MONSTERS OF THE DRIVEWAY

Like many mothers, Pam Vaters spends a lot of time driving around in her van on weekends. But Vaters' van has a 572-cubic-inch, 1,500-hp high performance engine and rides on 5 1/2-foot-tall tires.

Vaters pilots the Boogey Van, a modified Ford Aerostar that will compete in this weekend's U.S. Hot Rod Thunder Nationals at the Show Me Center.

The event will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10.50 for all seats and both performances.

Vaters and her husband, Mike, both drive in the monster truck competition and bring their 6-year-old son, Michael, along from their Hagerstown, Md., home. She has been competing for only nine months, but Mike has driven a truck called Black Stallion for more than 10 years.

For the uninitiated, monster truck competitors race by climbing over two sets of parked cars. Part of the experience for the audience is the level of noise produced by the huge, unmuffled engines.

The noise level is "unbelievable," Vaters says, especially when the Kamikaze Jet Powered Quad takes hot laps. The Kamikaze is an ATV powered by a General Electric jet engine. It can go from 0 to 130 mph in 4 seconds.

Earplugs will be for sale.

Vater says monster trucks are particularly popular with children. "About half of the audience are children who draw their parents to come."

Son Michael has his own toy version of the Boogey Van.

The drivers' safety is maintained by rules that limit the size of the trucks and the tires. "We have a safety organization," Vaters said. "They have to be built to their specs. There are protections for the drivers and the spectators."

But, Vaters says, "Any racing is dangerous."

She has rolled the Boogey Van over once and at a long jump in Michigan landed sideways on the ground. That one put her in the intensive care unit with internal bleeding.

Competing against the Boogey Van and Black Stallion will be Iron Warrior, Nitemare and War Wagon. Also on the bill are the Outlaw Quad War, and the Maximum Velocity Professional Bicycle and In-Line Stunt Team.

Winning some fans over in this male-dominated sport is still hard, Vaters concedes.

"But when I prove myself I get 100 percent of the fans."

Most of the drivers just look on her as a fellow competitor, she said.

"I probably have beaten each one of them once."

Vaters has lost to her husband only once.