ObsessionRacing.com

MENIFEE, CA –The beginning of March started off with two back to back stadium shows in El Paso Texas. Saturday night Obsession Racing had Jimmy going to the third round of racing in Obsession and Rick made it all the way to the Semi final round in Obsessed in racing. Jimmy always does his best during freestyle. He did huge sky wheelies across the bus and had lots of variations on all of the obstacles and even made the step up look easy. Rick went out for his freestyle run and caught some big air also and did a good slap wheel and ended with his typical cyclones, which always is a crowd pleaser. On Sunday in El Paso Obsession and Obsessed both had great runs during racing; although during Rick’s third round of racing he had electrical problems which prevented him from running for the rest of the day. Jimmy’s freestyle was spectacular ending his show with a grant finally of a roll over! At least this happened with us have some open time for the next two weeks!

On March 23rd and 24th we were on display for Monster Jam in Las Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium. This event has more than 30,000 attendees for all 50 states and even other countries. It is always nice to see our fans from all over the world. Rick and Jimmy signed autographs on Friday and Rick and Eric signed on Saturday. We stayed an extra day in Las Vegas and did a display for AmeriGas on Monday for customer appreciation open house and lunch. There was a great outcome for AmeriGas and was very successful.

We ended the month with a display for our sponsors AmeriGas and Gold’s Gym in Murrieta California. We would like to thank Jimmy Lehnertz, Tom Lehnertz, Tom Read, Mike Read, and Frank Schettini for all of their help with Obsession Racing.

MENIFEE, CA – February was another busy month for Obsession Racing. Our first show of this month was in Portland Oregon. There were two shows on Saturday the 11th and one show on Sunday the 12th. Rick and Jimmy Lehnertz performed for Monster Jam for this event. Our trucks made it to the Semi finals on Saturday and on Sunday both trucks made it to the finals in racing. They both did an awesome job for our Portland Fans in Freestyle also. Tom Lehnertz and Justin Barrett immediately tired down for Obsession Racing after the last performance so that Rick, Jimmy & Tom could head home before the snow to get ready for another Monster Jam event at Dodgers Stadium in LA. We would like to thank Jimmy Lehnertz, Tom Lehnertz and Justin Barrett for there help and support for the Obsession Racing Team.

On the following Friday after Portland, we were loading trucks for the Dodgers Stadium show Rick discovered that we had some engine problems in Obsessed. We are extremely grateful for our good friend Frank Schettini to lend us his motor out of his Monster Truck (Pro Comp)! Rick, Jimmy & Tom rushed to Frank shop to pull his motor on Friday night before the show! They got the motor and were back to our shop at 10:00pm and Rick, Jimmy, Tom and Eric started wrenching away!! They got the motor in around 4:30am and loaded the truck. They had around 2 hours sleep and we were up and headed to Dodgers! They got the trucks tired up in time for the Pitt Party. Rick made it through the first round of racing and qualified as fifth fastest truck in qualifying. Jimmy had a crowd pleasing freestyle run and caught a lot of air and didn’t miss any of the jumps! Rick had the longest wheelie of the night in his freestyle competition that brought the crowd to their feet!

The Monday after the LA show, Rick and Eric did a show for WGAS Motorsports in Indio California. This was a fair show and was strictly freestyle only. This was the first event of the year for Eric and you would have never guessed it as he is a natural piloting his Obsessed truck! Rick got to drive Obsession for the first time also of this year also having the new paint design. This brought him back some old memories of his first Obsession. He also did a great job for his California Fans and Family. This same show continued on the following Saturday and Rick and Eric did a great job just like they did on Monday. We had a great time at this show will Family and close friend and we wanted to thank Tom Read for his help and making his famous yummy Tatar Tots!!

Rick and Jimmy will be headed to El Paso Texas for a two day stadium show in March for Monster Jam! They are looking forward to seeing their Texas Fans!

MENIFEE, CA – This New Year has new changes for Obsession Racing. It started off with having to replace the cradle for the Obsession frame. The truck was torn completely down in order to do the cradle replacement. This also gave us the opportunity to do a color change and have a new look for Obsession. The truck was completely unassembled by having the cradle replaced, frame supported, completely sandblasted all parts, rebuilt shocks and axles, paint and reassembled all in 28 days!! We didn’t see Rick or Eric outside of the shop but maybe only a few hours out of the day! EVEN on the Holidays! We were fortunate enough to have help from Mike Read from Superior Welding, Frank Schettini, Jimmy and Tom Lehnertz, Tom Read and Eric’s friends Kaya and Damon. We couldn’t thank these friends enough for putting in so many hours and even a couple of all nighters!

Unfortunately due to Jeff Jones job, he is unable to drive for Obsession Racing. We are sorry this happened but due to his high level position at AmeriGas it demands more of his time. When we got this news Jimmy Lehnertz stepped up to the plate for us. He had driven for us before when we had needed a driver. We are very blessed in having Jimmy drive for us. Jimmy is a long time friend and started driving Monster Trucks around the same time that we did. We feel confident in Jimmy driving abilities and are confident he will do a great job for Obsession Racing.

Our first show of 2012 was held at Anaheim Stadium for Monster Jam. This show was booked for both trucks. Rick was in Obsessed and Jimmy was in Obsession. Both of the guys handled the trucks great! Jimmy was third out for freestyle and did a phenomenal job! He was the first truck to sky it out! He cleared the bus length wise and kept the truck on four wheels, but unfortunately the four link bar bent and ended his freestyle early. Rick was seventh out in Obsessed. He must have had Wheaties for breakfast because he put on an incredible freestyle! He hit every obstacle at full force and finished up the show with his famous no handed donuts! He held the hot seat for the next six trucks! It was an amazing show! We owe a special thanks to Mike Read for the amazing shock set up which helped immensely!!

The following show was January 21st in San Diego also for Monster Jam. This event only had Obsessed booked for the show. Rick was piloting Obsessed. We were grateful that the rain stopped about 1:00 pm. The track crew did an awesome job preparing the track; however it was still a handful to race on. Rick went out fifth in Obsessed for freestyle and again put on another great show. He also got to be up in the hot seat once again! We had Eric friends Dad (Don Gladu) who is a fireman help crew for our team for the first time. It was great to have an extra set of hands and he said he never realized how much was involved! I think he had a good time!

On January 28th Obsessed was solely booked for another Monster Jam Show in Anaheim California. For this show Rick wanted to put on a good impression for Obsession Racing as the higher ups would all be there watching. He did just that! He put on another awesome freestyle pleasing all of the fans! He placed sixth out of sixteen trucks in freestyle. This is going to be a good year!!

We look forward to seeing more of our friends, fans and family in our upcoming events. Our next show will be in Portland Oregon with both Rick and Jimmy driving Obsessed and Obsession! See ya at the races!!

Photo credits to: Fred at Goldenstar Photography Suzie Pusteniak Dan Henley