In his first appearance at Monster Jam World Finals in 2019, Camden Murphy (Bakugan Dragonoid) was the runner-up in both the Freestyle and High Jump Championships. He’s had three years to ponder how to finish one spot higher, and he enters Monster Jam World Finals XXI fresh off of a third-place finish in the Monster Jam Stadium Series Yellow Championship.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” said Murphy. “My first year was a great appearance so, honestly, coming that close winning and having a little time off to think about it, come back, have a great year with a really tough tour, I think that’s prepared me for Monster Jam World Finals this year.

“It’s definitely been a fun year for sure. The top three of us had a really good battle for a while, Ryan Anderson (Son-Uva Digger) ended up running away with it but honestly it was a pretty good and fun tour.”

During the pandemic, it was Ryan Anderson who found himself behind the wheel of Bakugan Dragonoid while Murphy found himself behind the wheel of a variety of other machines.

“You name it, I’ve driven it, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris.

“I started road racing back in 2012 or so. I was just kind of looking for different opportunities to succeed in motorsports and, not having the funding or family-backing to succeed in the sport from that side of things, I was doing driver coaching, instructing, stuff like that, and from there that’s kind of excelled my career into other kinds of things.

“Right now, for example, I’m actually building a lot of vintage stock cars and doing a lot of historic stock car racing stuff, so that’s been a lot of fun.”

While Murphy has competed in a variety of different motor races, including starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, he admits that there are some nerves coming into Monster Jam World Finals XXI, even if his racing experience gives him an advantage.

“I do have a little bit of nerves but not as much as I may have had in the past. The Monster Jam World Finals is the pinnacle, this is our Daytona 500, this is our Super Bowl, this is the biggest event when it comes to Monster Jam, so, are there nerves? A little bit when it comes to this particular event, yeah.

“But this racing track this year is technical so there’s going to be a lot of things behind it, so I’m hoping that some of my racing background helps me out with that.

“But, at the same time, it’s a 12,000 lb. elephant that likes to go where it wants to go, so sometimes you can’t control it.”

In addition to the Racing and Freestyle competitions, Murphy will be competing in Bakugan Dragonoid in the 2-Wheel Skills Challenge on Saturday.

Download the official Monster Jam World Finals XXI Fan Guide