The top story on this site last week was straight to the point: Frank Krmel is joining the Blue Thunder Monster Jam team. Behind that headline lies one of the best feel good stories of the year in Monster Jam.

The Monster Jam world is buzzing over the big news that popular Frank Krmel is leaving the Donkey Kong ride to join the team that carries the banner for the Ford camp, Blue Thunder. It's a fitting opportunity for a driver who has worked his way up each step on the ladder in this industry to climb to a point where he has become one of the most respected talents in the sport and now has secured one of the most coveted rides in the game today.

More than all that, though, Krmel is the poster child for the hopes and dreams that so many have. Krmel always wanted this, but growing up he didn't have any contacts or connections to pave his way. But he made it anyway through hard work and passion. Virtually his entire life Frank Krmel has dreamed of being a Monster Jam superstar. Now he is living that dream.

I got the opportunity to chat with Krmel about moving to the Blue Thunder team and he is almost giddy with excitement about it. “Oh I can’t wait" Krmel gushed. "You know I’ve been driving monster trucks now, I think it’s going to be my seventh year, and I’ve driven for some great, great teams, but I’m really looking forward to getting going with this and I think 2010 is going to be a really big year, especially driving that big Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder, I can’t wait.”

While driving for Ford's corporately sponsored team is a shot so many would love to have, some have wondered why Frank would move to a unit where he has to share the limelight with the already established elite star Linsey Weenk. For the past two seasons Frank has been the only driver of another high profile truck. You think Donkey Kong, you think Frank Krmel. Krmel told me that it's a hard decision to leave Donkey Kong to become a part of a team rather than a solo act, but according to Krmel, he just could not pass up a chance to drive one of Monster Jams true headliner trucks. “That’s the thing. It was a great two years in the Donkey Kong truck," Krmel explained. "I was kind of a veteran before I got into that truck, but that’s the one that kind of really gave me some credibility and actually made people take me seriously, to know that I could get in a truck and do the same thing all over the world, the Monster Jam Europe tour, all over this country. That’s why when the seat opened up on the Built Ford Tough team it was a match made in heaven. I’m from Detroit, the team’s based out of Detroit, it makes so much sense, and I just can’t wait. You know Linsey Weenk and I, we’re good buddies away from the track, and now this just makes so much sense to be a part of this team. I’m ecstatic, but also a little sad to leave Donkey Kong, but I know it will be in good hands."

Krmel continued to explain that it's the high profile of the Blue Thunder team that makes it work for him to give up his own persona to be a part of that unit. “Yeah, that’s the thing, the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder truck is one of the mainstays of the Monster Jam tour," Krmel proudly stated. "Especially having the backing from Ford and being one of the biggest names in Monster Jam it just, again, makes so much sense for me to get in that truck. As much as I love Donkey Kong, and I love the team and the truck, the whole concept, this is the move that makes sense for me to make. I had to do it. It’s going to be awesome. Linsey and I have talked about it. We’re a team. There’s no one guy here. There’s two of us. Two trucks. Two guys. One goal.”

Sometimes Krmel has to pinch himself to make sure that this is all real. While we were doing this interview Destroyer/Disney XD driver Dan Evans walked by, which got him reflecting on just how far he has come in the sport. “Dan and I go way back. When I was just getting started in the business I was a crew guy for Jim Koehler, and Dan was just getting started in the business," Krmel remembered. "I was at one of his first shows, starting in the Minneapolis Metrodome, 1997 I think it was. I was 19 years old. Or 18 years old, but now it’s great because I get to race with these guys that I used to watch. All these guys, like Jim Koehler, all these guys. Getting to work with them, getting to work on their trucks, get to hang out with them, getting to know them and then here we are 10 or 11 years later and I’m right on the track with them. It’s a dream come true for me, for sure.”

It's appropriate that Krmel mentioned Koehler. The former World Freestyle Champion gave Krmel his big break to really get into the business, and Frank says he maintains a close relationship with his mentor to this day. “Oh yeah, I talk to Jim, probably, every week. Usually more than once a week," Krmel admitted. "We trade stories. Most of the time he calls me on his way home from events, whether it’s in the summer or during the winter shows, we just talk on the way home from places and tell each other what’s going on. A lot of times too, especially the way the obstacles are getting out here, we’ll ask each other  ‘ how did you handle this one, how did you hit this triple, that double, how did you hit that step up?’ And it’s hard for me to believe, because time has gone by so fast, but Jim Koehler is like a 15 year veteran in this sport now, he’s got so much experience. Both Jim and Chris Bergeron have been a super big help to me, they always have been and they’ve always told me that if I ever lose my job driving for the team I’m with that they will always take me back to the Avenger camp. So I always have that to fall back on. I can always come home.”

For Frank Krmel the story involves lots of hard work and good breaks, but the core of his story is simple and an inspiration to youngsters who have a burning desire to be a part of Monster Jam one day. Krmel knew at an early age that he wanted this and did what ever it took to get there. “That’s exactly it. I remember being 3 or 4 years old and going with my Dad and waiting in line at the Pontiac Silverdome to watch the monster truck shows," Krmel recalled. "Back then they weren't even called Monster Jams. Same thing though. We’d watch all the truck pulling and all the mud racing as well, and I knew from that young age. I knew it. I knew I wanted to do it. I didn’t know how I was going to do it or what I had to do to get there, but I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So luckily I met the original owner of King Krunch, Scott Stephens, when I was probably 13, 14 years old. I met him at a display and he let me help him out. Then I met Jim Koehler who only lived 20 minutes away from me, so while I was in high school I started going to his shop every day, every night, learning every thing that I could. Jim would make me take things apart just to do it so I could see how they worked. Before Jim I didn’t know what a planetary was. So I had Jim give me all the back ground. I’m not a genius when it comes to these trucks, that’s why we have all of these top flight mechanics working on them. I’m not that great of a driver, but I’m a better driver than I am a mechanic. But seriously, to come up from being a fan sitting in the seats to where I am now it proves that you can do it, you just have to find your way in. For me luckily the doors were cracked at the right times and I was able to shove my foot in there."

So Frank Krmel takes to the track in one of Monster Jams most recognized machines, and he will be racing and freestyling Blue Thunder in front of millions of the sport's fans all over the globe. Many of those fans also have the burning desire to be on the track instead of in the seats, to some how become a part of one of the world's most exciting and popular sports. To those fans, especially the younger ones, who know that they want to be a Monster Jam superstar someday, keep your eye on Blue Thunder's Frank Krmel, maybe the sport's best example of how with passion and hard work you can accomplish anything, especially if you truly, truly want it. For those who have that same desire Frank Krmel is proving that dreams really can come true.