Monster truck driver visits Modesto teenager

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

A few days before graduating from Pitman High School this spring, Stephen Beason had a surprise visitor -- Tom Meents, who drives the Maximum Destruction truck in the Monster Jam series -- drop into several of his classes. Stephen has been a monster-truck fan for about 12 years, attending every show he can.

Stephen met Meents about five years ago. Since then, Stephen has been an honorary crew member for "Max D" any time Meents and the truck are on the West Coast, including several trips to Las Vegas, according to Jake Dunn, one of Stephen's teachers at Pitman. Stephen helps to clean the truck, polish the wheels, and has even driven the monster.

Meents knew he would be unable to attend Stephen's graduation ceremony, so, in an arrangement with Dunn, visited him at school instead. "Tom was very gracious signing pictures for all my students," Dunn wrote to The Bee, "and even sharing a few words of wisdom. Tom said that he was an auto mechanic before he got into monster truck racing, and that it was important to have skills that you can learn in vocational classes to be employable, especially if you want to work on monster trucks that get rebuilt weekly."