Track "design" these days has made Monster Jam unwatchable

[midwestmonster]

I really liked the Chicago style track used at the most recent St Louis and Minneapolis shows, but I can't stand the jersey style track they use, it's so boring for freestyle.

[Doomed User]

19 hours ago, NitroMenace said:

part of the tracks construction is for safety too, no more debris in the crowd plus the jumps are designed to launch upwards not outwards because of all the past wall damage. I personally love the shows still and still think they are good provided feld can keep their trucks in one piece

But yet even going straight into breaking or turning can cause a fishtail maneuver into the stands *ahem Captain's Curse*. But your point is valid.

18 hours ago, JackMProductions said:

Honestly the lack of cars isn't a deal breaker by any means. It was disappointing at first, mainly because we are so used to seeing cars be such an integral part of the courses. Honestly I don't mind the lack of cars, just the lack of originality in each course design. I'm not saying that every course has to be vastly different and unique from the last, but a little change in the designs doesn't hurt, even if its just shifting a few ramps around. The jumps are a little overly steep too. Still, not a deal breaker.

Backflips were awesome back when they were newer, but I feel like the novelty has worn off for me. I think they've just over-saturated it and there isn't really any excitement anymore for me. It's too fixed and predictable.

The current World Finals freestyle track is really just two giant islands of dirt made of all these mashed together ramps with no real breathing room or strategy available. It's like if the double box jump from WF11 was an entire course. The World Finals being a 2 day event is a drag too, but I know why they do it.

The lack of originality extends back to Chicago style courses in like 2013. Places like St Louis and Indianapolis use that two island scheme but put some other stuff around the outskirts to make it a little more interesting and diverse from one another. And considering now backflips are being integrated in every single Monster Jam event, and have been since 2014, it's no wonder why the flame has died out. There's nothing much to doing a 360 degree rotation in the air anymore since most if not all trucks are built to do it. Not to mention you're 100% right in terms of it being predictable. Remember when judges used to score based on unpredictable moves? It's been a while, apparently.

The World Finals tracks used to always include a U-Shape layout, with the sides being filled with triple and double jumps, container jumps, van stacks, and the back being car jumps, van stacks, and that iconic long jump in the dead center. The inside of the U is usually next to empty if not completely empty, making room for donuts, sidewalls, cyclones, and more. Now it's basically all huge dirt mounts with angled sides, and backflip ramps. They even made the rear wall protection a backflip ramp. Like c'mon, you took out the fun of seeing cars crash into a wall after a close race.

It's a shame that they can't go back to old style tracks, because like you said, the trucks would eat 'em up.

The 2 day thing is just to spread out racing and freestyle, and I'm pretty sure they always did it, since World Finals 1. It also gives time for drivers and their crew(s) to fix up their trucks for freestyle. Sometimes they even added an extra day for pit parties and Young Gun Shootouts.

10 hours ago, litl_e_fan said:

I'm just going to talk about 2014 here because it was the year I really got back into following monster trucks and it was the first year the backflip ramp was regularly used in competition outside of Vegas. 

The cars weren't really on the track in 2014 (and a few years prior), they were in it. They were just there, not getting crushed at all. Here's two pictures from Foxboro 2014. Dragon came out in the middle of racing, Northern Nightmare towards the end of freestyle. The cars built into the track are in almost the same condition in each shot.

The past couple years there's still been plenty of crush cars out on the track. (Though they did take some off turning cars the track at Foxboro this year and not use them for freestyle.)

That's because they were used more or less like the turning poles. Guidelines or whatever. You weren't supposed to crush them, pretty much.

17 hours ago, bkelley said:

It would be fun to watch today's drivers tackle a track like WF2, just to see how they would use such a limited track. 

That would be cool, because drivers are more likely to be used to tracks with more dirt obstacles. Not everything is spaced out, but back then it was, so it would probably be harder to build up momentum without building up a lot of wheelies and riding it to the next obstacle. It could probably take more skill to tackle high scores on those tracks.

[NavySonicShell]

1 hour ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

But yet even going straight into breaking or turning can cause a fishtail maneuver into the stands *ahem Captain's Curse*. But your point is valid.

Last I heard Captains Curse didn't have any brakes going into the turn so that was a sort of last resort decision to swerve at high speed because it's really the first time something like that happened. Also the stadium shows run for the majority of the year mostly don't even come close to the speeds the trucks hit at Vegas, so a roll like that into the turns at a normal stadium is nearly impossible.

 

1 hour ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

The 2 day thing is just to spread out racing and freestyle, and I'm pretty sure they always did it, since World Finals 1. It also gives time for drivers and their crew(s) to fix up their trucks for freestyle. Sometimes they even added an extra day for pit parties and Young Gun Shootouts.

The world finals has been two days (Double Down package day, and event Day) since WF 6, but the three day format (Double Down Day, Racing Day, and FS Day) has only happened since World Finals 15.

 

1 hour ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

That's because they were used more or less like the turning poles. Guidelines or whatever. You weren't supposed to crush them, pretty much.

If you're talking about the turning cars, they're used in Freestyle as obstacles. I think the original post was talking about when monster jam was putting already crushed down cars into the obstacle for no reason because they didn't even server a purpose there.

[Doomed User]

1 minute ago, NavySonicShell said:

Last I heard Captains Curse didn't have any brakes going into the turn so that was a sort of last resort decision to swerve at high speed because it's really the first time something like that happened. Also the stadium shows run for the majority of the year mostly don't even come close to the speeds the trucks hit at Vegas, so a roll like that into the turns at a normal stadium is nearly impossible.

The world finals has been two days (Double Down package day, and event Day) since WF 6, but the three day format (Double Down Day, Racing Day, and FS Day) has only happened since World Finals 15.

If you're talking about the turning cars, they're used in Freestyle as obstacles. I think the original post was talking about when monster jam was putting already crushed down cars into the obstacle for no reason because they didn't even server a purpose there.

I thought that Captain's Curse was just a result of Huffaker hitting the brakes too late? I thought he just didn't have enough time to slow the truck down, and by the time he hit the brakes he was already past the turn. I'll look into that.

Stadium shows, like you said, can't result in straightaway speeds so I guess that kinda negates everything.

I didn't know for sure on the two and three day systems so thanks for correcting me. It just makes more sense to have two days instead of jam-packing everything into one.

I must not remember the track layout because I thought the crushed cars were being used as turning posts as well. They don't serve a purpose because there really isn't anything to crush.

[NitrousInferno]

19 minutes ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

I thought that Captain's Curse was just a result of Huffaker hitting the brakes too late? I thought he just didn't have enough time to slow the truck down, and by the time he hit the brakes he was already past the turn. I'll look into that.

Yes, you are lacking in some information. Also, Blackwell was the driver during the time of the crash.

[JackMProductions]

2 hours ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

They even made the rear wall protection a backflip ramp. Like c'mon, you took out the fun of seeing cars crash into a wall after a close race.

Doesn't sound like fun to me, or for anyone involved.

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, Mr. Self Destruct said:

thought that Captain's Curse was just a result of Huffaker hitting the brakes too late? I thought he just didn't have enough time to slow the truck down, and by the time he hit the brakes he was already past the turn. I'll look into that

I can confirm that Blackwell's roll was due to a brake failure. I was at the event, and he burned them up a little the race before, but in an interview after the semis, his crew chief said they fixed them and they were good for the finals. However, that obviously wasn't the case. 

Also, because of that crash, the year later, they started putting dumpsters down there to try and prevent trucks from rolling up into stands again. It actually kind of worked with crashes from Avenger, Captain USA, and let's not forget about how they might of saved Donald from serious injury.

[Jack Merkle]

I laugh at all the individuals who talk all high and mighty but don't know a damn thing.

[tyrannos]

On 12/18/2016 at 7:53 PM, Mr. Self Destruct said:

The tracks are what killed Monster Jam for me. I don't even watch it anymore. I love watching old episodes on YouTube (shame they're all in sh!tty quality). I don't even mind the ugly BKTs as much. I loved watching them crush cars and do donuts and jump over stuff. Now it's just jump over stuff over and over and try to do a donut without hitting another ramp.

Even in the time of the backflip ramp in like 2013 had a fair amount of cars on the track. Now it's just a bunch of colored dirt. You can barely even see the stadium floor.

Before I get shots fired at me for this, let me say that this is my opinion. I feel like having other obstacles besides dirt made the show more interesting and exciting because it's not just repetitive jumps and flips and donuts.

If you want crush cars go watch either monster truck destruction (not that s h it game) or any other independent 

[maxdman]

FELD, Clear Channel, Pace, TNN, what ever owns Monster Jam goes through periods of tracks every 4 or 5 years.  Literally dating back to 1998 the tracks in the next three to five years were the same with little moderation.  We're just in another one of those lulls.

But I mean this community wasn't the one crying about all Chicago style from 2011-2014 was it?  

Oh wait.  

[Jackattack29]

Personally I feel like the cars never made the difference in me liking monster jam, I mean yes it is cool watching the truck run it over but it really isn't necessary for a good show. Right now I think feld is doing a nice job with utilizing space in stadiums and arenas and making some pretty cool obstacles even if they don't have cars you still get to see monster trucks and the drivers put on great shows.

[Sergeant Politeness]

1 hour ago, maxdman said:

FELD, Clear Channel, Pace, TNN, what ever owns Monster Jam goes through periods of tracks every 4 or 5 years.  Literally dating back to 1998 the tracks in the next three to five years were the same with little moderation.  We're just in another one of those lulls.

But I mean this community wasn't the one crying about all Chicago style from 2011-2014 was it?  

Oh wait.  

Hey it could be worse. Go to any monster truck Facebook group and anything that wasn't 13000 pounds and destroyed the driver's back is garbage to them. (Although I think most of them are in mid life crisises and don't want to admit it's no longer 1989)

[Andrew]

Personly What kills monster jam for me is the repetitive use of the same track design and the lack of competition in my opinion. Honestly I could care less for the lack of cars, I just wish they could be a weee bit more creative with their designs and not run the same design every weekend. The other thing that kills it is the fact feld owns their own fleet of trucks to compete with each other. I'ts not like the old days when everyone owned their own equiptment and raced for money. In my eyes feld just focuses on entertainment,  not so much pure competition, if you look at many other motorsports which ones do you see being owned by a large company that ownes the entire feild of drivers and vehicles. This is why I see monster jam as source of entertainment and not so much a source of competition. Personaly I absolutly loved the old days when everyone owned their own equiptment it just gave me the feeling of true head to head competition like who had the best design, who has the most money, ext. This is another reason why I prefer indie shows rather than feld shows. By no means am I saying I dont like monster jam, because I still love seeing the wicked saves and crazy things they can pull off, I just dont see it the same way I use to.

[Doomed User]

19 hours ago, JackMProductions said:

Doesn't sound like fun to me, or for anyone involved.

I more meant the shock value or tension it brings on, like being in suspense. Not happy laughy fun. And the truck drivers now have extreme safety equipment to prevent injury. Not to mention I meant crashes like Wrenchead at WF1.

[Durham]

On 12/18/2016 at 8:45 PM, Charlie H. said:

I feel like so many people who complain about the tracks fail to realize how expensive and how little junkyard automobiles there are. Like... think about that first, that's a note for so many people I see give that complaint. Seriously try asking to see how much a bus and some cars are, they're much more expensive and in way less quantity than in the past. Also campers have raised safety concerns in the past to fans and drivers alike. 


 

FELD has all the money in the world