Automotive Mud Wrestling

If you’re going to have road rage, this is what you want to be driving: a Paul Bunyan-sized truck that jumps through the air, roars like an earthquake and crushes other cars like a steamroller.

On Saturday, eight of these beasts rumbled into Anaheim’s Edison Field for Monster Jam, a mud-drenched road race and car-crunching extravaganza. Outfitted with 5 1/2-foot-high tires, nitrogen-gas shock absorbers and massive alcohol-fueled engines, the monster trucks squared off in two events.

The first was a series of 250-foot drag races on a dirt track that featured one jump over a row of junk cars. The second was a “freestyle” competition in which drivers had 90 seconds to pop wheelies, do doughnuts, leap over cars and otherwise impress a group of judges picked randomly from the crowd.

Both events were won by Grave Digger, a purple-and-green behemoth that is wildly popular on the monster-truck circuit. “He tore up the track better than anyone else did,” says Tom Williams of the U.S. Hot Rod Assn., which sponsors the event. “He slung around a lot of mud.”

Slinging mud is crucial. The track is fashioned from 15 to 20 dump-truck loads of dirt, which is stored near Edison Field specifically for such occasions. Most trucks have transparent floorboards so drivers can see the mud and crushed cars underneath them.

Among the many ways the trucks are nonstandard: There are no doors; drivers usually crawl in through a hatch in the passenger-side floorboards.

Saturday’s competition is one of numerous heats leading up to the world championship in Las Vegas in March. At each race, the trucks compete for points. The top six scorers will go to the Vegas championship, along with six “wild card” trucks chosen by fans at https://www.ushra.com.

No vehicle has clinched a berth yet, but Grave Digger is among the leaders.