War on wheels Monster trucks all revved up to smash it up

Engines will thunder, the world’s meanest monster trucks will battle and an American flag will wave on a giant water screen. It’s all part of the World Series Monster Truck Championship, which kicks off at 7:30 tonight and continues Saturday at Bass Park in Bangor.

The smashathons set for Friday and Saturday will feature six different trucks from the United States, Australia and Canada. U.S. champion Bear Foot along with legendary monster trucks The Rock, Stone Cold and Wildfire will vie against Aussie champs Krocodile Hunta II and Outback Hunta as well as Canada Tremor for the 2003 Maine State Champion title.

The show will also feature Tuff Truck quad racing – in which local 4×4 trucks compete for cash prizes – mini-monster-truck races and stuntman J.J. Steele’s death-defying jumps.

Like pro wrestling, monster truck shows hang in that hazy space between sports and spectacle. The extravaganzas are wildly popular in Maine.

“There’s no age barrier, from 2 to 62, young and old, everybody loves to see things get smashed up,” Calvin Farrington, a promoter for the monster truck championships, explained Wednesday.

Farrington is also a six-time American Monster Truck Championship winner who still competes but devotes most of his time these days to staging shows through his company, Wildfire Motor Sports, based in Sturbridge, Mass.

In addition to races and twisted metal car carnage, this weekend’s show will also feature a patriotic-themed water-screen laser light show similar to light displays at Disneyland and Epcot Center.

Built in Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Olympic Games, the visual extravaganza is a combination of lights, lasers and film projected on a misty wall created by pumping 10,000 gallons of water high into the air.

“It’s the most unique thing in the world,” said Clive Featherby, a promoter for Waterscreen & Pyro Productions from Queensland, Australia. “Kids love monster trucks and really the whole show is geared to families. It’s a fabulous show.”

At Bass Park, gates open at 5 p.m. each night. Trucks and drivers will be on display from 5 to 6:45 p.m. Admission at the gate is $16 for adults and $11 for children up to 11. For advance ticket sales, call the Bangor Auditorium box office at 990-4444.