At various times I'm going to use this space to take you behind the scenes and let readers meet some of the people who along with the drivers make Monster Jam what it is today.

This week let's chat with one of the sport's most recognized and respected Tech Officials, Jim Ursini.

To begin I asked Ursini to tell his story about how he got started in Monster Jam. Ursini: “I started out in Long Island with the local four wheel drive club, started out as the Free Wheelin’ Four Wheelers, and we did Madison Square Garden. I met Bill Easterly and Mike Wales (with Monster Jam) there and they seemed to take a liking to me at that time and I just worked my way up as one of the local club guys. A couple of years later I got invited to Tech School and I’ve been doing this ever since. Last year I did 32 events.”

Jimmy went on to explain that a large number of today's Monster Jam Techs got in the business the same way that he did. Ursini: “That’s almost always how it is done. Starts with volunteers, maybe even friends and family of those volunteers who come into it. Even on the Monster Jam race teams we’ve got a lot of people who come in that way. Driver’s sons. We’ve got a lot of father-son teams out there now, and their families are involved. But as far as the Tech Officials, yes, it seems like we all started in the seats as fans, watching. And you have to be a fan to do this. You have to enjoy what you do. There are late nights, there are long hours and you’re not always going to be happy. Your heart really needs to be in it. But from being a fan to getting involved with local four wheel drive clubs and other local clubs that help out with the show, that’s where it seems like most of the Techs work their way up from.”

Monster Jam Techs are very visible on the track during the events, but that's only a part of their responsibilities. Ursini: “The majority of the fans only see us from say, 8:00 at night to 10:00 at night. They don’t realize quite often that we came in that day at 8:00 in the morning and then after the show we may be here until 2:00 the next morning. We’re putting up all the safety holds, putting up all the banners, painting all the cars, in some cases setting all the cars, measuring all the tracks, getting any supplies that are needed. Lots of things to make sure work and if, say, the starting lights don’t work then we have to fix them. There’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that we do that the fans don’t see all the time.”

In today's Monster Jam the officials are very intensively trained in both rules and safety. I asked Jim how intricate his technical responsibilities are. Ursini:
"Very intricate. We have a checklist of about 35, 40 items and there's 15 pages in our rule book that we have to know also. Just because it's not on the sheet doesn't mean it is not safety related. We check the trucks before every show from top to bottom as if it's the first time we've seen it for the weekend. We go over them with a fine tooth comb and if something is not right they are made to fix it before they run."

Monster Jam officials have to make lots of calls and split second decisions that affect the drivers, including when to shut off trucks with their Remote Ignition Interrupters, and often the drivers don't agree with the officials calls, as you see in all sports. Ursini: "It does get heated once in a while. It's a mutual respect thing. They may not agree with the reason why we shut the truck off but I think they take the attitude that 'ok, Jim shut the truck off for a reason, I don't like it, but he's doing his job and I have to do mine.' Come 10:00 the show is over and we don't discuss it anymore. You are my friend again. It's just like two drivers pulling to the line. Each one of them wants to win at all costs but when that race is over it's 'good race, good friends, I'll help you fix your truck, you help me fix my truck.' It's the same way with drivers and tech officials. We get along. We're a family."

I asked Jim if he is aware of how many eyes are on him and the other techs during Monster Jam events. Ursini: "Absolutely. I did the math last year. Live fans at just the shows I was at it was over 500,000 people who saw me live. That's in January, February, and March.  That's a lot of people that see you. Here's a quick story. I got an email the other day from a girl I went to Junior High School with. She told me that her kids were watching TV and you said 'there's safety official Jim Ursini' and she looked at her husband and said 'wow, I went to school with a Jim Ursini.' She went inside and it turned out that it was me, and I haven't seen this girl in 25 years. She lives down near our Tampa event and when I go back down to Florida we're going to see each other for the first time in 25 years thanks to you saying my name on TV."

That said, Ursini went on to explain that knowing that tens of thousands of eyes are on him definitely is something he is mindful of throughout each event. Ursini; "Absolutely we're part of the show. Do you want to stand out there in front of 60,000 people and get busted picking your nose? You know we have to be careful of what we do, the way we flag, the comments we make to drivers when they come by and what they say to us. A guy like Alex Blackwell who lives near me, what we do in Frackville, Pennsylvania, we probably can't do in front of 60,000 people."

So let's get to the question many fans want to know the answer to: Is there still some opportunity to break into the business like Ursini did? Can a fan become a club volunteer and then move into a tech position? And how many new people are added to tech staffs each year? Ursini: "Sure, there are busy times and slow times. January, February, and March happen to be our busiest times. In those 3 months we'll have 14 weekends or so where there may be 13 or 14 events on a certain weekend. In June we don't have as many. So especially in January, February, and March there is room for people but I'm not gonna say they are looking for 100 people right now either. There have been years when we go to our annual Safety School when they've brought in 15 new people. There are years they bring in one or two. There are years that they bring in none. It all depends on what they need. Older guys like myself, I'm 38, and it gets harder to do some of the stuff we were doing when we were 20. It's a lot more running around, we're doing bigger stadiums, the obstacles are getting bigger for the drivers and for us."

For Ursini and other officials who have worked lots of televised events many know them best as the first people on the scene after a Monster Jam crash or rollover. I asked the veteran Tech Official about the procedures that are followed in those situations. Ursini: "We've got a protocol that we follow. The first person on the scene is supposed to go to the pull switch on the back of the truck that shuts off all of the power. But adrenaline starts pumping, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone else, but maybe you see a little fire, well that's a driver in there so you may go there first. To a lot of us that's not just a driver. That's my friend in there."

It is interesting that while the Tech Officials are responsible for enforcing safety and rules at the events first and foremost, at the end of the day Ursini says that he and his colleagues view these incredible events as the drivers do. Meaning it's all about the fans. Ursini: "I get chills every single show. I mean the bottom line is that for lots of these shows we are here from 8 a.m. Wednesday til midnight Sunday. We may hungry, tired, cold, wet because the shows go on in the rain too. We may be aggravated at the event manager or the announcer or the other officials but then you look up into the stands. And 60,000 people saw a great show. They don't know what we thought wasn't right because we are our own worst critics. But whether there are five people in the stands or 65,000 they all paid their money to see it and we're going to give them the same show no matter how many people are there."