For years athletes have made guarantees.
Muhammed Ali, then as Cassius Clay, guaranteed he’d knock out Sonny Liston by the eighth round in 1964, which he did.
Joe Nameth guaranteed that the New York Jets would defeat the Baltimore Colts in Superbowl III in 1969, something they did with a 16-7 win.
Mark Messier guaranteed that the New York Rangers would beat the New Jersey Devils in Game Six in New Jersey and they did just that as they powered their way to the 1994 Stanley Cup.
Now Bill Payne, driver of the Rock Star monster truck, has joined those ranks by guaranteeing the people of Yorkton an exciting, amazing monster truck show this weekend at Yorkton’s Cornerstone Raceway. “Last year was an exciting time. We had fun, the fans had fun and everything went well,” Payne told Yorkton This Week mere moments after the semis hauling the monster trucks pulled into the Gallagher Centre parking lot. “But this year it’s going to be better. This year we’re going to go bigger and everyone can be expecting a lot of heavy action.
“There were over four thousand people that showed up last year and they’re going to be here again and expecting us to do everything we did last year, but we’re going to escalate from that and do even more exciting stuff.”
Payne then let slip that Yorkton may get the chance to see an obstacle usually reserved for the televised stadium events. “We’ve got a 40-foot bus coming in so we’re talking about doing side-by-side racing over a bus. It’s going to be an exciting weekend.”
If the side-by-side racing over the bus stack falls through, however, Payne still says the bus will be destroyed in the form of freestyle and wheelie competitions; two events he is used to winning, even though the other competitors have gotten wise to his strategies. “It’s getting harder and harder to win every time now because my guys have been with me for multiple years now so they’ve been watching my little tricks,” offered Payne, continuing, “When I go out and make those extra jumps or how I’ll go for the van stack or bus stack for wheelie contest. Well now my guys are doing it so it leaves me strapped in my hooker harnesses scratching my head thinking what do I got to do to beat my own guys.
“I’ve got to be able to learn some new tricks myself and I plan on showing some of those new tricks this weekend in Rock Star.”
Joining Rock Star will be the returning California Kid, as well as Yorkton newbies Skeletor, Identity Theft, Canadian Tough Guy and the ride truck Hot Stuff; all Monster Truck Mafia members.
One other truck will also be competing in Yorkton as Jared Vogel of Weyburn brings his new truck, Crude Behavior, to town.
