4 Wheel Jamboree Nationals
American 4x4 lovers come from far and wide to the annual 4 Wheel Jamboree Nationals in Lima, Ohio. This year, the 3-day event began on May 16th and attracted suped-up trucks big and small. In 2008, the Jamboree Nationals will be hosted by eight separate events in seven states across the U.S. The Allen County Fairgrounds has hosted this event for the past 23 years and both young and old, male and female, bring their gear and camp at the fairgrounds.
Lima resident, Gary Weaver, age 56, said that this event is more than just a yearly get together, Its a lifestyle. The few that like amenities and showers splurge on a hotel room and miss the nighttime festivities including bands, dancing, and meeting fellow enthusiasts.
To set the scene, Lima, Ohio is in the Midwest of America and is pretty much flat farmland, several hours from major cities.
An aerial view of this event would surely look like an atom. With its nucleus the 160 foot long race-track: built-up with dirt ramps, obstacles, and jumps in an off-road style. On the most outer ring, circles home-made 4x4s, patient drivers with their vehicles stuffed with friends drinking beer in the bed of their trucks. Theyre mostly young local folks that have been coming to Lima every year since before they could drive. Trucks of all shapes and sizes, some impressively intimidating, circle all day to show-off and mingle with each other.
Inside the ring of 4x4 spinning locals, there are people parked, resting and tailgating (partying), with food, beer and a sense of nothing theyd rather be doing. People relax and wait for events outside their own trucks, wander out to get fried foods, like the classic American corndog, a hotdog covered with corn-bread then deep-fried. Not far from the tailgaters is the actual stadium holding more than 400 people who wait with anticipation for the next event. Events throughout the 3 days in Lima are ongoing. There are morning, afternoon and evening shows and races.
There are three separate groupings among the vehicle types during the event. The smaller 4x4s are called Tough Trucks (registered trademark), and they are standard sized trucks, mostly Ford and Chevrolet that have been tweaked to the extreme to handle amazing jumps and landings.
The other classes of 4x4s are the Monster Truck Drags that are out-of-this world in size. One of the Monsters, called BIGFOOT is built from a 2007 F-250 Ford with a 565 Cubic Inch Ford engine, it boasts horsepower of 1800, weighs 10,000 pounds and is 12 feet tall.
2007 champion Tough Truck driver Jeff Dedick plans to compete in all eight events in the Jamboree Nationals this year, and plans on competing in different regional competitions throughout the country. He loves the event in Lima because Its always a good party and people are nice and helpful. In the very likely event one totals their truck, the Competition is willing to give you a helping hand. If youre broke, everyone will do what they can to get you back out there. Dedicks from Wheaton, Illinois and has been fixing up 4x4s for 8 years with his fathers company, Autumn woods racing. Check them out at autumnwoodsracing.com.
Emily Strouse
Ohio
