An interview i conducted with Tom Meents in 2007, shows that Jack was the first to start something.
JR- In the past, a lot of people have thought that you have came off a little cocky, and arrogant in some of your interviews. Also, some people don’t like the fact that you tap into other trucks during your freestyle runs. Do you have anything you would like to say to those people?
TM- I’ve never intentionally hit somebody’s truck. If anybody watches my runs, or sees them on T.V., or watches them live. I like to hit the floor with a lot of speed. Go back and forth with a lot of speed, get a lot of air and fly further than anybody. When I land, it’ll rebound, a lot of times it’s a matter of the floor not being long enough for me to get the truck slowed down. I like to have more floor speed than anybody if possible. I’ve never hit anybodies truck on purpose. I have tapped a few trucks. I’ve apologized to every one of the drivers. Perfect case would be this year in Atlanta. I hit the big jump, my foot actually slipped off the brake pedal. I missed a lot of valuable space, because I was going higher than anybody, and further than anybody, I bumped (Allen) Pezo and (Scott) Hartsock. I apologized to both of them. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t cause any damage to them. I can’t recall ever doing any damage to them, ever.
JR- Some of the people I’ve talked to, are more upset over what happened with Jim Jack and Reptoid in Jacksonville 2004.
TM- Well, if you actually knew the whole story about that. He came down to me. I backed back in my parking place. He drove down to where I had already backed in and parked. He pulled right up to my door and blew smoke all over me. *Laughs* Ok? Now since that point. He’s done a ton of complaining about it, and I really haven’t said anything about it. The fact of the matter was, I run over tires. I pulled up to his tire and went to run over it. He gassed ahead on me, that’s what hit the fender. It had nothing to do with me; I had a clear shot to go over his tire without hitting his body.
JR- I figured there would be a little bit more to that story.
TM- Yeah, he provoked me. He started it. Am I arrogant and cocky? No. I often get tired of being second fiddle to Digger fans. I’m out here right now, working on my own truck. I do that all the time. I haven’t gotten anything given to me in this sport, and I’ve worked really hard to get there. I worked from 8 in the morning yesterday till midnight. Is it hard for me to go up against a team that has 7 trucks when I have two? Yeah. If you look at any of the freestyles I win, very seldom do I have one given to me. I have to go a good 30% more than them just to win typically.