Maximum Destruction Monster Truck Since the truck debuted as Goldberg, the Willman-style chassis and Fox coil-overs
with Knight Stalker shocks shocks have led to several bouncy and wild rides.
Meents later replaced the Fox shocks with Knight Stalkers with coilovers wrapped
around it. However, the truck is famous for its ability to make large jumps and
take several hits during freestyle runs and not suffer significant damage. The
truck is also known for its numerous crashes, often simply as a result of Meents'
full throttle driving. Meents' driving style is emulated by the current driver
of the second truck, Neil Elliot, and other former drivers, such as Phil Foster
and Rob Knell, are said to have graduated from the "Tom Meents School of
Driving".
About Tom Meents
Tom Meents signing autographs in front of Maximum DestructionTom Meents (born
June 10, 1967) is a professional monster truck driver. He currently drives
Maximum Destruction on the USHRA Monster Jam circuit.
His Career
Meents started out as a mud racer, driving his own vehicle, Shake Me. He had his
first wreck when he rolled the Shake Me over at a USHRA Mud Race in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He won the NMRO Open Class championship in 1992. He later teamed
up with Paul Shafer to drive Shafer's Mud Patrol vehicle. Tom won the NMRO Class
5 championship in 1993 and 1994 and won the Class 6 championship in 1993. This
also led to an opportunity to drive one of Shafer's Monster Patrol monster
trucks, which Tom drove to a rapid rise in popularity. Among his accomplishments
in this truck was a victory at the USHRA U.S. Truck Fest in 1997.
Meents bought the truck and in 1999 was commissioned by PACE Motor Sports (now
Live Nation) to run a Bulldozer body to help increase the truck's exposure. In
his first event with Bulldozer, Meents defeated Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger
on national television, becoming an instant star in the process. Meents would
continue driving Bulldozer until the end of 1999.
In 2000, Clear Channel commissioned Meents to drive a new truck, Goldberg, named
after the WCW wrestler. Meents was extremely successful in the truck and rose to
an even greater level of popularity, despite controversy over the truck's
wrestling basis and unconventional looks. With Goldberg, Meents won the
inaugural Monster Jam World Finals racing championship in 2000, and completed a
full sweep of the event in 2001. This event was notable for the controversial
"grand finale", in which Anderson and Meents attempted to drive over each
other's trucks at the end of the freestyle competition.
When WCW folded two days after the 2001 World Finals, Meents debuted Team Meents,
which was a repaint of Goldberg with a similar design and lettering style.
Meents again swept the World Finals in 2002 with this truck.
In 2003, the truck got a brand new image with the debut of Maximum Destruction.
Meents' popularity has remained high with this truck, with several major stadium
event victories, but he has not had the success in the World Finals he had with
previous trucks. Despite berths in the first three World Finals since switching
to "Max D.", he had only been able to score a co-championship in freestyle with
Madusa and El Toro Loco in 2004. Finally, in 2006, Meents broke through and
regained the Monster Jam freestyle championship.
His Hallmarks
Meents has several signature moves in freestyle, including high-speed "cyclone"
donuts, "side surf" two-wheel driving, and roof and wing walks where he stands
on the roof or wing (as on Monster Patrol) of the truck while it is still in
motion. Another is Tom sticking his left hand out the window while flying
through the air. Tom also has a reputation for hitting obstacles at
unconventional angles and at higher speeds than other drivers, and has been
criticized for the high number of rollovers which please the crowd but are
sometimes seen as unnecessary. Double Backflip
After George Belhan in Mohawk Warrior landed two consecutive
backflip at the Monster Jam World Finals in 2012, Tom Meents was
grudged to land the full double. Meents spent months preparing at
his shop in Paxton, illinois, and he was to debut this attempt at
the double backflip on June 16, 2012, at Metlife Stadium in East
Rutherford, New Jersey during the Monster Jam Path Of Destruction
tour. Meents came out in his modified Max D truck built specifically
for the double. Meents hit the jump and completed one full rotation,
but started to twist in the second, causing him to land on the roof.
He attempted the double again on March 23, 2013 during the Monster
Jam World Finals 14 and successfully landed it during the encore
portion of the competition.
Awards
USHRA U.S. Truck Fest Champion - 1997
USHRA World Finals Racing Champion - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2011,2012
USHRA World Finals Freestyle Champion - 2001, 2002, co-champion 2004, 2006, 2013
External Links
The Official Tom Meents /
Maximum Destruction Website
Maximum Destruction Monster Truck, currently racing in the USHRA Monster Jam
series. and driven by Tom Meents.
USHRA Driver Biography for Tom Meents
Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction
A video game of the vehicular combat genre released in 2002 by Inland
Productions.
Monster
Jam: Maximum Destruction Game Profile
Get behind the wheel of the world's most famous monster trucks with a brutal
arsenal of weapons and go head-to-head in savage vehicular combat.
Monster Jam Maximum Destruction game Reviews and Info
Maximum
Destruction On Monster Jam
Maximum Destruction from Wikipedia |
