Monster trucks to hit local track
Toledo Speedway set for annual spectacular
7/20/2012These certainly aren't your average pickup trucks. Far from it.
They'll be driving on a surface that local auto racing fans are accustomed to watching stock-car and open-wheel competition.
Instead of the traditional weekend staple of stock car racing, Toledo Speedway will host the Midwest Monster Truck Racing show, the track's annual summer monster truck rally.
"It's going to be a lot of entertainment," said Casey Wagner, the assistant general manager of Toledo Speedway. "We had them at Flat Rock [Speedway] earlier this year and they're loud, they're powerful and they put on a great show."
The trucks themselves are behemoths, complete with names such as "High Maintenance" and the "West Virginia Mountaineer." Each truck can weigh more than 10,000 pounds and stand nearly 11 feet tall, with the help of a set of tires that, at 5 feet, 5 inches, are about the average height of a woman.
They're 12 feet wide -- about the size of an average bedroom -- and are designed with a certain set of parameters in order to distribute the weight as well as a precise, specialized suspension, necessary for a driver to make maneuvers and jumps on an obstacle course of automobiles, which will be constructed inside of the half-mile oval.
Every year Toledo Speedway has hosted it, Wagner said, the event has been a draw. Unlike other events where dirt is brought in to cover the surface of an arena floor or outdoor facility, Wagner said that the track will not have to be modified for today's event. In addition to the monster truck rally, there will also be exhibition racing for cars in the sportsmen and late-model divisions, as well as freestyle motocross racing.
Advance tickets are available at ToledoSpeedway.com and can be purchased at the speedway beginning at 5:30 p.m. today.
Contact Rachel Lenzi at: rlenzi@theblade.com, 419-724-6510 or on Twitter @RLenziBlade