THE ART OF FLIGHT

From humble beginnings, the discipline of monster-truck driving has spawned a multi-million-dollar business that continues to wow audiences, young and old, around the world. Ian McLaren attended the Cape Town leg of Monster Jam's recent tour

- lan McLaren

"We're gonna drive this truck till it don't drive no more!" exclaims an excited Tony Ochs, the driver of Earth Shaker, the 5,4-tonne monster truck that rarely had all four of its wheels on the ground at the same time during its recently completed so-called "skills" session. The near-capacity crowd seated within the Cape Town Stadium erupts in delight as Ochs raises his arms like a gladiator savouring a victory.

While the "art" of crushing cars using modified pickup trucks began as small-town weekend entertainment in Midwest America in the 1970s, footage in the early '80s of a heavily modified Missouri-based Ford F-250 named Bigfoot quickly caught the attention of various promoters. Broadly acknowledged as the first so-called monster truck, Bigfoot would soon begin touring the US, leaving small sedans pulverised in its wake, to the continued delight of thousands of paying onlookers.

Marketed as "controlled chaos", the Monster Jam brand was founded in 1995 by the US Hot Rod Association and is operated to this day by Florida-based Feld Entertainment.

Significantly, of the more than 140 000 spectators that filled three stadiums around South Africa during this event's most recent visit to our shores, the majority of these were children. Indeed, fuelled by everything from T-shirt sales to Mattel-produced replica truck toys, the Monster Jam brand has grown to become a multi-million-dollar extravaganza able to tour the world with remarkable efficiency, considering the sheer size of its cast.

THE TRUCKS