Monster Truck Tour Always Brings the Fun and Exciting Action to the Cross Arena

It's going to be loud, muddy, and absolutely entertaining today and tonight at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

The Monster Truck Nitro Tour has taken over the arena for the weekend. They loaded it with dirt and some of the coolest monster trucks in the nation, including a few from right here in Maine.

The show offers a wealth of events, including racings, freestyle, and two-wheel skills. There's also other fun features for the fans, like battling robots, pit party passes, and even rides in the local monster truck, Moose Main-iah.

You can even get autographs from the drivers, who are some seriously cool folks. I had the chance to speak to a few before their show Friday night.

One of the drivers, Hot Rod, who drives the USA-1 truck, says one of the best parts of his job is being able to bring it to perform in front of a live audience.

"It's great to be out here entertaining for the fans," he told me. "We wouldn't be doing what we're doing if it wasn't for the fans."

Some of the trucks even hail from Maine, including two from Greg Winchenbach's team. Greg is the driver and owner of Crushstation. He also owns the truck, Lumberjack.

Lumberjack's driver, Chris Sawicki, told me the team travels quite a bit during the year, especially out of state. He says it's very special to be able to perform in front of a home crowd here in Portland.

"The fans here are awesome," Chris said. "They love the theme of the two Maine trucks. We get a lot of great support."

I have seen monster trucks on television for years. However, the small screen does these beasts no justice. Seeing them in person is practically a religious experience. There's a serious level of awe that goes over you when you are near one of these amazing machines. The size of the tires alone nearly dwarfs a person of average height. The engine seemingly is the size of a small car. And you need an airplane ladder to get into the cab.

There's still time to see these marvels this weekend. The Monster Truck Nitro Tour has two more shows on Saturday at the Cross Arena. For tickets and more information, visit monstertrucktour.com. And a big thank you to Matthew Snell for some great photos of the action.