MJ Mania Takes Over the Sport

Where were you last Saturday September 14^th at around 9:30 p.m. CT? If you were inside the Payne Arena in Hidalgo, TX, then you were a part of history. That night MJ Mania was born. No, I’m not talking about Monster Jam Mania. That’s been running wild for decades. The MJ I am referring to is MJ Solorio, driver of El Toro Loco, who on Saturday evening won his first career Overall Event Championship.

 

Manuel “MJ’ Solorio represents the ultimate journey to driving in Monster Jam. As a young kid he was an athletic baseball player who dabbled on the trombone and developed a love for Monster Jam. For most kids, being a fan is where it stops. Not for MJ. He started as a volunteer at his local fairgrounds, crewing for independent teams. When the pandemic shut the world down, he became a podcast host debuting “Monster Truck Outlaws of the West” which served as a networking platform which he used to make his dreams a reality.

 

Nothing was handed to him. Growing up in California, he studied automotive in high school and trained to be a mechanic in college. He had to grind on the independent circuit. He did whatever he could, whenever he could to learn the inner workings of a 12,000-pound machine. MJ got the opportunity to go to Monster Jam University and learn from the Professor Tom Meents. Solorio wrote the road map for any fan or aspiring driver to be successful in Monster Jam. Study it. Follow it.

 

All that training and hard work paid off last weekend as MJ held the event championship trophy for the first time in his career, flanked by crew chief Shelby Fisher, who by the way seems to make every driver she’s paired with a championship contender.  Over on Instagram you could see the respect MJ has earned from his peers as comments were pouring in from some of the biggest names in the sport.

 

While Monster Jam Mania has been flying high for well over the 30 years, MJ Mania has only just begun and “The Cali Kid” is primed for a huge second year on Arena Championship Series East.