At the June 13th Monster Jam “Path Of Destruction” show, driver Tom Meents attempted to pull off the first Guinness World Record certified monster truck front flip. He came up short on a technicality, but put on one hell of a show anyway.
The be’spiked truck you’re looking at here is the aptly named “Maximum Destruction” AKA “Max D,” which weighs about 10,500 pounds and pushes 1,500 horsepower to 66” Terra tires. Monster Jam declares Max D is “possibly the fastest machine in the sport,” and I did mention spikes?!
Video I shot above is the best I could on my phone, from the nosebleeds, without spilling my $10 Budweiser. Here’s the official Monster Jam channel clip if you want a tighter shot in and ads:
As far as I’m concerned you end up on your tires, you made the jump. But I guess that extra bounce disqualified Meents from an official record even though it looked completely badass. Event organizers say he “completed a full forward rotation, landing on Max-D’s rear tires, however bounced into an over-rotation so that his front tires did not hit the ground, as required by the Guinness World Records guidelines.”
Ugh! Such sticklers. Whatever Meents got plenty of points for showmanship with that extra gasp from the secondary bounce... and that, my friends, is what monster truckin’ is all about.
Images via the author, Monster Jam
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.