Tom Meents
 |
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born |
July 10, 1967 Paxton, Illinois, U.S. |
| Sport | |
| Country | United States |
| Sport | Monster Jam |
| Team | Maximum Destruction |
Tom Meents (born July 10, 1967) is a professional monster truck driver. He currently drives Maximum Destruction on the Monster Jam circuit. He has won eleven Monster Jam World Finals championships during his career (six in racing, five in freestyle).
Tom Meents started out as a mud racer, driving his own vehicle, Shake Me. He had his first wreck when he rolled Shake Me over at a USHRA mud race in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He won the NMRO Open Class championship in 1992. He later teamed up with Paul Shafer to drive Shafer's Mud Patrol vehicle. Tom won the NMRO Class 5 championship in 1993 and 1994 and won the Class 6 championship in 1993. This also led to an opportunity to drive one of Shafer's Monster Patrol monster trucks, which Tom drove to a rapid rise in popularity. Among his accomplishments in this truck was a victory at the USHRA U.S. Truck Fest in 1997.
Meents bought the truck and in 1999 was commissioned by PACE Motor Sports (FNA Live Nation, now owned by Feld Motor Sports, a division of Feld Entertainment) to run the Bulldozer monster truck, to help increase the truck's exposure. In his first event with Bulldozer, Meents defeated Dennis Anderson, driver of Grave Digger, on national television, becoming an instant star in the process. Meents would continue driving Bulldozer until December 1999 in Minneapolis, MN.
In 2000, Clear Channel (which owned Monster Jam) commissioned Meents to drive a new truck, Goldberg, named and themed after the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) wrestler. Meents was extremely successful in the truck and rose to an even greater level of popularity, despite controversy over the truck's unconventional looks. With Goldberg, Meents won the inaugural Monster Jam World Finals racing championship in 2000, and completed a full sweep of the event in 2001, winning racing and freestyle. This event was notable for the controversial encore, in which Dennis Anderson and Meents attempted to drive over each other's trucks at the end of the freestyle competition.
When WCW folded two days after the 2001 World Finals, Meents debuted Team Meents, which was a repaint of Goldberg with a similar design and lettering style. Meents again swept the World Finals in 2002 with this truck.
In 2003, the truck got a brand new image with the debut of Maximum Destruction. Meents' popularity has remained high with this truck, with several major stadium event victories, but he has not had the success in the World Finals he had with previous trucks. Despite berths in the first three World Finals since switching to Maximum Destruction, he had only been able to score a co-championship in freestyle with Madusa, driven by Debra Miceli, and El Toro Loco, driven by Lupe Soza, in 2004. Finally, in 2006, Meents broke through and regained the Monster Jam World Freestyle Championship. Meents finally won another racing championship in 2009 at Monster Jam World Finals 10, using the same chassis that won the first championship. He regained this title once more at World Finals 12 in 2011, when he won in the championship race against Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter. In 2012 at the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam World Finals 13, Meents defended his title once again, winning the championship race against Damon Bradshaw in Monster Energy. In 2013, the ten year anniversary of Maximum Destruction's debut, at World Finals 14, The Streak was Ended By Adam Anderson in Grave Digger The Legend in the Semi Finals, Meents won his fifth freestyle title. In 2005 Tom Meents jumped Maximum Destruction over his old house, before destroying the house with the truck.
...
Wikipedia