MONSTER TRUCKERS LOVE WHAT THEY DO

At 6 Friday night the air in the Show Me Center filled with the light blue exhaust and nervous wail of motorcycles warming up for the night's competition. Jess Birgy of Beulah, Mich., calmly polished his Monster Truck, "Playin' for Keeps."

At 39, Birgy has been shining "Playin' for Keeps" for 14 years now. "I'm one of the oldtimers," he says.

A large, bearded man in overalls, Birgy gave up a good job building transmissions to drive trucks and spend 40 weeks a year on the road. "But you've got to love what you do," he said.

And what Birgy still loves is events like the Monster Truck Spectacular and Ultra Arena Cross Motorcycle Championships to be presented again at 7:30 tonight at the Show Me Center.

His current truck is a lime green 1999 Chevrolet prototype that is 10 feet 9 inches tall, 12 feet wide, 19 feet long and weighs 9,000 pounds.

The tires are 66-inchers, made by Goodyear for fertilizer spreaders. The engine is a turbo 475 taken out of a motor home.

After every show, it's loaded onto a flatbed truck and the outsized tires are removed.

Birgy's wife Debby and 5-year-old daughter Ashley travel with him to most of the events. Last weekend they were in Wichita, Falls, Texas. They'll spend next weekend in Salisbury, Md.

As much as he loves the trucks, he'd sell "Playin' for Keeps" tomorrow for the right price so his family could spend more time at home, Birgy said.

Unlike the motorcycle riders, Monster Truck drivers aren't competing for money in these events. Their money is guaranteed. But, Birgy says, "When you pull up at the starting line you're not going to let the other guy win."

Birgy saw the premiere of Bigfoot, the originator and still star of the Monster Trucks, and competed against him at the Astrodome and at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Two years ago in Fort Wayne, Ind., he rolled "Playin' for Keeps" three times at 60 mph. Another accident broke his collar bone, but he says, "I have no fear of getting hurt in it."

The motorcyclists appear to be more vulnerable than the truck drivers. Two who were standing outside the hay bales that surround the track were injured during the warmups Friday when a rider's motorcycle jumped the bales.

Twenty-one-year-old Dennis Owens of Norman, Okla., broke his elbow two years ago but says racing is "dangerously fun.

"... I like to do tricks and get the crowd on your side," he said.

He wants to be a "factory rider," one of the chosen stars backed by a motorcycle manufacturer.

He competes against both professional and local amateur riders in the events he goes to, and winning money is the goal. Last week, Owens won $850 in the races and $300 for winning the jumping competition.

Riding skill isn't enough to be a winner, he says. "You have to be in good shape and have a good bike." Owens rides a new Yamaha dirt bike.

He said many of the riders went to a larger competition this weekend in Houston, so he was hoping to do well here.

The last to warm up Friday night were the riders competing in the Peewee class. The three riders ranged in age from 6 to 10. Unlike the older competitors, they didn't spray dirt in the corners or take air over the jumps. But give them time.