park added was pyrotechnics next to the rows of cars, and when the Monster Trucks would hit the cars the pyro would go off in a flash, making it a very cool sight to see.

 

 

Team MEENTS

 

First out was Tom Meents in Team MEENTS, attacking the cars on the near lane with lots of speed getting tons of air.  Meents continued down the lane towards the slippery starting area, and started to turn the truck around and around.  It didn't take long for Tom to get the Team MEENTS Truck spinning around like a top, perfectly centered, and tons of revolutions.  Tom finally let off the throttle and did one last revolution before coming to a stop while the crowd went wild!  Tom then headed to the far lane of cars getting nothing but big air and clearing the cars almost every time.  Meents then came to the starting line again and turned the truck around a few times, nothing special but then finished his run with even more jumps across the cars before his teammate Neil Elliott came out in Bulldozer.

 

Click the frame above to download video of Tom Meents' first Freestyle run in Team MEENTS (3.07mb).

 

 

Bulldozer

 

Neil came out in Bulldozer as Tom was finishing his run in Team MEENTS.  Neil wasn't hitting the cars with as much speed as Tom, but was getting better wheelstands and iron-walls over the cars with the nose higher than the rear end but while getting some good air.  Both team trucks met at the staging area of the racetrack and crossed paths, pumping up the crowd.  Neil Elliott took the bull down the other side of cars with some nice passes, then heading back to the staging area rode the bull rodeo style in a few donuts to end the run.

 

Click the frame above to download video of Neil Elliott's first run in Bulldozer (1.54mb).

 

 

Grave Digger

 

Porter came out and started hitting the cars right off the bat with some nice speed.  No spectacular movers or anything, but did let the engine open up on the wet starting line throwing the truck from one side of the drag strip to the other.  Gary continued with some more jumps down the far lane getting some nice lifts here and there but turned it around to come back quick and started spinning some great donuts in the dirt sending a cloud of dust onto the spectators, then heading to the near lane.  When Gary got back to the staging area again he cut the wheels on Digger and floored it, sending Digger spinning a few times around and close enough to the Raceway Park tower to get shut down.  Gary finished off the run with some more trips down the lanes while Black Stallion came out.

 

Click the frame above to download video of Gary Porter's Freestyle in Grave Digger (1.88mb).

 

 

Bulldozer

 

Neil Elliott came out in Bulldozer and did more of the same as in his first run; some nice jumps over the cars and some good air, sometimes clearing all cars in each row this time around.  Neil tried to get some donuts going again to end the run.

 

Click the frame above to download video of Neil Elliott's second run in the bull (693kb).

 

 

Team MEENTS

 

Tom came out with tons of speed as usual hitting the cars hard enough to get tons of air and clear all of them each time, coming down hard sometimes and rocking the Team MEENTS truck onto two wheels sometimes.  Tom brought the truck back to the staging area and went for some more donuts, and got just that.  This time the revolutions were faster, but not as many, but still getting the crowd behind him all the way.  Tom headed down the far lane each way getting tons or air on each jump before sliding to a stop at the starting line to come out of the truck to a big cheer from the crowd.  Another awesome run!

 

Click the frame above to download video of Tom Meents' second run in Team MEENTS (1.71mb).

 

 

So finished up another Englishtown Monster Truck Performance, a great night of action.  The next coverage on MTC is from Englishtown as well, from the Monster Truck Sunday Crunch with unbelievable pictures.  Stay tuned!  As always, thanks for reading and watching!

 

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