If you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day weekend plan in Cleveland that says “I love you” in the universal language of horsepower, pyrotechnics, and 12,000-pound vehicles doing things they absolutely should not be able to do, Monster Jam rolling into Rocket Arena on February 13 and 14 has you covered. It’s loud, it’s athletic, it’s unexpectedly funny, and it’s the kind of night where you can feel the engines in your chest and somehow still walk out talking about technique, timing, and nerves of steel. Monster Jam’s touring machine—part live motorsports, part stunt showcase, part crowd-scored competition—brings world-class drivers and meticulously engineered trucks to more than 350 live events worldwide each year, and Cleveland’s stop is built for the kind of up-close spectacle arenas do best: tighter space, quicker decisions, and action that feels like it’s happening right on your seat.
One of the competitors arriving with the tour is MJ Solorio, the driver of El Toro Loco, a fan-favorite truck that’s as much personality as it is horsepower. The name alone promises chaos, and the truck generally keeps that promise.!
Solorio’s route to the driver’s seat wasn’t a straight line; it was a grease-under-the-fingernails climb that started the way a lot of Monster Jam dreams start—standing on the other side of the ropes, staring at the trucks like they’re giant, rumbling science projects.
“I currently am one of the drivers of the El Toro Loco Monster Jam truck. I have been behind the wheel of El Toro Loco. This is my third season now behind the wheel of this amazing Monster Jam piece. I’ve been in monster trucks now for about five years. I started off with an independent team, working my way from the ground up, just learning the wrenches and the behind the scenes. Eventually that led me into the driver’s seat with that team. And now, here I am, behind the wheel for three years here in Monster Jam,” MJ Solorio said in a recent phone chat with CleveRock.
It’s a story that makes the whole Monster Jam ecosystem feel less like a distant, glossy show and more like a living, traveling community—one where the people turning wrenches today might be driving tomorrow. And, as Solorio points out, it’s not exactly a career path your guidance counselor has a neat brochure for. There’s no “Monster Truck Driver” booth at career day in high school. College doesn’t exactly host a “Monster Truck Lab” where you can major in backflips with a minor in two-wheel saves. For a lot of drivers, the on-ramp is showing up, asking questions, volunteering, learning, and sticking around long enough to be trusted with the next step.
For Solorio, that on-ramp was a local fairgrounds in California, wandering through the very experience that fans in Cleveland can step into themselves. “I went to a local fairgrounds back in California, back in my hometown, and just kind of walked around the pit party and just looked at the trucks and was talking to the drivers,” he said. “One of the drivers was one of my good friends. He kind of picked up on what I was doing and kind of just took me under his wing and answered all the questions I had. And right then and there, I’m like, ‘This is something I want to do. Is there any way I can volunteer or help out?’ And sure enough, a couple months later, they came back to my same fairgrounds and he shot me a message and said, ‘Hey, we’re here. You’re more than welcome to come help out.’ I worked for t-shirts and pizza. One day the boss said, ‘Hey kid, you’re up!’ He threw me into a truck and my career went from there.”
That origin story matters because Monster Jam isn’t only about what happens during the main event. It’s also about access. Fans don’t just watch from afar—they can get close enough to see the engineering, the scars on the bodies of the trucks, and the way the drivers light up when a kid holds up a die-cast version of their favorite vehicle like it’s a VIP pass. That’s where the Pit Party comes in, and if you’ve never been, it’s less “pre-show waiting room” and more “interactive museum where everything is alive and occasionally revs.” The Pit Party experience is designed to bring fans onto the floor to see the trucks up close, take photos, collect autographs, and meet drivers in an environment that’s energetic but approachable. You can actually look at the tires—massive enough to make a normal pickup truck look like a toy—and realize this isn’t movie magic. It’s a traveling team of athletes and technicians putting on a show with machines that are rebuilt, repaired, and tuned constantly.
Solorio doesn’t just tolerate the Pit Party; he considers it the best part of the whole day. “The Pit Parties are honestly probably my favorite part of the entire event. Don’t get me wrong, I do love strapping into my 12,000 pound bull, but when I get to get up close and personal face to face and have an eye level conversation with the parents or the little ones, it really makes the entire event worth it because that’s where I started off,” he said. “I used to go to the Pit Parties and want to meet my favorite driver or get a picture with my favorite truck and now the little ones are coming up to me. They remember me from years past or are starstruck or in awe of just their die cast toys coming to life and just being able to see the smile that we put on their faces, it makes the long nights and all the travel we do so much, it makes it worth it, honestly.”
If you’re bringing a kid (or, let’s be honest, if you’re the kid), the Pit Party is also where the scale of everything clicks. On TV, a monster truck looks big. In person, it looks like a moving building. You start noticing details: the suspension components, the frame, the places where the body panels have been patched after last weekend’s battle scars. It’s the perfect primer for the show, because once you’ve stood next to these trucks and then watched them leap, pivot, and land with intent, you understand the combination of physics and finesse at play.
The main event itself is built around multiple forms of competition, and while the trucks are the stars, the drivers are the ones making split-second choices that turn a run into a highlight reel. “Within the event, we’ve got a couple different competitions,” Solorio said. “We start off with our JCB racing competitions and I believe with the space we have there in the Rocket Arena, we’re doing time racing, one truck at a time against the clock; fastest time wins. And then after that, we go into our two wheel skills competition and that’s where we do anything we can on two tires. Finishing off, we’ve got Monster Jam Freestyle where we get to go out there one at a time and just tear the truck track up. We might break the truck in half. We’ve got time to fix it before the next event. You’re all going to have a good time. I can promise you that.”
That mix is what keeps Monster Jam from feeling like you’ve “seen it once, seen it all.” Racing is about precision, clean lines, and acceleration. Two-wheel skills are about balance and control—the kind of moment that makes the whole arena collectively hold its breath. Freestyle is the beautiful chaos at the end of the equation, where drivers try to stack big moves, clever saves, and crowd-pleasing stunts into a short window without crossing the line into a run-ending mistake. The best freestyle runs feel like a conversation between driver and machine, with the crowd reacting in real time to every risk.
It also helps that Monster Jam is intentionally built to be unpredictable. Even the people driving the trucks aren’t pretending they know exactly what the night will bring. “We’ve got four events, but each event is totally going to be different. You never know what you’re going to expect when you show up. I don’t know what to expect and the other seven competitors have no idea what to expect,” Solorio said. “All I know is that we’re going to throw down and we’re going to make sure you all get your money’s worth.”
Cleveland’s arena setting adds another layer. Stadium shows can stretch out with wide-open launches and huge air. Arenas demand something else: a tighter layout, less margin for error, and more emphasis on the ability to place the truck exactly where it needs to be—then spin it around and do it again. Solorio sees that constraint as an advantage for a driver’s development. “I think when it comes down to the arenas, it makes you a better driver. You really have to be able to wheel this 12,000 pound, 12 foot wide, 12 foot tall, basically giant elephant around this arena,” he said. “So I think it makes you a better driver. And once you get the opportunity to go perform in a stadium, you can take what you learned from the arena to the stadium floor and it’ll be one heck of a performance.”
“I always say there’s always going to be those people in your life that tell you ‘no’ or try and shut doors in your face. I had that happen to me plenty of times trying to get to where I’m at now,” he said. “The best advice I can give you is just to kick those doors down and keep pushing forward. There’s plenty of opportunities, whether it’s in our fleet, the guys that work on our trucks, or we have everyone as from merch to the production stage manager. If you got that dream and you’re dead set on that dream, I’m 100% positive you can make it happen because I had a lot of people tell me I wouldn’t be where I’m at today and now here I am driving a 12,000 pound Monster Jam truck.”
For fans who have only experienced Monster Jam through screens, Solorio makes a simple case for showing up in person—especially in an arena, where the proximity changes everything. “I always say that if you haven’t been to Monster Jam, I don’t know what you’re doing. I know your little ones watch it on TV all the time, and now it’s just time to come live it in person,” he said. “It doesn’t matter which one you come to. They’re all going to be different. They’re all going to be insane. You get to see Monster Jam Freestyle. You get to see Monster Jam trucks do things that are gravity defying when it comes down to it. And my personal favorite being in the arena setting, you are so much closer. You can feel the motors in your chest when it comes down to it.”
And yes, it’s happening on Valentine’s Day weekend, which means you have a rare chance to give someone flowers and then immediately take them to watch a 12,000-pound bull do something that would void the warranty on basically anything. If you’re planning a date, Monster Jam is a surprisingly solid litmus test: if someone can’t appreciate the romance of shared earplugs and synchronized gasps at a perfectly saved two-wheel moment, were they really the one?
Monster Jam’s Cleveland stop at Rocket Arena on February 13 and 14 is built for first-timers, long-time fans, and families who want something bigger than dinner-and-a-movie. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to go, consider this your sign—bring the kids, bring your friends, or bring your Valentine for the most high-octane date night in town, because nothing says “romantic weekend” quite like falling in love to the sound of engines and the sight of El Toro Loco charging into the spotlight.
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