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Monster trucks invade Nutter Center
At 40-years old, Mark Hall still loves to play with trucks.
His truck, though, stands 10-feet tall and cranks out 2,000-plus horsepower. Hall’s truck — the Raminator — appears at the Thunder Nationals monster truck show at Wright State University’s Nutter Center on Friday and Saturday. Built for high-powered bursts of speed, the trucks can reach speeds of 100 mph, jump up to 130 feet and get as high as 35 feet in the air.
“To the kids the trucks are nothing but big toys,” Hall said. “Even if you’re not into trucks it’s still kind of fascinating to look at. It appeals to everybody.”
Hall, who also drives Rammunition, has won the Monster Truck Racing Association driver of the year six times. His brother Tim, who runs the business side and turns the wrenches, has won MTRA mechanic of the year twice. Raminator has won truck of the year six times.
Shows are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Nutter Center box office or at Ticketmaster (1-800- 745-3000; www.ticketmaster.com).
Here’s what Mark Hall had to say during a recent interview:
“We kind of grew up in it. Now with it being on SPEED, and all that kind of stuff, heck yeah it’s grown big time. Back in the old days we were running the county fairs, which we still do, but now we’re in the big arenas and stadiums.”
“We’re all big kids. The thing I always think about is what person hasn’t when they’re stuck in a traffic jam kinda thought, ‘It’d be cool to have a monster truck right now.’”
“I’ll be real honest, I’m not much of a motor guy. I’m a welder and I can build the frame and chassis, but if it doesn’t start I’ve got a problem.”
“Usually they’ll start the event off doing a wheelie contest, which is kind of exciting. Then we’ll do some donut contests. My favorite part is racing. We’ll get to do some racing then at the end of the night we come back and finish it off with everyone’s favorite, freestyling. You get to kind of let your hair down a little bit and show off.”
“I’ve had some pretty nasty crashes over the years and stuff, but I can say that I’ve never been hurt other than my pride. The safety is one thing that the monster truck circuit takes a lot of pride in.”
“It’s a Dodge Ram so that’s how we came up with Raminator. Actually the folks at Dodge years ago had a contest with all the Chrysler employees to come up with the name of the truck. Rammunition, some guys were standing around talking and that name kind of popped out.”
“Heck yeah, we get (people wanting to drive the truck) all the time. If I wanted to quit I wouldn’t have a hard time finding someone to fill the seat.”
“Everybody is always amazed by the tire (5.5 feet tall, 43 inches wide). Let’s face it, that’s what makes a monster truck is the tire. The big motors and all that is cool, but everybody is fascinated by the tire. ‘Look at the size of the tire!’ Everybody wants to get their picture with the tire.”
“The tires hold up pretty good for what we do. You’d think they’d rip up pretty bad but they hold up. There’s a lot of you can do to it before you throw it away. A tire costs about $2,700 apiece so you want to fix them the best you can.”
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