As you all know, every few weeks I come on here and write about how much fun I’m having, and what I’m doing.  At the particular time I might be in Europe jumping a ten thousand pound monster truck thirty feet in the air over two busses, or even hanging out in a backyard in Tuscola, IL at a BBQ celebrating another “Monsters on Mainstreet” sweepstakes winner. Even now, as I prepare for my final event in the “Donkey Kong” truck, it will be bitter sweet for sure, moving from a great truck, and a great experience, to my dream job, a driver for the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder team.  The truth is though, as much as we want it to be, life can’t be all fun all the time.

As some of you out there may or may not know, I started my racing career way back in the early 1990’s with R/C cars, then I moved into Jr. Dragsters, Kart racing, and at the same time crewed for Jim Koehler and Chris Bergeron with Brutus and Avenger,  and then a Monster Jam driver. The one key element from day one of my racing career has been my father, Frank Krmel, Sr. or, as he is known around the Monster Jam pit area by drivers, crew and track crews as “Senior”. In the winter of 2003, I was enjoying my rookie season as a Monster Jam driver, behind the wheel of “Pure Adreanlin” for Randy Brown. It was really a great time for me, getting a chance to be a monster truck driver, in a great truck, but then the unthinkable happened. My mom had called me to tell me that my dad had been diagnosed with Colon cancer, and needed to go in for immediate surgery.  I’ll never forget where I was when I got the phone call. I was standing next to Pure Adrenalin at a display in Lafayette, Louisiana. Of course, the first thing that popped into my head was “I need to go home, now”. All of a sudden driving Pure Adrenalin really didn’t seem that important. Randy Brown, and Chad Tingler (Randy Brown Motorsports Crew Chief at the time, and currently a Team Grave Digger driver) couldn’t have been more supportive of whatever I wanted to do. I spoke to my dad, and he told me I made a commitment to drive Pure Adrenalin, and said that I’d be much more useful doing that, then sitting next to him in a hospital room. So, just as I’ve done since I was a kid, I did what my dad told me to do. As it turned out, after Lafayette, we had a few weeks off before out next event at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was then able to go back to Michigan and spend the next few weeks with the guy who made it possible for me to race, and has helped me every step of the way. My dad.

Fast forward to August, 2009. My dad has been cancer free for just about six years. He works out, eats healthy, rides in an annually charity bicycle ride for the Multiple Sclerosis society, and looks nothing like his age of 58 years old. He has been with me in every Monster Jam World Finals I have competed in; working right alongside Eric Schweikhard, making sure my truck was as good as it could be. Just like in the R/C car days, Jr. Drag Racing, and Karting. Even during my stints as a back up driver for Team Scream in Avenger and Brutus. After a routine check up, he was once again diagnosed with Colon cancer. Now, to me none of this made any sense. First of all, this sort of thing is just not supposed to happen twice. And second, things are just not supposed to happen to your dad. Growing up, my dad was my everyday real life super hero, there to fix anything. Always has the answer to your questions, always able to get you back on the track in time for that next heat race. He is just always there. And now that I’m getting older, (I’ll be 31 in December) the fact that your parents are indeed human starts to hit you. Now maybe that’s a little naïve, but that’s the way I feel. Now, here we are three weeks after my dad’s second surgery in six years to remove cancer. As far as we know, it was a success, and he is recovering nicely, awaiting the beginning of his chemo therapy. My father may just be one of the strongest people I have ever been around in my life, and I can’t wait to get out of my truck at a monster jam event and hear him tell me “good job son” no matter if I lost in the first round, or get a 3 or a 30 in freestyle. Also, you learn some things during things like this. You find out who your true friends are, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of my friends, in and out of the monster truck business who have made the hospital visits, sent cards, made the phone calls, sent emails, or text messages asking “How is Senior doing” . Words really can’t explain how it made my and I family feel. Those people know who they are.  But now, it is back to business. Although this trip over to Europe will be different, we will all be minus a giant part of the Monster Jam family, Jesse “Twig” Barden. He will be with all of us in spirit with out a doubt…………..So I’ll get to put on that big red DK tie one more time, giving that signature chest pound one last time, and giving the Monster Jam fans in Arnhem, Holland a performance from Donkey Kong that they will never forget.