We started the day at Krispy Kreme over at the Excalibur and then headed down to the Imperial Palace Hotel where we picked up the shuttle to Sam Boyd Stadium. Monster Jam had a lot of large busses to take us over to the stadium for the event.
We got there early, but there was still a long line to get in...a sign of things to come!
The first thing we did was climb inside a real Grave Digger truck and get a photo!
Afterwards I got a temporary tattoo of the Grave Digger skull and crossbones.
Then I started on my goal for the day...get as many driver autographs as possbile in my 2011 Yearbook and on my commerative Double Down Monster Jam t-shirt! The first one was Adam Anderson of Grave Digger the Legend.
Then George Bellham of Mohawk Nation.
And Alex Blackwell of Captain's Curse, who had a cool pirate ship with skeleton on it.
Pat Gerber of Shocker.
And one of my Dad's favorites, Jeremy Silfko of Backdraft. This is his first World Finals and he's only 20 years old! He's also from Carlisle, PA.
Jeremy's dad, Andy Silfko driver Eradicator.
Steve Koehler of Wrecking Crew.
And Steve's crazy brother Jim "Mr. Excitement" Koehler of Avenger. Avenger gets a new custom paint job every World Finals...you never know what to expect.
The we saw Becky McDonough who drives Dragon Breath.
We also saw the new driver of Spiderman, Chad Tingler.
Lee O'Donnell of Iron Man.
And the other Iron Man driver, Scott Buelow.
One of the most popular drivers is Pablo Huffacker, who sometimes drives Grave Digger but whose permanent truck is the really cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle truck.
Taz has a new driver...Nicole Johnson.
Mark McDonald was driving El Toro Loco today.
The newest El Toro Loco is Bari Musawwir.
The tires on these trucks are taller than I am. I wanted Dad to ask Uncle Jason how much one would cost.
This is another one of Dad's favorite drivers and trucks, Jimmy Creten owner of Bounty Hunter. This thing has some of the loudest engines and most horsepower.
His wife, Dawn Creten used to drive Iron Outlaw, but she just had a baby and is taking time off. They had their new baby right there with them. They're really nice people.
This is their sister car, Iron Outlaw. The new driver is Nick Owens.
Jon Zimmer of Shock Therapy is starting to make headlines. His crew chief was there too.
One of the new trucks is Chris Owen of Ice Monster.
Chris Ryan was there with Ground Pounder.
Ok...this is my Dad's all time favorite driver. Linsey Weenk who used to drive Blue Thunder but now has a brand new truck called the Lucas Oil Crusader. The new truck is awesome and Linsey is a cool guy. Last year he gave me his Blue Thunder qualifying flag.
After Linsey signed our shirts, we took a break for some lunch. Our Double Down tickets allowed us into a special BBQ lunch on the grounds of the stadium.
Then I did the coolest thing...the velcro wall! You get in a velcro suit and start bouncing around until you leap on a wall and get stuck to it!
Then we got to actually walk the track for the race. This is the famous Thunder Alley where the drivers start their racing in a twisty challenging path to the stadium.
We got up really close to the crush cars!
Then we got to talk to Scott Douglas the host of Monster Jam on Speed Network, he let me hold the microphone he was broadcasting from. The family behind him was from Anaheim, CA and we hung out with them for awhile.
We also got to sit in the "Hot Seat" which is where each driver sits after their run if they're in first place. The guy with us is Paul Whitacre from Speed Network. We also got our picture taken with the Speed Network girls, but Dad said we shouldn't post that pic!
After the Track Walk we went back to getting autographs, this is Kelvin Ramer of Time Fliers.
These are the two support drivers for Maximum Destruction, Gregg Kristenson and Neil Elliott.
I got a couple other signatures while Dad was holding my place in line for the Monster Mutt collection cars, which we never made because they shut down the autographs at 4:30. While I was waiting they had a place for me to make retractable banners for my favorite drivers.
Then we hung out for awhile watching the driver mascots in a dance-off contest and cooled down with a drink. Finally they opened the gates to the stadium for the Double Down qualifying racing.
This was a special event for Double Down ticket holders only and it was general admission. Dad found us front row seats and it was the closest I've ever been to track! It was so cool, we could even see the drivers inside the trucks. A couple of them rolled over right in front of us. Dennis Anderson of Grave Digger broke a qualifying record, doing the course in 15.69 seconds. His rival, Tom Meents of Maximum Destruction came out next and did it in 15.70 seconds, the crowd went wild! In the end, Dennis Anderson took home the qualifying trophy. I got a pre-dinner cotton candy snack that came with a Grave Digger hat while I was there.
It got really cold in the evening, it was hard to stay warm. Then when it was over we had to stand in line for the shuttle back to the Imperial Palace. At least I got to hang out with the mascots.
The bus took almost an hour and we were so tired! All Dad wanted to do was take off his shoes, but we were hungry and had to decide where we would eat when we got back to downtown Las Vegas.
Finally we got back to Imperial Palace and took the monorail to MGM Grand where we ate at the Rainforest Cafe...this was almost 11pm!
I've never had dinner so late...and the restaurant was still crowded. It's like nobody ever goes to bed in Las Vegas. We finally ate dinner and walked back to the Tropicana Hotel. It felt soo good to get our shoes off! I got in my Monster Jam PJ's and fell asleep in just a matter of moments. It was a fantastic day...I love Las Vegas...this is the best trip of my life. I told Dad that I love the Tropicana, everyone should stay here. Dad got us one of the best views in the hotel I think.
We have another day at Monster Jam tomorrow. It's the official racing and freestyle, plus another Pit Party starting at 11am. So we'll be up early standing in line for the shuttle, Pit Party and more autographs. I can't wait, it's going to be an incredible day!
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