Australian Monster Nationals

Australian Monster Nationals Prelude

2007 Australian Monster Nationals - A compilation of three media preludes.

Australian Monster Nationals Preview

For months we talked about the Australian Monster Nationals coming to the Brisbane Ekka RNA Showgrounds, and when it did hit Brisbane on January 20th, it lived up to all expectations. Right from the media day on the Wednesday prior, when basically every form of media in Brisbane turned up for the press day to see local football stars Allan Langer and Shane Webke, along with V8 Touring Car champion Craig Lowndes, strut their stuff in the monster trucks., the event had success written all over it. That night the monsters made every State and National news, had full colour features in next days newspaper and was on at least nine major radio stations.
A new record attendance of 20,202 was set for the Ekka show, and it was the first time in 18 years that the venue had been sold out. Amazingly, the last time this happened was when we ran one of our speedway spectaculars back in the 80's.
The crowd were treated to great stadium motocross action, awesome freestyle motocross with two backflippers, including Crusty Demon Cameron Sinclair, the two Jet Cars and by far the biggest fireworks display the venue had ever seen. Along with that, Jaye Featherby smashed through 3 firewalls on the bonnet of the stunt car, and of course there were the monster trucks!
The trucks started off with a grand parade that also led to the official unveiling of Batman. However, it seems, what surprised the capacity crowd more, was when former QUeensland State of Origin Captain, Allan "Alfie" Langer, jumped out of the truck to wave at the audience.
When the monsters did fire up, first up was a celebrity shootout between Langer in Batman, Craig Lowndes in Aussie Predator and Shane Webke behind the wheel of Monster Patrol. All three trucks and drivers performed surprisingly well, but it was the professional motor racing driver, Craig Lowndes, who without a doubt took out the competition, showing why he really is Australia's number one Touring Car driver.
Half way through the show was the sky wheelie competition, where each truck was given 90 seconds to perform the best sky wheelies and determine who would be the 2007 Australian Champion. Sherri Schafer, driving Bear Foot, was the first out and almost put the truck over on its left side on jump number two. The truck is not the best and is most probably the roughest truck we have ever brought in from the USA, so Sherri did well to do what she did. Later on, during the finale, Sherri would return in the crippled truck, would unbelievingly attempt to jump a row of cars with locked rear steering, and end up putting the truck on its roof!
Lowndes was next, driving Aussie Predator, and for only his second time in the truck, he was almost as good as any monster truck driver, ever in Australia, showing that these elite driver can really drive anything.
Monster Patrol was next, with Webke behind the wheel, but again, the second of the new USA trucks was breaking down badly, leaving one to wonder if these really are the conditions of the trucks that some US promoters are used to... and if so, they must perform extremely poor at shows...
"Alfie" Langer was next up in Batman, and had the crowd cheering straight away. However, he performed distance jumps, so didn't score too well, but was still brilliant considering this is not his regular job.
Next up was Billy Featherby in Captain Crusher, who had the crowd roaring with great jumps. However, the 15 year old still didn't attack one sky wheelie. By far, Billy was the most spectacular, and if it was any other competition, he would of won hand downs.
Last out was Outback Thunda, which was unfortunately losing power right from the first jump. In all honestly, the truck could do nothing but sky wheelies, as it broke down each time it got upright on the cars.
All in all, it was a great night of mixed family entertainment, that has lifted the profile of monster trucks in this part of the world. Unfortunately, the Ekka showgrounds will not be available in 2007 and 2008, due to renovations, so it will not be until be January 2009 that the trucks can return. Hopefully a new Brisbane venue can be found to patch up the gap while the building work is taking place.
Extreme Monster Trucks Australia - Sunshine Coast 2009

Almost 9500 people packed the Kawana sportsground on Saturday night for a spectacular three-hour show which included enough noise and fireworks to send every dog on the Coast running for cover. But the drama was not just the scripted stuff. Organiser Clive Featherbys own monster truck became a ball of smoke after his transmission went - something that seems to happen every time he comes home.
The Glenview showman was fuming about not being able to do a backflip with his truck in front of his home crowd. Its the one night of the year you get terrified, Clive said. We do about 40 shows around Australia - almost one every week - but when youre home you really want to put on your best show.
The Australian monster truck champion may have been disappointed by his own machine but his teenaged sons Billy and Jaye got plenty of airtime as they crushed cars in the middle of the park. A 14-tonne motorbike with a 700 horsepower engine was also a crowd pleaser as it sliced through wrecks.
Among those checking out the action were Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin, fellow crocodile wrestler Wes Mannion and his family, and tennis star Pat Rafter.
International motocross champions Robbie Marshall and Clinton Moore took massive risks to pull off blackflips on their bikes into a headwind at the end of the show. The wind meant plans to put Clives daredevil daughter Sarah on the bonnet of a car and plough it through a wall of fire had to be abandoned because of the risk of sparks going into the crowd. But an unscheduled return of the fire spewing jetvan, together with a fireworks show that was three times the normal one; meant most fans should have left happy.
Yesterday, Mr Featherby was back at Stockland Park to inspect what damage had to be fixed up. This included the impact of dropping a Ford, still leaking fuel, and a Holden from a crane right onto the playing field.
The show cost well over $200,000 to put on - including $25,000 to hire the park - and $45,000 for seating to be erected to accommodate the massive crowd.
Reference:
Furler, Mark 2009, Crowds cram in for monster of a show, Sunshine Coast Daily, 5 Oct.
Monster trucks in attendance were :-
Batman
Monster Patrol II
Outback Thunda
Outback Thunda II
Rex The Ride
Scooby Doo
Taz