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"HIGHER
EDUCATION"
Monster School
Bus |
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Michael Vaters' "Higher Education" a monster school bus has
been a project in the making for 5 years. Long time veteran
in the monster truck industry for 29 years Michael Vaters
debuted the permanent identity of the third monster truck in
his stables.....Higher Education in Montreal at the Olympic
Stadium. Vaters bought the Killer Bee monster truck last
year and ran the Killer Bee body for a couple of shows, also
the team put a Black Stallion body on the truck and ran it
the first quarter of this year in the Monster Jam series.
Higher Education is driven by long time crew member and
family friend Jimmy Tracey. |
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Ken Nelson’s Cool Bus
Wheel Stander |
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Vaters has always had a great respect for and been a big fan
of Ken Nelson and his wheel stander Cool Bus. Ken at age 72
races the Cool Bus down 1/4 mile drag strips at over 100
miles per hour and has been for 15 years now. Cool Bus was
designed and built by Ken and his wife and they travel all
over the United States, Canada and Mexico every summer
exhibiting at drag strips. Five years ago Mike shared his
idea with Ken to build a school bus monster truck and they
both thought it would be a good idea and definitely popular
with the kids. |
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When the Killer Bee truck became available Mike found his
opening to make the monster truck bus idea happen. After
leaving the Dayton OH show Vaters traveled to Ken’s hometown
of Ashland OH and picked up the nose of the Cool Bus to make
a mold from and as a starting point for the rest of the
bus. |
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Vaters has been designing and engineering the truck for some
time so when they started the build he had very specific
ideas and plans. Because of this and many man hours in the
shop by the Black Stallion team it was completed in 13
days. Higher Education is built in 3/4 scale. When
designing the bus Michael Vaters new that they would have to
build the body stronger to withstand the abuse that a
monster truck goes through. Michael Vaters has been
building his own molds and fiberglass body parts as well as
parts for other monster truck drivers for a couple of years
now. They built two fiberglass sections to make up the roof
and a fiberglass front clip. The sides of the bus are built
from fiberboard donated by Capitol Building Supply in
Hagerstown MD one of Black Stallions sponsors. The paint
(school bus yellow) was provided by PPG another of our
generous sponsors and painted by the Stallion crew in
house. Vaters wanted the bus to have all the details to
make it look as realistic as possible. Vaters fabricated
black rub rails to run down the sides of the bus and
installed flashing lights and a flip our STOP sign. |
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Photo by Stephanie Coitner |
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Photo by Stephanie Coitner |
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Higher Education debuted April 9th in Montreal at the
Olympic Stadium. During the pit party the bus hidden from
the spectators during the pit party and not brought out
until after the wheelie competition. The house lights of
the Stadium were dimmed as Higher Education driven by Jimmy
Tracey roared out onto the track lights flashing to the
music of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In the Wall.” The
crowd went crazy on their feet cheering......the monster bus
Higher Education went over real big!!!!! A concept idea that
will have a huge following especially with the kids.....what
could be more awesome for a kid than to see a school bus
like they ride in every day getting big air super pumped up
on horse power causing destruction and crushing cars, buses,
RVs and everything else in its path. Michael and Denise
Vaters want to send out a special thanks to Ken and his wife
for their help and cooperation in making this project
happen. |
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Follow the links
below to see some bus action.... |
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Montreal
QC Higher Education vs Red Baron Racing:
http://youtu.be/IY6xsR6jNQA |
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Montreal
QC Higher Education vs Big Foot Racing:
http://youtu.be/EnA7ROLsSOk |
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Ottawa
ON Higher Education vs Avenger Racing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOaZrMhxCEE |
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2011
Ottawa ON Higher Education FS: |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KaF4LjVHm4 |
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MTRA's 2010
PROMOTER OF THE YEAR |
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We are proud to announce that Vaters' Monster
Motorsports was awarded the "2010 Promoter of the Year" by
the Monster Truck Racing Association" (MTRA).
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"Each year the membership chooses the Promoter Member that
they feel put on the best quality events, excelled in the
area of event safety and who best supported the MTRA. As the
only promoter in 2010 to require MTRA Membership from teams
running their events and for operating a series that
featured great shows all year with some of the top trucks in
the industry, we congratulate Vaters Monster Motorsports on
a very well deserved win." www.themonsterblog.us |
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Vaters'
Monster Motorsports is a promoter member and supporter of
the Monster Truck Racing Association. |
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Safety is our #1
priority; We allow only Monster Truck Racing Association
Member teams to compete at our events! |
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