The legend of Monsters and Lebanon Valley goes back 22 years, the first time two monsters lined up side by side to race. Today the legend is much the same. That first race in 1987 featured Carolina Crusher, Stomper, Clydesdale and a little known truck called Grave Digger driven by a country boy from North Carolina named Dennis Anderson.

For some reason the fans loved the hard charging, win or take your junk home in pieces attitude of the young Anderson. His hard work with little to show for it persona was easy to identify with. He quickly became a local hero with fans not only paying for tickets to see him but inviting him to dinners, birthday parties and even volunteering to crew for him when money was tight. That tradition continues today.

Some 15 years ago Tom Meents brought him first truck to the upstate N.Y. track. He worked hard to gain fans and often commented about the Grave Digger fans loyalty. His unique driving style earned him fans as well and today there are two W. Leb. Favorites.

Monday night brought out thousands of fans who came to see a World Finals Lineup battle it out. It was one of those magic nights we all dream about.

Max D earned the fastest qualifying time with a 5.66 beating out Taz (5.96) and Grave Digger (5.90). The track was getting faster and faster with each pass.

Race Results:
Round One:
Max D over Escalade
Blue Thunder beat Stone Crusher
Taz edged out Mopar Magic and Grave Digger took out Captains Curse.

Semi Finals:
Max D beat Blue Thunder
Grave Digger defeated Taz in a father/son match up.

Monster Jam Race Final:
Grave Digger just barely got by Max D.
Racing was so close it took several officials to declare a winner.

Street Warriors have long been a part of the Monster Jam events at Lebanon Valley. Pre show qualifying gave us the eight vehicles that were going to race against the clock for the championship. When all was said and done Mike Mareau was defeated by his friend Eric Calling 19.94 to 23.06. Mareau vowed to work on his truck thru the day Tuesday for a revenge match-up.

Freestyle Competition:
Mopar Magic Ricky Ownley 14
Cptns. Curse Alex Blackwell 14
Escalade George Balhan 20
Stone Crusher Steve Sims 20
Blue Thunder Linsey Weenk 21
Taz Adam Anderson 6 (rolled in less than :15)
Max D. Tom Meents 23
Grave Digger Dennis Anderson 26

The night ended on the track with Doug Rose and his Jet Powered Green Mamba burning a Ford Explorer sending sparks over 100 feet behind the vehicle. It was a beautiful demonstration of power.

While the action on the track ended around 10pm drivers signed autographs until almost 1am for the many fans. Many of the fans Monday said they would return on Tuesday and Wed to see the Monster tackle “The Valley” one more time.

Tuesday:
If Team Grave Digger thought they had a lock on the Lebanon Valley competition this week they were wrong. Learning from the Monday night event, Linsey Weenk took the fastest qualifier title with a blistering time of 6.22 edging out Maximum Destruction’s 6.40. Grave Diggers time was 6.40. This was going to be one highly contested night.

Round one pairings gave us some very interesting races. Maximum Destruction driven by Tom Meents beat Captains Curse and Steve Sims aboard Stone Crusher took away the chance for Escalade driven by George Balhan to move on. The biggest matchup was Grave Digger driven by Dennis Anderson and his son Adam in Taz. For the second night in a row Big Daddy Dennis took the win.

In the semi-finals the ultimate pairing puts Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction side by side. Both drivers knew only one was going to the finals. In the end, Grave Digger beat Maximum Destruction handily with a more than a truck length lead.

In the finals Grave Digger won racing for the second night in a row but he was far away from a second clean sweep.

Race Results:
Round One:
Blue Thunder beat Mopar Magic
Stone Crusher over Escalade
Grave Digger downed Taz
Maximum Destruction won over Captains Curse

Semi-Finals:
Blue Thunder over Stone Crusher
Grave Digger beat Maximum Destruction

Race Final:
Grave Digger over Blue Thunder

The intense crowd of thousands cheered on the Street Warriors as the action was a bit wilder than Monday Night. In the end it was Eric Calling earning a win for the second night of competition. Asked why someone would want to compete in this type of racing calling replied,” Because it is an incredible rush to be racing down the track and here the fans cheering and see them all waving their flags. There is nothing like it and I encourage all those who have an interest to get a vehicle, invest in some safety equipment and come run with us.”

The nights Freestyle action kept the thousands of fans from the three state area on their feet. The results are posted toward the end of this recap but result scores do not begin to tell the tale of Tuesday action. You simply had to be there. Blue Thunders big air, Adam Anderson saved Taz not once but two times from an almost certain roll over. (learning from Monday night how unforgiving the track is.) Stone Crusher was in the air more than on the ground during his run. Crusher gave the W. Lebanon fans almost 30 seconds more than his scored run. Extra time in freestyle (non-judged) also came from Escalade, Blue Thunder, Taz and Maximum Destruction.

The Freestyle win for Tuesday went to Tom Meents and Maximum Destruction. Tom drove the truck hard with two cyclones, the biggest air of the night and an almost 2 minute 15 second run before bringing the Massive Monster Truck to a stop on the front stretch wall. He earned a score of 27 for his efforts.

Max D.’s 27 edged out Grave Diggers 26 as Digger had some problems with breakage toward the end of his run. Dennis came out and told the fans he was disappointed that Grave Digger did not finish freestyle as big as he wanted but also commented on how the moment belonged to Tom Meents and Maximum Destruction. “I love Tom because he pushes me every night to work harder, I also hate it because he is so darn good”, said Anderson. “This time belongs to Tom and I love him for his great ability”.

Freestyle Resutls:
Mopar Magic 15
Captains Curse 15
Escalade 19
Stone Crusher 20
Blue Thunder 23
Taz 21
Max D 27
Grave Digger 26

Tom Meents ended the night telling fans they were the real winners Tuesday Night. “We may have a victory or two but the real win
ners are you, the fans, without you we could not do what we love for a living and I thank you for giving me the opportunity”.

With that the night of action was over, crews began preparing the trucks for the Wednesday night event and the drivers went to meet the many fans in upstate New York during an almost two hour autograph/photo session.

Wednesday:
Double Down for Digger, Carnage on the track, incredible fans, and the clean cool air of upstate New York, that’s what you missed if you were not among the lucky fans who made the journey to the legendary track Wednesday night.

The doors open at 5pm and fans line up beginning at 3 for the best seats and a chance to see what happens before Monster Jam at Lebanon Valley. It seems to be a tradition. Many families make a three day vacation of the event. One family traveled 15 hours on a train from Michigan just to vacation with the monsters. Others from Penn, Ohio, Maine, N.J. and Georgia all gathered for the big show. Wednesday night was magic.

As an announcer I could feel it from the very beginning, something was different. The drivers and fans had spent three days together discussing everything from Monster Jam to fishing and even the fine art of grilling over charcoal. But, still you could tell they were all working up to something big. Great weather and fast but intelligent driving had made life easy for the pit crews, so far. It was the final night of action and things were about to heat up.

Tom Meents set the stage for fast racing with his fastest qualifying time of 5.97 seconds. Blue Thunder and Grave Digger shared the honors for second fastest with 6.19. In the end none of those trucks would be running.

Racing began with some great pairings and the track was again very very fast given to the great track builders who not only build a challenging track but also maintained it during the week to keep it prime. Most of the racing was so close several track officials worked to determine the winners and more than once the camera was brought in to review the call.

Race Results:
Round One
Taz beat Maximum Destruction
Captains Curse over Escalade
Grave Digger downed Stone Crusher
Blue Thunder over Mopar Magic

Semi-Finals
Taz took out Captains Curse
Grave Digger over Blue Thunder

Race Finals:
Grave Digger edged out Taz.

Dennis Anderson didn’t realize how prophetic his words were when he told the crowd, “We still have freestyle to go and I may have to load up parts and pieces and run that thing into the ground to double down but I am going for it”.

I don’t want to take anything away from the 30+ men and women who came out for the street warrior competition. Many first time drivers gave the fans something to cheer about in their pre-race qualifying and in the big show. In the end Eric Calling made it a clean sweep with another win but it cost him dearly as the truck died after the finish line and had to be towed off the track.

It was time for Freestyle and carnage.  Good runs for Mopar Magic and Captains Curse gave fans something to cheer about then the gods of destruction took over. George rolled Escalade to begin the stream of broken dreams. Steve Sims had a clean run with Stone Crusher, lots of big air and fast front stretch runs earned him a score of 24 and the lead. Linsey Weenk was not so lucky, about half way thru his :90 freestyle the truck landed hard and the truck just came apart. Pieces were everywhere hanging off the carcass like a Thanksgiving turkey thirty minutes after the family finished dinner. Linsey was fine, the fans loved the action but the judges only rewarded him with a score of 22.

The track crew cleared the twisted metal and Adam Anderson roared out in Taz. His high flying run earned him a tie for the lead with 24. Next came Maximum Destruction and multi-time World Champion Tom Meents. Max D. began his run with big air, a quick donut, stopping just short of a cyclone as he built momentum for his Freestyle. Things never go as planned for Tom at Lebanon Valley and his run was cut short when he broke the front shocks with a hard landing and the steering just would not cooperate. Nobody was more disappointed than Tom with his shortened run and low score of 15.

It was Big Daddy Dennis’ turn to show what he could do and true to his word the legendary driver drover Grave Digger into the ground. You could hear the motor tearing apart with each and every second  but Anderson kept his foot in it with hairpin turns, high jumps, donuts and wheelies. It was vintage Dennis Anderson all the way. Fans on their feet screaming and flags waving as Grave Digger ended the 90+ second run by rolling at the end of turn 4. Nobody was sitting down and the cheer could be heard thru-out the valley as Grave Digger was awarded a 26 and the win.

 The night ended the 22nd year for Grave Digger and Dennis Anderson at Lebanon Valley Speedway. Tom Meents has been making the trip for 15 years and I have had the honor of announcing the event for 20. It is a magical place filled with great memories and several generations of Monster Jam fans. Nothing fancy just great racing and wild action.

 I hope all true Monster Jam fans get to experience “Howards Place” at least one time in
their lives.

Freestyle Scores
Mopar Magic                                          16
Captains Curse                                        18
Escalade                                                  23
Stone Crusher                                         24
Blue Thunder                                          22
Taz                                                          24
Maximum Destruction                            15
Grave Digger                                          26