The Tomfoolery Motorsports gang headed south to Houston, Texas for a massive two show Monster Jam weekend at NRG Stadium where Matt Pagliarulo and the Jester Monster Truck were joining a field of the finest Monster Jam trucks. It would be a grueling weekend with some ups and downs but a weekend to remember for the Jester crew. The first day of competition was Saturday night and Pagliarulo piloted the Jester to a strong qualifying pass to be among the top eight trucks in the racing bracket. Their first round opponent was one of the sports’ best in Carl VanHorn and the Grave Digger. They gave it their all but Pagliarulo came up short of advancing into the next round.
Freestyle was a wild affair as the Jester was working great on the tricky track and Pagliarulo had a rocking performance going on the floor of NRG Stadium. One of the biggest wow moments was a spectacular as the truck spun around on the sidewalls of the tires and back onto all four’s that had the crowd on their feet. Unfortunately their luck would run out just a few jumps later after a bad bounce tossed the truck over and onto the roof. Pagliarulo would be okay but the truck took a hard hit on the rollcage causing some significant damage.
The crew faced a tall task in getting the Jester Monster Truck back in action for the Sunday afternoon event but they managed to get it done in time and were ready to compete by showtime. As luck would have it though the Jester faced another rollover in qualifying causing rollcage damage once again, ending their event early to their dismay.
While the team left Houston a little disappointed with some major damage, it was a strong showing for the team on Saturday night. The crew have treked north and spent the week at the PEI headquarters in Ohio where the PEI staff were able to get the cage repairs done in time to compete in Detroit this weekend. A HUGE THANK YOU to Dan, Chris, Rick. Gary and Tim for the hospitality and for the help with getting the cage repaired and for allowing us to use the shop to make additional repairs.