This weekend, Monster Jam invades the Allstate Arena.  Brought to you by the United States Hot Rod Association, Monster Trucks like Grave Digger, Escalade, Tazz and Nitro Circus will be jumping, racing, and crashing, and flipping their huge automobiles in order to get to the championship tournament in Las Vegas in March.  Tournaments are at 7:30 on Friday, 2:00 and 7:30 on Saturday, and 2:00 on Sunday.  Tickets cost $10 for kids, $20 for adults and there is some VIP areas for $30 and $50.  We caught up with George Balhan, the driver of Escalade, to learn a little bit more about Monster Jam.

“Most of the guys come up through the ranks as a mechanic and then transition to driver,” said George.  “But my parents got me into motor cross early with ATV’s and 2 wheels as well.”  Driving for Monster Jam is grueling as the circuit takes you all over the country and the world each week. George is a seven year veteran, four of those years behind the Escalade.  This year George has been criss crossing the country in Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tampa, Atlanta and other cities.  So George, a native from the Chicagoland area, is happy to be home, despite the snow.

The show is broken into two parts.  George explains,  “The first half is drag racing.  Winners are based purely on time.  But the second half is freestyle where you can really show what you can do.  Guys will be jumping forward, backward, sideways. Anything to impress the judges.”

And can we expect anything special from George?  “I am known for my big Mohawk and big donuts.  I have a quick release steering wheel that I hold up during the donuts.  The crowd gets loud.”

George, a father of 3, says the kids make him think twice when he is out on the track.  “I may go 4 weeks without flipping the Escalade. Then I might flip it four weeks in a row. The crowd loves it.  But there is a lot more dangerous stuff you can do than that. The kids make me think twice before doing anything really stupid.”

And how does being a Monster Jam impact fatherhood?  “I really appreciate my time at home.  We also work quite a bit with the Make-A-Wish foundation so it really make me think how lucky it is to have healthy kids.”

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Larry and Donna

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Events. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed. , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. Both comments and pings are currently closed.