weekend as part of the Hot Wheels Live Glow-N-Fire performance. PHOTO | Keith Morris Jr.
The Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow-N-Fire show drew 14,500 attendees to the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, on Presidents Day weekend, delivering a fiery, high-energy spectacle. The event was hosted by Family Entertainment Live.
Monster truck rallies usually include massive trucks, typically around 12,000 pounds, doing skills competitions, donuts, freestyles, and racing.
The arena buzzed with energy. The smell of buttered popcorn filled the space as heat built from the packed crowd. Roaring engines and revving dirt bikes echoed throughout, while flashing lights swept across cheering spectators.
This rally was unique because not only did it have monster trucks, it also had dirt bikes performing stunts.
Prior to the start of the show, fans talked about what they were looking forward to.
David Donnelly, a parent from Philadelphia, attended the show with his two children and said his favorite moments are “High jumps. [The trucks] landing it!” His 11-year-old son, David Jr., said, “I like when they do the jumps over the cars”.
Motorcyclist Koltin Polinsky of Saint Ignatius, Montana, spoke about performing these stunts.
“When I get to see those kids, you know, fired up in the crowd, it makes me just want to send it bigger,” said Polinsky.
The engines of the dirt bikes roared throughout the arena as the riders launched in the air over ramps, doing flips and hanging on the dirt bikes, at times, only with their legs or arms.
For the fans, it’s fun to watch, but for the performers, it’s much more. For some of them, performing is a childhood wish come true.
Hunter Dyer, a motorcyclist from Pipersville, Pennsylvania, said, “It’s been a dream of mine since I was little, so it’s honestly pretty fun”.
However, behind all the excitement, there’s much more to the job than what the fans can see.
Cody Holman, a monster truck driver from Dayton, Ohio, said, “Hardest part is making sure you make all your passes because I mean it’s a piece of machinery, so you can have problems in the middle of the show that you need to get resolved quickly before you make your next pass.”
“Passes” are the different rounds drivers complete during the show, including racing and stunt performances.
However, keeping the truck running throughout the show isn’t the only conflict for the drivers on the track.
Polinsky says one of the most difficult things is that “Some of them [stunts] are pretty technical, and short run out and short run ins, but we make the most of it and try and send it out every time.”
Not only does the job involve technical difficulties, but it also requires drivers to put themselves in physical danger.
“I’ve had a broken wrist, got ten screws in there, got three anchors in my shoulder, I got three screws in my finger and two screws in my elbow,” said Polinsky.
“Two broken wrists, broken thumbs, collapsed lung, broken scapula, ribs, but yeah it’s all part of it,” says Dyer.
Despite the risks, there are crews behind the scenes making sure the event runs smoothly and everything goes as planned.
It takes work from multiple teams to put on the show. Combined efforts from front-of-house crews, like ticket sellers and concession workers and back-of-house crews that handle the technical side behind the scenes , as well as union workers, operations staff and teams for video and audio get the show up and running.
Director of events at the CURE Insurance Arena, Giuliano Lerza, says these teams are “working in tandem… to make sure the show goes how it’s expected to go.”
However, much of this work begins long before the arena doors open to the public.
“So for a Hot Wheels show they start working on Thursday, they brought in their crushed cars, started painting the cars, and then for Friday just set up all their lighting, sound, video, making sure that was all good, it takes about 2 days and a half” said Lerza.
While the preparations for the event start way ahead of the actual performance day behind the scenes. The drivers themselves start their routine in the early morning of the show day.
“Show days we get up, try to get a little coffee and that’s to get us going, and then we come out here and do some autographs for a bit and then we go out and send it,” said Polinsky.
