Black Stallion Team rocks in Ottawa and Trois Rivierre Canada

Ottawa QC - Scotia Bank Place - June 20, 2009

Trois Rivierre QC - Hippodrome - June 21, 2009

Photo by Stephanie Cotnoir

     The citizens of Canada’s capital came out in droves and filled the Scotia Bank Place to the point of bursting.  They knew that the largest named independents in the monster truck industry would be there and came to see Jim Koehler in Avenger face off against the reigning Monster Spectacular champion, Mike Vaters in the all Ford powered Black Stallion.  Avenger and Black Stallion were pitted closely in the VIP Pit Party and were mobbed by the fans as the tension grew between the competitors.  The other competing drivers were Trey Myers and Iron Warrior, Steve Koehler in Brutus and Steve Hearley in Godzilla.    

Photo by Stephanie Cotnoir

     Trey Myers in the Iron Warrior beat Jim Koehler in Avenger in the first round of racing but lost to Steve Hearley in Godzilla in the next round.  Michael Vaters as the reigning champion could have taken a bi-run into the finals but he wanted to earn is way and demanded that Black Stallion be allowed to race his way to a win.  Considering that Vaters rarely ever loses a straight ahead monster tuck drag race, the smart money would have been on the six time Monster Spectacular Champion.  Unfortunately as the Stallion went up against Godzilla he lost a tranny and lost his chance at the racing win and was unable to change out the tranny in time for freestyle. 

Photo by Stephanie Cotnoir

     Earlier Koehler was quoted as saying “this is how we roll.”  He was speaking of Monster Freestyle in Ottawa.  Brutus rolled in his freestyle run and the heavy equipment could not seem to solve how to get the big dog back on his paws.  But Koehler took a page out of Vaters' playbook and used Avenger to pull Brutus upright.  After a night of incredible monster action the tour team including the same competitors left the ecstatic fans in Ottawa and traveled to the next show in Trois Rivierre QC. 

Photos by Stephanie Cotnoir

     This event was sure to be a treat as it was an outdoor event which allowed for plenty of room to open up the monsters.  The crew put a fresh transmission in the K&N all Ford Powered Black Stallion and Michael Vaters put it to the ultimate test as he roared onto the track for the wheelie competition making multiple passes over the car stack and two van stacks.  The trucks pulled out everything they had and the judging was so close it had to be called by the track officials.  Black Stallion’s aggression paid off and Vaters won the Wheelie Contest.

Photo by Stephanie Cotnoir

     There was no racing scheduled for this event so the ambition of the freestyle win was doubled.  There was a unique obstacle, stacking an extra car on an angle at each end of a five car stack, creating a monster half pipe.  This launched trucks to crash down on their tailgates or front bumpers in the center of the stack. All except for the reigning Monster Spectacular champion Michael Vaters in the K&N all Ford powered Black Stallion.  Vaters hit the half pipe so hard that the Stallion cleared the entire obstacle for the biggest air of the tour and for the freestyle win. 

Photo by Marc Aeschimann, Productions YAZ

     Vaters continued burning up the track after freestyle as he piloted the Kamikaze jet powered 4-wheeler in a spectacular finale.  The Psycho jet 4-wheeler is on route back from the European Monster Jam tour.  Vaters backed the 30,000 rpm jet engine within inches of a van from the stack, Vaters blasted the jet into the van and burned it to ashes.  As the black smoke billowed into the setting sunset, Monster Spectacular closed out its final show. 

     The Black Stallion team headed back to the states and the trucks will be on display Friday June 26 in Hagerstown MD at the Citi Dodson’s Cruisin for Life car show to benefit the American Cancer Society.  The Stallion will also be doing a car show display on Sunday June 28 in Frederick MD for a long time friend Nelson Grimes who did the graphics and painting on the Black Stallion in the early years. 

     Michael Vaters and the Black Stallion team would like to send a special thank you to Ford Racing who hooked us up with a new 2009 Ford F-150 which we added to our ALL FORD POWERED race team fleet. 

Monster Trucks at a Cruise-In for Kids

Hagerstown MD - Cruise In for Kids - June 14, 2009

     This past Sunday the Black Stallion, Iron Warrior, Screamin’ Demon and Black Jack ride truck were all on hand in Hagerstown MD for a benefit car show.  The Rt 40 Kruisers for Kids put on a car show at the Washington County Ag center to benefit two local teens Katie Stains and Josh Forsythe, with Ewing’s Sarcoma (bone cancer).  The Stallion, Warrior and Demon were all on display along with other classic cars and motorcycles.  The Black Jack ride truck provided attendees with monster rides.  There was music performed by local bands and a wide variety of good food.  The kids had plenty to do as well there was a petting zoo, rock climb, super slide, moon bounce and pony rides.  A great time was had by all and the benefit raised over $11,000 for Katie and Josh.  Dave Waple owner of the Black Jack ride truck generously donated all the proceeds $900 to the kids.  The money was divided in two and given to the parents of the two teens to help ease their financial burden. 

     Katie had a tumor removed from her left leg on June 9^th and she miraculously was able to come out for the show a short five days later.  Michael Vaters, Jay Snyder and Steven Thompson were able to meet Katie and get a picture with her.  She is a lovely young lady and we were all moved by her strength.  Josh was not able to attend as he was in the hospital getting his fourteenth round of chemo therapy.  This week Josh was able to come home.  The entire event was a success and everyone in attendance had a good time. 

     Stacey Harbaugh of the Rt 40 Kruisers for Kids did a wonderful job planning and coordinating the event.  Thank you to all the fans that came out to see the trucks and support a great cause.  Thank you again to Jay Snyder with the Screamin’ Demon and Dave Waple with the Black Jack ride truck for joining us in helping out these kids.

     The Black Stallion team travels back to Canada this weekend for the final events of the 2009 Monster Spectacular tour.        

The Black Stallion team returns to Canada…..Flying High in Quebec City!!!

     The past few weeks have been quite exciting for the K&N Ford Powered Black Stallion team. The high flying action started in Quebec City with Michael Vaters giving the fans one of the tours most intense freestyles. The Monster Spectacular tour then traveled west to Cornwall Ontario for a Friday evening show that featured Michael Vaters setting a huge bar for the other drivers to live up to by pulling off one of his signature moves the “reverser” right off the bat during the wheelie contest – what a way to start the show!!! The team then packed up and quickly made its way back over to Moncton New Brunswick to take part in the Sunday afternoon show that has always sold out- and become a yearly ritual for Michael Vaters- being one of the longest running events for Michael Vaters to attend year after year. Michael Vaters has consistently tried to give back to his fans over the years- and as a new way of doing this, Michael Vaters now takes the K&N flag off of the back of the truck at the end of the show- then runs into the crowd to sign it and give this special gift to a lucky young fan. Needless to say it makes for a show stopping moment with the entire arena going crazy over the chance to get the actual K&N race flag off of the Black Stallion!

     Michael Vaters and the K&N Ford powered Black Stallion team traveled to Quebec City to take on 5 top monster trucks. Jim Kohler in the Avenger, Trey Myers driving Iron Warrior, Chris Bergeron in Brutus, Joe Miller driving Iron Outlaw and Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter all gave the defending Monster Spectacular Champion a run for the points.

     The show Saturday night started off with a special VIP Pit Party for those extra special fans in attendance. The Pepsi Coliseum quickly filled to capacity before show time and as always in Quebec City you could feel the excitement in the air. The show started off with the Freestyle Motocross riders who brought the crowd to their feet as they performed their dare devil dirt bike stunts in the air.  One of the riders was Michael Vaters’ son Mikey who inherited his “need for speed” from his dad.   

     Iron Outlaw lead the charge in the freestyle competition with a fast paced run.  Brutus was next up and not only stood the truck on end but somehow hooked the end car with the back of the truck and flung the car from the race lane dragging it behind him in a colossal sky wheelie. Concrete shows have no ramps and are Michael Vaters’ specialty and this show was no different with the Black Stallion standing vertical then twisting in air coming off the cars at an incredible angle. The winner came down to a cheer off on the floor with Brutus just edging out the Black Stallion.

     The racing was very close with the field being so competitive it could have been anyone's night to win.  The first round of racing saw Michael Vaters defeat Bounty Hunter, Iron Warrior defeat Avenger, and Brutus defeat Iron Outlaw. In the semi finals the K&N Ford Powered Black Stallion took out the Iron Warrior, and Bounty Hunter defeated Brutus. The finals came down to a match-up that had just taken place 2 weeks prior in Montreal – Black Stallion vs. Bounty Hunter. This time the win would be grabbed by inches by Jimmy Creten and the Bounty Hunter.

     The freestyle competition would round out the night’s activities. The highlight of the night early on was Jim Kohler's attempt to do a donut- sending him onto his roof – from the tacky concrete floor. Jimmy Creten then followed with an impressive run, pulling off huge slap wheelies. The star of the night though was Michael Vaters’ freestyle run which contained several reverse jumps and lots of momentum. Michael Vaters wanted to give his Canadian fans all they expected and literally ran the truck non-stop way over the 60 second time limit.  After Vaters’ spectacular monster freestyle ending all the trucks were parked back onto the floor for a finale pit party for all of the fans in attendance. 

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