MONSTER TRUCKS Playing in the DIRT

February 2, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

You can add dirt to the smoke when the Toughest Monster Truck Tour comes to Youngstown’s Covelli Centre with shows Friday and Saturday.

“Previous monster truck events that have been there have been just on the concrete and not on dirt,” said Thunderbird Entertainment President Kelly Goldman, whose company is promoting the event. “We’re actually bringing in like 1,500 to 1,600 tons of dirt so we can build full ramps and a cool course. The difference between our shows and other shows that people have seen is the racing will be in a circle. So instead of just a straight line going over the cars and that’s it, they’re actually going to be doing a circular course. This makes the racing more exciting.”

What may surprise some readers is that there’s actually a science to creating a proper dirt base for an arena event. Organizers will be removing the ice and dasherboards and hauling 60 truckloads of dirt to add an element of authenticity to the Toughest Monster Truck Tour show.

“We have a crew of experts that we travel with,” Goldman said. “It’s all about being creative and working with people locally. It takes more planning because you need more equipment and to find decent dirt. One of our dirt guys did work for the Professional Bull Riders. When he was at the Covelli Centre a couple of years ago, he said we could do dirt for monster trucks. So we talked to the building and they said, ‘OK.’ We’re going to give Youngstown a show that they’re going to say is worth every penny.”

Not only will the dirt provide better ramps, thus more air, but this also increases the chances of wrecks, which naturally are a crowd favorite. Goldman added that the tougher track allows for more aggressive driving.

The upcoming lineup includes 1,500 horsepower monster trucks — the new Bigfoot, along with Tail Gator, Toxic, Stinger and Shell-Camino — competing in racing and freestyle, as well as the 37,000 pound, 35-foot-tall transforming, fire-breathing, car-eating dinosaur robot Transaurus. Rounding out the entertainment will be the world-class FMX East motocross team providing gravity-defying tricks and stunts.

If it seems as though there’s something about monster trucks that speaks to the kid in all of us, Goldman has statistics to back up the notion.

“First of all, most little boys like big vehicles, whether it’s a bulldozer or monster truck,” Goldman said. “So we got to start there, and 30 percent of our audience is kids under the age of 12. Another 20 percent or so of our audience is their parents taking them. And then the rest of it is there are a lot of people who have been to shows when they were kids.”

She quickly added, “So people are coming out to see an unbelievable amount of horsepower in a small space. They’re really going to get an up-close-and-personal experience.”