Following some time away from the road following the Mansfield event at the end of May, the Samson Monster Truck team headed north to Michigan for a two week swing with the Monster Truck Throwdown tour starting up St. Ignace before heading to an annual stop at Mount Pleasant for Soaring Eagle and Casino’s Monster Truck Madness 5.
St. Ignace:
The team arrived in the picturesque town of St. Ignace on Friday at Kewadin Casino where the weekend’s event would be taking place. The large floor with open space would be a great place for Allison Patrick to gain some more experience behind the wheel of Samson in her sophomore driving season. With her father Dan and crew-chief Rick Steffens advising she had plenty of guidance on how to tackle the course.
Saturday night saw a massive crowd turn out for the event and pit party as the folks in St. Ignace showed up in bunches for the only Monster Truck event of it’s kind in the area. After meeting many new fans Allison strapped in to perform in front of a standing room only crowd against a strong field of competition. While Allison didn’t come away with any victories on the night, she held her own and put in a strong showing during the event with a solid pair of wheelies in the wheelie contest. Allison returned from a round one exit in racing with a good freestyle run which saw her picking up momentum and gaining comfort as the performance went on, including a nice sky wheelie over the racing lane, getting some good air in the process. Allison pulled in front of the grandstands and emerged from the truck to greet the crowd, which applauded her efforts.
Mount Pleasant:
After St. Ignace the team had six days until the next event in Mount Pleasant so they worked on the truck in between shows to get the truck at peak performing condition for their next event. The annual Monster Truck Madness event has been a favorite of the team’s, as Dan has picked up a few victories in the past and looked to be on his way to another victory last year before engine troubles in Samson prevented them from running in the finals. Allison on the other hand got to take over the driving duties in freestyle and turned in one of her career best runs last year. This year it would be also taking the full driving duties, piloting Samson in both racing and freestyle. The high speed, sprawling race course which finished with a large jump over an elevated school bus looked like a daunting task, but Allison was up to the challenge. She drew a tough match up against the Xtermigator in round one following qualifying. Allison fell behind early but gave it her best and got some big air over the bus, but was unable to make up the difference. When asked about the track following her round one race Allison said “The track looks much more intimidating when you’re standing on the ground compared to when you’re in the truck. It wasn’t nearly as intimidating once I got in the truck and ran the course.” In freestyle Allison was one of the first trucks out and got some good jumps over the van stacks, and she was one of the first drivers to crossthread the finish line table top and to do some donuts. She even went after the massive school bus freestyle stack that didn’t have any ramps leading up to it.
With the two week string of shows in Michigan in the books the team has returned home to the PEI headquarters where they’re hard at work on some of the newest PEI creations for customers around the world. To see where Samson will be performing next, check out our schedule and don’t forget to pick up your Samson gear at our merchandise section..
