Monster Jam to take over Royal Farms Arena
Kayla Blood is continuing to prove Monster Jam is more than just a man’s sport.
“One of the things I love the most is getting to meet all the girls in the crowd and show them that this is something they can do and that I’m more than just a pretty face,” she said. “The see me and it’s all about girl power.”
Blood, a native of Lafayette, La., drives El Toro Loco, one eight trucks that will turn Royal Farms into their personal playground this weekend during Monster Jam, which will hold four events from Friday – Sunday.
Blood hopes she’ll give her fans, especially her female ones, plenty of which to cheer this weekend, when her El Toro Loco truck will turn the arena’s floor into their personal playground as the behemoth beasts soar through the air.
She hopes her performance at Royal Farms Arena proves to be a step that gets her closer to her goal – a berth in the Monster Jam XIX at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
Like all Monster Jam trucks – many of which look like they’ve been ripped from a comic book – Blood’s El Toro Loco is 12 feet tall, 12 feet wide, weighs 12,000 pounds and sports 66-inch tires. She hopes her truck, which is known for its bull-like horns, will power her to victory atop a talented field, which includes Grave Digger (Tyler Menninga), Zombie (Bari Musawwir), Scooby Doo (Myranda Cozad), Soldier Fortune Black Ops (Tony Ochs), Monster Mutt Rottweiler (Jack Brown), Max-D (Colton Eichelberger) and Megaladon (Trent Montgomery).
The competition will test the drivers’ array of skills, as each will try to earn points by driving the fastest, pulling off the best wheelies, doing the most donuts and the performing the best freestyle throughout a night where these trucks will fly through the air.
Each driver also brings a speedster and an ATV modeled after their monster truck to use in races where speed and agility trump power.
There are six events, with four featuring monster trucks: one-on-one racing, donut competitions, two-wheel tricks and freestyle. The other two events are ATV and speedster racing. The winner of each event earns eight points, the second-place finisher seven and each finisher receives one fewer point than the person who finished ahead of them.
The driver with the most points at the end of the regular season earns a berth in the Monster Jam XIX World Finals in Las Vegas where they will compete the top finishers from other Monster Jam groups.
In Blood’s group, Grave Digger sits in first with 802 points followed by Max-D (704), Zombie (580 and Soldier Fortune Black Ops (507). El Toro Loco (499) is in fifth place, followed by Megalodon (484), Scooby Doo (373) and Monster Mutt Rottweiler (310).
“Everyone is out there to win,” Blood said. “You have a lot of great drivers and the points are close, so there a lot of drivers who have a chance to win.”
Monster Jam
Where: Royal Farms Arena
When: Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday: 1 p.m., 7 p.m.; Sunday: 1 p.m.
Tickets: $18-$73 and can be purchased here.
Jon Gallo is an award-winning journalist and editor with 19 years of experience, including stints as a staff writer at The Washington Post and sports editor at The Baltimore Examiner. He also believes the government should declare federal holidays in honor of the following: the Round of 64 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament; the Friday of the Sweet 16; the Monday after the Super Bowl; and of course, the day after the release of the latest Madden NFL video game.