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Crushed metal and monsters (13 photos)

One of Canada's youngest monster truck drivers talks about the sport at the Traxxas Monster Truck Destruction Tour on Saturday

“They are the biggest (and) they run over cars. It’s like they are the top of the food chain except they crush the things…  the biggest and the baddest,” said Jesse Como,11, perhaps one of the youngest monster truck drivers in Canada today.

On Saturday the body shaking, explosive engine sounds of Monster Trucks reverberated throughout the Essar Centre as the Traxxas Monster Truck Destruction Tour ‘invaded’ Sault Ste. Marie.

Monster truck driver Eddy Como and his truck ‘Anger Management’  competed with his son Ryan Como and his truck ‘Temperature Rising’ but the family also brought along the youngest monster truck driver in the family, Jesse.

Jesse, who started driving monster trucks just two years ago, didn’t actually compete in Saturday’s event but talked about what’s it’s like driving those big wheeled and big sounding beasts of metal.

2016 - 05 - 20 - Monster Trucks - Klassen-1Jesse Como, 11, is one of Canada's youngest monster truck drivers. Jeff Klassen/SooToday

“I saw my dad doing it, and ever since I’ve just loved Monster Trucks my whole life,” said Jesse.

One year his father Eddy bought Ryan a new truck and he said ‘Hey dad, what am I chump change?’

Jesse now drives ‘High Octant’. It’s about three quarters as big as the 10,000 pound ones in the show he says.

“We call it a ‘mini’, but its not really a mini,” he said.

Jesse’s father runs a wrecking yard and parts yard in Kempville, Ontario – the perfect place to get stuff to crush with his truck.

Besides practicing 1-2 times a month, Jesse said he’ll go to shows across North America and Canada with his dad throughout the year.

So far he’s ridden in ’10 or 20’ of them himself.

Jesse said the biggest difficulty with monster trucks is that they can break down in a show and then everyone is in a panic to fix them quick.

Other than that they are “a bit like driving a car, said the 11-year old, “except you have a lot of switches that do a lot of cool things. Mine has this big red button and if it all goes wrong you press the button and it turns off.”

Beside the kill switch in some vehicles, the ones at the show had radio-controlled kill switches so that event organizers could cut a vehicles power in case of an emergency.

Instead of a seatbelt, drivers ride with a five-point harness.

“People always wanna see the trucks roll but the truth is its not dangerous at all,” said Como.

The event also included some daring tricks by two freestyle motorcoss motorocyclists. 

"Now that's actually dangerous," said Como.

 


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Jeff Klassen

About the Author: Jeff Klassen

Jeff Klassen is a SooToday staff reporter who is always looking for an interesting story
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