'Honey, Can I Have the Keys to the Truck?'
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[What a way to start a marriage! Michelle Simpson's new $175,000 1,800 horsepower full blown alcohol monster truck "Chalkboard Chuck" had just come out of the shop four months ago and was headed for its first performance as part of the E3 Spark Plugs Monster Truck Nationals.
"I flipped it over backwards," she says with a soft smile and a blush. Ooops!
But, that's what monster truck drivers do, and while it was a pricey christening of "the truck that begs for your autograph (the truck is done in chalkboard paint so kids can sign it) it's part of the sport.
According to Dave Radzierez who has six years in the arena and Bobby Holman who has 28 years of driving monster trucks it's all about taking truck fans to the edge--and over.
The show travels 50,000 miles to 35 states a year.
Five top monster trucks, each weighing in at more than 10,000 pounds, Transaurus the car-crushing, fire-breathing dinosaur, rising country music artist Jason Sturgeon and the world's youngest monster truck drivers will storm into The Southern Illinois Center in Du Quoin tonight at 7:30 pm and Saturday, for two shows - 1 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m.
The show in this arena setting provides an "up close" and personal monster truck experience! Fans can interact with trucks and drivers; feel the rumble of the engines and witness all the ground-pounding, car-crushing action at an affordable price. Tickets are $17 day of show at the box office. "This is the best facility we have ever run in," says Radzierez.
The monster trucks will compete in side-by-side drags, wheelie competition, and in axle-wrenching freestyles. The event will feature two trucks from Team Bigfoot "The Original Monster Truck", the E3 Spark Plugs BIGFOOT, and the brand new cow truck BIGFOOT BESSIE, plus the Lucas Oil Stabilizer, Star Marshal and Chalkboard Chuck, Transaurus, the fire breathing, car crushing dinosaur is making its first ever appearance in the Southern Illinois Center.