With the calendars now turned to 2011, the start of the new season is less than a week away and work is progressing feverishly at the Team Beast shop in Ohio. One of the big stories of the off season is the major expansion of veteran monster truck competitor Bobby Holman’s Team Beast as they add two brand new trucks in preparation for the 2011 Monster Nationals indoor season.

Team Beast took delivery of two brand new Patrick Enterprises chassis right around Thanksgiving and work has been going on 24/7 to complete the build of the new trucks which will be ran as Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck. The new Patrick chassis trucks are an addition to the custom Holman built chassis ran on Lucas Oil Stabilizer and Ironman.

“We’ve had plans to expand the team for some time, but we weren’t planning on doing it quite this soon,” explained team owner Bobby Holman. “But when Family Events called and wanted us to do the Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck trucks, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. It’s created a lot more work during the offseason but we’ve been adding on to the shop and we’ll be working on getting a system down for maintaining the trucks as we start first quarter. It’ll likely be  a bit rough to handle at first, but we’ll be ready for it. Most of all, we’re really excited to debut the trucks, we think the fans are really going to enjoy them.”

The concept for the new Star Marshall truck is themed around a fun, kid-friendly sheriff character. “He’s a good guy with a bad attitude, a real Clint Eastwood type,” said Holman. Bobby’s brother Ralph Holman will be the pilot for the new truck.

Much anticipation surrounds the debut of the new concept truck, Chalkboard Chuck. Family Events and Team Beast have been working with a company that produces a special “chalkboard” textured paint. The top of the fiberglass body will be vinyl wrapped with the Chalkboard Chuck design, while the bottom will feature the chalkboard paint, allowing fans to write on the side of the truck during the Pit Party and see their designs as the truck competes in the show. The designs can then be erased, leaving a blank slate for the next group of fans to decorate for the next show. Dave Radzierez will be the driver of Chalkboard Chuck for the Monster Nationals season as he follows the tour displaying his Airdog Diesel monster truck.

The 2011 season will also see a new rookie driver for the team as newcomer Jeff Hatten replaces former Team Beast driver Shane Smith behind the wheel of Ironman.

In addition to the expansion of the team, Holman is very proud to welcome back Lucas Oil for 2011 as he and the Stabilizer will once again run for the 2011 Monster Nationals championship. “We’ve got a lot of big things in the works with Lucas Oil including a new wrap design they’ve been working on with us that we should have ready for the Madison, Wisconsin event,” said Holman. “We’re really going after the championship this year, we’ve been working on some different things to make the truck hook up harder on the concrete so we can give Rick and Bigfoot a run for their money.”

The team will wrap up first quarter in a big way as all four trucks will head down to Phoenix for the big Monster Nationals event at University of Phoenix Stadium. Holman is looking forward to returning to the beautiful stadium that was featured in a SPEED TV Monster Jam episode this past season. “We were there for the opening of that place at the big AMP show a few years back, put on a wild freestyle and rolled her over. It’s always exciting to do a stadium show and we’re real excited that Monster Nationals is stepping it up to that level and that we’re a big part of that, taking all four trucks.”

The entire team has also been invited to participate on the entire 4 Wheel Jamboree Nationals tour in 2011 taking on the likes of Hall Brothers Racing, Team Scream and the Crushstation “Monstah Lobstah”. After running a couple of the Jamborees in 2010, Holman will also be gunning to try and be the one to finally break the stranglehold that Hall Brothers Racing has has on the Monster Truck Thunder Drags title for the last 10 years or so.

See below for Team Beast’s First Quarter Event Schedule:

1/7-8:  Huntington, West Virginia – Big Sandy Superstore Arena
1/20-21: Highland Heights, Kentucky – Bank of Kentucky Center
1/28-29: Madison, Wisconsin – Alliant Energy Center Memorial Coliseum
2/4-5: Corbin, Kentucky – The Arena
2/11-12: Cedar Rapids, Iowa – US Cellular Center
2/18-19: Sioux City, Iowa – Tyson Events Center
2/25-26: Du Quoin, Illinois – Southern Illinois Center
3/12-13: Hoffman Estates, Illinois – Sears Centre Arena
3/26: Glendale, Arizona – University of Phoenix Stadium

TMB thanks Bobby Holman for taking a few moments out of Team Beast’s first quarter preparation to share some details on all they’ve got going on. Stay tuned for the unveiling of Star Marshall and Chalkboard Chuck and also be watching for an all new website for Team Beast that is currently in development and expected to be released in the coming weeks.