YORKTON - If you like trucks – really, really big trucks – then the Outlaws of Motorsports Monster Truck Show in Yorkton this weekend is the place to be.
The motorsport promotion will be putting monster trucks through their paces with a show tonight (Friday), and a second performance Saturday at 2 p.m. Both shows are in front of the recently renovated Legacy Co-op Grandstand at the Yorkton Exhibition Assoc. grounds.
The show is one which will excite fans for various reasons, offered show MC Dallas Glenn-Rogers.
“No person is the same,” he said.
No two trucks are alike either.
And therein is why people often love the sport matching their interests to a truck or driver.
For example one truck is fashioned as a rusted out 1932 hot rods, which attracts some fans.
Then there is ‘Weekend Warrior’ driven by a 19-year-old rookie, a combo that draws a different contingent of fans.
It’s all about picking a favourite and enjoying the action, said Glenn-Rogers.
And the action just gets better and better, he added.
Glenn-Rogers admitted a decade ago he thought monster truck racing was at its peak, and wondered then what more could be accomplished.
But, today, when he watches old videos, the action was not close to what it is now.
“The stunts are so much crazier. The trucks so much more reliable,” he said.
In Glenn-Rogers’ own case a love of monster trucks blossomed early – very early.
“Really when I was two-years-old I saw my first monster truck and knew that’s what I want to do when I grow up. It was always that dream,” he said.
And the dream has come true as Glenn-Rogers enjoys a dual role in the sport, sometimes announcing shows as he will do in Yorkton, and at other shows climbing into the seat of his own truck ‘Crash Test Dummy’.
Glenn-Rogers said doing both has allowed things to stay fresh. Anything can become a grind when you do it every weekend, and he is at shows almost the whole year. He said he has only had a couple of weekends off since early January, and has one more open through until November. It is a schedule that over the years has taken Glenn-Rogers across North America to spots in Europe.
So as an MC and driver, which does he prefer?
Glenn-Rogers said he has been asked that before.
“They’re both fun in their own way,” he offered, adding “it breaks things up. It’s not just announcing, or driving a monster truck every weekend . . . It helps not to burn out.”
But back to Glenn-Rogers’ early desire for monster trucks. Many kids have dreams but they change. So what has kept his interest for years?
“Honestly. I’ve always wondered that,” he said, adding he knows when he was young “the only toy I ever wanted was monster truck toys.”
The reason, well yes he liked the trucks, but carpet played a role too.
“The big wheels rolled on carpet,” he said, adding other small vehicles didn’t. “. . . I could play with monster trucks anywhere I want; out in the dirt, on carpet, on asphalt.”
That ability to always enjoy his already favoured toys might be an early influence pushing him toward the sport, said Glenn-Rogers.
