Photo by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Hunter Grim (center) and D.J. Austin (right) get their pictures taken by their fathers Saturday at the Monster Jam at the Roanoke Civic Center.

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• Some of the monster trucks featured Saturday were on display Thursday at Advance Auto Parts

At this cartoonish end of motor sports, many people don't get past the exclamation points.

Monster trucks! Crush cars! Flip over! Make noise!

But there's also a story of hope that weaves through the high-octane essence of Grave Digger's duels with El Toro Loco, or the exploits of Gunslinger, Stone Crusher, Destroyer and the rest. It was easy to spot Saturday at the Roanoke Civic Center, embodied perhaps by 13-year-old Christian Morris of Moneta and by Nathan Weenk, a Canadian who this year began driving the super-popular El Toro Loco truck.

It was midday, still a couple of hours before the first of the day's two Monster Jam spectacles.

About 2,500 people crowded the arena floor for a pit party. Compared with the fury that would follow, the arena was quiet -- no revving engines, no haze of dust and exhaust. Instead, lines of families waited to get drivers' autographs or wandered among the 66-inch tires and rows of tricked-out four-wheelers. Up close, the dents and tears were easy to spot, the cost of racing in close quarters, sailing over smashed cars and otherwise delighting the expected capacity crowds. The party was open to anyone who had picked up a free pass at Advance Auto Parts, a sponsor of the Monster Jam.

"We make ourselves very accessible to fans, and we think that's a major reason we're selling out arenas," said Chris Rossbach of promotion company Live Nation.

"I like the fact they're able to get close up to the truck," said Pam Morris, who had come with her son, Christian, and friends from Goodview and Vinton.

Two of Christian's friends, Dylan Chittum and Travis Wheeler, both 11, summed up their appreciation for the Monster Jams:

"They're loud," Dylan said.

"They have big engines," Travis said.

"And they're loud," Dylan emphasized.

For Christian, though, this was a chance to check out the racing four-wheelers. Intent while his friends were giddy, he said that someday, he wants to be one of the racers flying around the arena, bumping over the heaped-up dirt and skidding through the turns. He started riding four-wheelers when he was 5, he said as his mother nodded. There's a track set up in his neighborhood.

He has already gone through several four-wheelers, handing off one he outgrew to a younger brother.

Looking at the racing machines, he said they differed from his by having "more high-performance stuff."

Plus, he guessed, the governors had been removed so they could go faster.

Was he ready to similarly modify his own four-wheeler? Oh no, Christian said, shaking his head gravely. His mother laughed. Christian's father, she said, is not enthusiastic about his son becoming a racer. Christian, however, knew exactly which of the machines lined up at the arena he would pick: a yellow Honda that was an amped-up version of the four-wheeler he'd started out on.

As the pit party wound down, Weenk stood near his truck and talked about how he and his brother Linsey -- who now drives the Blue Thunder truck, which was not in Roanoke this weekend -- were involved for years with some aspect or another of monster truck racing. Their father was part of the sport's early days.

Growing up on a farm, Weenk drove everything. Then he worked in a shop building racing motors.

"If you're going to break it, you better know how to fix it. And you're going to break it," he said.

But he wanted to drive the monsters. He was hired to take the wheel of the Tyrannosaurus Rex-themed Jurassic Attack truck for a while, then hit the big time, joining the El Toro Loco team as that truck's reputation grew.

Now there are two El Toro Locos, often competing in different locations on the same day. Weenk drives at events on the eastern side of the United States and Canada, while original driver Lupe Soza drives in the West.

People often are surprised to find "a Canadian in a Mexican truck," Weenk said.

"I had to be told it meant 'the crazy bull,' " he added, laughing.

Weenk also chuckled about El Toro Loco's much-hyped rivalry with Grave Digger. He and Grave Digger driver Randy Brown are good friends and share a trailer, he said.

And everyone's a rival on the track. "I didn't come 4,000 miles to lose," Weenk said.

At the pit parties and after each Monster Jam, autograph-seekers may keep Weenk busy for hours. He said he doesn't mind.

"I used to be the kid in the stands watching this stuff."