Smashing Good Time

Frank Krmel Jr. makes a happy living doing what the rest of us traffic jam-bedeviled motorists can only fantasize about.

Several times a weekend, several weekends a year, he straps himself into a 10-foot-tall, 10,000-pound, 1,500-horsepower monster truck and travels directly over any other vehicle that happens to be in his way.

This weekend, Krmel will join 23 other drivers who possess that same enviable skill set during the Monster Jam World Finals 2009 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

During the competition, the world's best monster truck drivers will compete in racing and freestyle events for the sport's title.

Krmel, 30, a Detroit-area native who now lives in Chicago, is competing in his fifth world finals, driving a truck bearing the insignia of the "Donkey Kong" video game (yes, Krmel did play it as a kid). And, despite having spent 11 years in the sport, "I don't consider myself a veteran at all," Krmel says.

Part of the reason is that Krmel competes against many of the drivers he followed as a kid. Derek Anderson, who drives fan favorite Grave Digger, and the others "are legends to me," he explains. "Running against them, I feel like a rookie every time."

While Krmel loved watching monster truck events as a kid, his own foot in the door came when he began helping out an independent owner/driver in his neighborhood. He then worked for several years as a crew member with Jim Koehler, owner and driver of Avenger, who also is scheduled to compete this weekend.

Then, after Koehler gave Krmel the chance to actually drive, "that was the end of it," Krmel says. "Once you start driving, that's it."

Krmel's resume also includes stints racing go-karts and drag racing. Both, he says, helped to prepare him for monster truck competition.

For example, Krmel says, despite the wider, higher profile of a monster truck, "braking positions are similar, and it's still a similar way to attack corners. I use a lot (of driving skills) in monster trucks that I used in go-karts.

"Once you get strapped into the seat, it's still a steering wheel and two pedals, and you've got to get it from here to there as quickly as you can. And that takes everything you've learned."

"A good monster truck driver, I don't think you can train one," Krmel adds. "Either you have it or you don't. You either have a seat-of-the-pants feel for it or you don't."

Yet, Krmel says, getting behind the wheel of a monster truck is something "everyone should do at one time in their life."

"I compare it to a roller coaster that does something different every time," Krmel says. "At least a roller coaster you can say, 'Look at the big hill there and there.' But monster trucks, you don't know what (they'll) do."

And newcomers who aren't familiar with the intricacies of the sport and the ins and outs of monster truck competition needn't worry. The excitement, Krmel says, will come naturally.

"I have never met someone who's disliked coming to a Monster Jam event," he says, and even absolute newbies "always smile when they leave."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.