Bari's Adventures Rochester, NY

By Bari Musawwir
Jan 11, 2012

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the 2012 Road to the World Finals of Advance Auto parts Monster Jam! I hope everyone had a good Holiday season, but if you're anything like me, you are reeling with anticipation to get the new season started!  It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by since the start of my Rookie Season some 12 months ago! I had a great time last year driving the Crazy Bull known as El Toro Loco, in fact the season was such a huge success; I was approached by the great people at Marvel to campaign the ever popular Spiderman Truck in 2012! I jumped at the opportunity and couldn't wait to meet all the Spiderman fans around the country! I had my long time friend, Rene Mendez paint my helmet with a custom Spiderman theme, and wow did it come out great! Check it out!

 We got the first show started in Rochester, New York this past weekend at the Blue Cross Arena for the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Thunder Nationals! Once I arrived in Rochester I had a chance head down to Dinosaur BBQ with Announcer Greg Whittaker to grab some great food!

 

The following morning I got a chance to visit local News Channel 8 for an interview to let all the great fans know about the awesome action we had planned for them.  

After the news Interview, I head out to find what the local hobby shops in Rochester had to offer. I wound up at Performance Hobbies where I found some cool discontinued parts that aren't available anymore!

 

After my successful trip to the hobby shop, it was time to go get ready for the kick off for the first show of the season! I was excited to hop in the unique Spiderman ride for the first time ever!

 

We got the show started with the Wheelie contest. I went out and tried to get the webbed beast as vertical as I could! I ended up Scoring a 23 which landed me and my new digs the win for the first competition of 2012!

After a quick Interview with Greg, he handed me a new Spiderman Puff truck to give away to a lucky fan in the stands!

After the wheelie contest win I earned a buy run in the first round so I set my sites on Racing where I would square off in round 2 versus  Andy Slifco in the Eradicator. Andy was able to sneak by me on a whole shot win as I got crossed up in the air over the finish line landing on the 2 right side tires.

 

Up next was the doughnut contest! I set up the truck to rotate to the right! I managed to spin my way to a score of 17!

Freestyle was up next, and I wanted to see how this new truck handled the high flying action! I put the truck through its paces and it handles great! I free styled my way to a score of 17.
 
 

With The Friday night show in the books I was pretty happy with how things went with it being the first time ever driving the truck. Thanks to my crew Nate Kirchner and David Olfert we started off the season on a great note!
Saturday, I went to visit Advance Auto Parts Store 6936 to pick up some aluminum polish so I could shine up the 540 cubic inch Merlin Big Block in preparation for the first of 2 pit parties planned for this weekend! Pit Parties are one of my favorite times, because it's so rewarding to meet all the Monster Jam fans and see the kids faces light up! I definitely feed off of the energy that the fans bring and look forward to each and every time I get to interact with them!
 

Once it was time to start the Saturdays show, I was pretty amped and ready to put Spiderman back in the winner's circle! I wouldn't be so fortunate though as the truck was plagued with an electrical problem for the duration of the weekend. The truck kept shutting off during landings and going into turns at speed.  My crew really thrashed on the truck and tried everything they could to try and figure out what the problem was. They changed the RII radio box, the batteries, relays, solenoids and nothing seemed to remedy the problem.

Despite the intermittent electrical problem I still managed to finish 2nd in the wheelie contest on Sunday as well as making it to the racing finals against my team mate Chad Tingler in Grave Digger. Chad edged me out stay low over the crush cars, while I was flying high!
 

 I'm looking forward to getting some redemption this weekend as we travel to Houston Texas for our first big Stadium show of the year inside Reliant Stadium! For more Information on this show visit http://www.monsterjam.com/Events/2012/01/14/Houston,_TX/
You can also check out up to date information with me and the Spiderman team on my facebook fan page found here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bari-Musawwir-Fan-Page/201673799854500 or if you're on twitter you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/Mr_BAM_
I would like to send a big thanks to Jeff Luckey for some of the great photos in this addition of Bari's Adventures!
Also make sure you check out my remaining Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Schedule below to see when The Spiderman team will be in a city near you!
 

Until then take care!
Bari Musawwir

2011 Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Rookie of the Year!