![]() At 5 feet 4 inches, I'm not quite as tall as the hand-carved tires. It sits on a neon green frame and shock absorbers the length of hockey sticks. On the outside, there's a ghoulish skeleton head painted on the black cab and bright green flames painted on the hood. It's twice the height of the average basketball player. Obviously, Grave Digger is big - elephant big. You're like a crazy fan right now, I love it." "I can tell your eyes are getting bigger. Rod Schmidt, one of Grave Digger's drivers, gives us a tour of his truck. As part of the last-minute preparations, workers spread the dirt around the floor and paint junkyard cars in the middle of the pit. The basketball court at the center of the arena has been replaced by a stockpile of red dirt. Monster Jam show in late January to find out what it's like behind the wheel of "the black and green wrecking machine." We sneak into the arena before showtime at a D.C. This year's marquee star is Grave Digger, a team of drivers and trucks that's celebrating its 30th anniversary. What started in the late '70s as intermission entertainment for tractor-pulling competitions is now a multimillion-dollar industry that tours the world. Monster Jam events draw more than 4 million people to arenas like the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C. It turns out that young fans' giddiness over the awesome destruction they're about to witness can be pretty contagious. While it may be hard to get past the deafening radio ads, a funny thing can happen on the way to a Monster Jam show. That's right, it's prime time for four-wheeled contraptions that specialize in crushing each other. ![]() It's that time of year again - the time when the sports world starts to zone in on basketball's March Madness, hockey's playoff push, baseball's spring training.
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