Either from the immense heights to which they are built — measuring as high as 11 feet — or the primal scream emitted by the revving of a 1500-horsepower engine, the given name of Monster Truck is fitting.
Monster Jam is coming to Albany’s Times Union Center on Jan. 16 and 17. The main attraction starts at 7:30 p.m., with a meet-and-greet session immediately before the show at 6 p.m. V.I.P. tickets can also be purchased, allowing fans exclusive access earlier in the afternoon.
“Monster Jam is the most exciting form of family motorsports entertainment on the planet,” said Brendan Kennedy, of Eric Mower & Associates, on behalf of Monster Jam. “The stars of the show are the biggest performers on four wheels – the Monster Jam trucks. The 12-feet tall, 10,000-pound machines will bring you to your feet, racing and ripping up a custom-designed track full of obstacles to soar over, or smash through.”
Monster Jam Trucks in Albany will include: Crushstation driven by Greg Winchenbach, Bounty Hunter driven by Trent Montgomery, Iron Outlaw driven by Todd Morey, Storm Damage driven by Tim Mente, Hurricane Force driven by Steven Thompson, and Stinger driven by Zane Rettew.
Rettew, 27, hails from Lancaster, Pa., the heart of Pennsylvania-Dutch country. It’s where he grew up, but never grew out of his love for monster trucks, to which he got his first taste of when he was a two-year-old attending a show at Philadelphia’s Spectrum arena.
“I was hooked ever since,” he said. “I think it’s the monster trucks in general. Kids nowadays even, when we go to shows, there are so many kids there. It’s the big tires, the character figures on the trucks, loud noises – there’s all sorts of things that just got me hooked.”
Shortly after graduating high school, Rettew landed a job as a crew mechanic, working on monster trucks for an independent garage. About five years ago, he and his wife, Lindsey, set out to start their own garage. Today, they are owners of Rettew Motorsports, establishing their home base back in Lancaster, where they call home along with their three children.
“My wife is always by my side,” said Rettew. When school is not in session, the family goes with him on tour. “We definitely work as a team together and I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at today, if we didn’t get a chance to work together.”
When summer is over, the family stays home. With tours running sometimes at a 12-week clip, one may assume the schedule could be difficult, but Rettew said tour organizers have been kind.
“The games are somewhat close enough that we come home on Sunday (after having a show Friday and Saturday),” he said. “Work on the truck Monday and Tuesday, reload and hit the road again on Thursday. That’s the good thing about Monster Jam. They care about all of our families, and schedule our shows to help keep me somewhat close, so I can get back home to my family.”
Today, Rettew is the freshest, new talent on the Monster Jam circuit, operating a modified 2014 Ford Raptor named Stinger. The rookie said he often finds that young fan bubbling up at each show as he competes against childhood heroes, now his peers.
“It’s amazing,” Zane said. “I sit in my truck, right before the show starts, every weekend and it still sends chills up my back being parked next to Grave Digger. Realizing that I’m (nearly) 28 and I’m getting ready to compete against him.”
Grave Digger has strong ties to the Lancaster native. Digger, along with Carolina Crusher, were the two character trucks Rettew gravitated towards as a kid. The drivers he looked up to as a kid, have all been kind, he said.
“They’re all great,” Rettew said. “Almost all the drivers took me underneath their wing… telling me what they saw that was good, and what I need to improve on. They’re all good, all willing to help out.”
However, Rettew never needed help with the name for his character truck.
“We created our own character truck with a tail in the back to blend in with our theme of stinging the competition,” he said. “It’s a scorpion. I actually like to tell the story too because everybody just assumes that I like scorpions. We always have fans that bring us awesome stuff during our meet-and-greet sessions. And last year, I had a young boy in Texas actually bring me a live scorpion in a carrying case that he bought for me. And, I was terrified of the thing. I’m terrified of them. I have nothing good to say about scorpions. But the reason we put the stinger on the back was to eventually see the competition become scared of us when we toe the line against them.”
Carolina Crusher returns to Monster Jam competition this year, after a 10-year hiatus. However, Rettew has already placed a stinger in his other childhood idol during a brief stint with the circuit last year.
“My first weekend out with the new truck – it was the last show of the weekend in Trenton, N.J.. I was actually competing against Grave Digger. And it wasn’t just any Grave Digger — I think they’re up to 24 different Grave Diggers now — but it was actually the one driver I looked up to as a kid, Jon Zimmer. The first competition was a wheelie contest, we try to get the truck straight up-and-down and it’s crowd-judged by the fans, and I won. … I crashed on the car straight up-and-down and I actually had to put it in reverse to get it down. I had a brand new body and all I could think of was that I didn’t want it all smashed up.”
With the incredible amount of jarring and intense heat each driver goes through at each competition, each driver needs to be in good, physical shape.
“You know, there’s a bunch of hits that would knock the wind out of you,” said Rettew. “We’re in a 15-layer fire suit, and sometimes when we do shows out in the summertime, it’s 100-105 degrees outside, so you definitely have to be in good shape to be driving. Just the endurance and the heat inside of them, and the pounding that we take in them.”
Despite the challenges of the sport, Rettew’s eight-year-old looks to follow in his father’s tracks. Rettew said everyone knows about the family business. It seems news of having your father who drives Stinger in Monster Jam gets around school.
“Oh, I think all the teachers at my son’s school are pretty well tired of hearing about it,” Rettew explained. “They know more about me than I even know about myself.
“It’s really cool that my oldest boy is old enough to look up to me and he knows this is what he wants to do when he gets older.”