The burning smell of fuel lingers as history teacher Nathan Fishel sits in his seat attentively. Adrenaline rushes through his blood as he watches the Mechanical Beasts enter the stadium.
For many years, Fishel has attended the Monster Jam events and enjoys the rush of emotions throughout the event.
“They’re loud. When the show starts, they have all these cars or these vehicles, and they’re underneath where Lucas Oil Stadium is,” Fishel said. “And you smell the fuel burning and you hear it, and it just creates this massive overcoming adrenaline.”
When the match starts, the cars come out from the stadium doing tricks and flips that amaze the crowd.
The Monster Jam only comes once every year, and the mechanical beasts that compete in the races are all a variety designs and colors.
There are giant mounds of dirt in which the trucks use as a ramp to move onto other obstacles. The trucks flip in the air, do backflips and other tricks in front of an audience.
For a truck to win, it has to do the “coolest” trick. Then the audience members vote by phone, and from there on the people decide who wins. In the past, voting has been done by seeing which trucks get the most cheers out of the audience.
“I liked it the old way because in my mind, it was obvious,” Fishel said. “The crowd would yell and cheer, and it would be obvious which ones were better.”
When Fishel was a child, he always wanted to go to a Monster Jam match. Seeing the commercials on TV and hearing everyone talk about it at school made him want to go even more.
“When I was growing up, there were commercials on TV, and I’d see those,” Fishel said. “But then you know when you’re in elementary school, you’d have recess and kids would talk about it and they’
Fishel’s love began, his favorite truck was “Maximum Destruction” and he enjoyed watching the driver, Tom Meents, every time he went.
d always get to go, and I didn’t get to go.”
His parents didn’t see the point in going, and Fishel felt like they didn’t understand his desire to attend the event.
In 2004, Fishel’s lifelong dream came true when he attended his first match with then three-year-old son Noah Fishel, and he has been going every year since.
“It was a long time ago,” Noah said. “I remember it being really loud. I went with me, my mom and my dad, and it was a good time. It was loud, but it was exciting.”
When
Saturday Feb. 4th, Fishel attended the match but he received saddening news that his favorite driver is now retiring at the end of the year.
“That’s really saddening, but then it’s like ‘man you keep getting older,” Fishel said. “My Monster Jam love happened a lot with Tom Meents and watching his vehicle because he could always race well he always was very skilled, he could compete well, he got the crowd into it.”
Noah and his brother Micah Fishel always attended with their father. It was their tradition that went on for many years.
“We went to the Monster Jam almost every year that I can remember growing up, so it’s always been my favorite time,” Micah said. “It’s always cool to go downtown and see those big cars.”
When Noah and Micah grew up and went to college, the tradition soon came down to just Fishel attending matches by himself.
“We did it as a family, and then over time, it’s the same stuff every show … eventually it just became a thing when my sons and I would go,” Fishel said. “And now that my sons are off, I pretty much just go alone.”
