It was an exciting time in the Jester Monster Truck team’s first ever visit to Oakland, California and one they certainly won’t forget. The huge floor of the Oakland Coliseum would play host to Saturday’s event where a packed house braved some uncertain weather and cool temperatures for a night of wild action. Jester pilot Matt Pagliarulo was excited to take on the track and thrill the fans along the way. The night started off with qualifying, where the Jestalade didn’t quite have the pace to make the racing bracket, but they would return in the wheelie contest to finish second behind Wrecking Crew. Freestyle would be where Pagliarulo and the Jester would shine their brightest with one of their best performances ever. Pagliarulo started off strong with some nice air and kept up a strong pace throughout his run to keep the action going. With around 30 seconds left in their freestyle time, Pagliarulo and Jester lined up for the backflip ramp to make their first ever attempt at the move, and it would be a spectacular one at that. As the truck left the ramp it went skyward and rotated around for a massive backflip! As the front wheels hit the ground it bounced the truck backwards onto the wheelie bar but stopped just before rolling over backwards. Pagliarulo was able to put the truck in reverse so bring the front wheels down and perform a couple more jumps before finishing out the freestyle. The score would be a huge one at 36 points and would hold strong throughout the competition, eventually resulting in a tie between Jester and Son-uva Digger. After the tie-breaking process Son-uva Digger would be given the win, but Pagliarulo and company were still thrilled with a well deserved second place result. A big thanks to the crew for their continued hard work so far this season and thank you to all our wonderful sponsors who support us week in and week out. It’s been an awesome first quarter so far with many opportunities to meet countless new Jester fans. The team takes a brief break after the event in Oakland to regroup before heading down to El Paso, Texas for two more huge stadium events at the UTEP Sun Bowl.
(Photo By: Eric Myers Photography)
